<p>Okay, so I'm a junior this year and in IB. I recently got a letter in the mail that said I wasn't accepted into the NHS charter at my school. Why? I have no idea. But it makes me wonder if being in NHS is really a big deal. Will colleges (lower and higher tiers) look down on the absence of this on my college app? Thanks.</p>
<p>It’s not going to make or break an application, no, especially if you do volunteer/service anyway (which I assume you do as an IB student).</p>
<p>not important at all. It is genearlly nothing more than a popularity contest, and unless your have a VERY unusual chapter at your school that is very active and actually does something, it is not worth much. Do a search on CC for many other threads about this and you will see the comments.</p>
<p>yeah i’m in NHS too and we don’t do anything worthwhile.</p>
<p>This horse has been beaten to death revived as a zombie then beaten to death again. I believe there’s a 200+ post thread going on in the high school section.</p>
<p>it will hurt you slightly, as colleges like to see leadership.</p>
<p>“it will hurt you slightly, as colleges like to see leadership.” </p>
<p>This is baloney. It won’t affect you in the slightest. How is not being in NHS going to suppress the OPs other leadership?</p>
<p>Dukefan: read this</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/000290.htm[/url]”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/000290.htm</a></p>
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<p>I, too, was rejected from NHS. I was admitted to Rice, Northwestern, Emory, Colgate, UMich, and MSU. Don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Basically, they’ll notice it if it’s there, in which case it might help a tiny bit. If it’s not there, they probably won’t even notice. NHS is in no way a big deal.</p>
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<p>I’ve seen a lot of foolish stuff posted on here. This may be among the worst.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>NHS does not reflect leadership. Being in NHS means the teachers liked you, you had a GPA of at least some number, and you did at least some number (usually tiny) of community service hours.</p></li>
<li><p>Leadership can be demonstrated through, funnily enough, actually leading organizations.</p></li>
<li><p>If you think you’ve got leadership covered from being in NHS, think again. That’s less leadership than an arbitrary title in a tiny club that never does anything.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>What if you had an NHS officer position but the chapter still did nothing? Would it slightly help then?</p>
<p>But yeah, I agree. Membership alone means little to nothing.</p>
<p>It varies from high school to high school but for vast majority of them it doesn’t matter that much.</p>
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<p>Listing it as leadership would probably help a bit. They’re not going to know exactly what your chapter did, and the fact that you were elected or appointed says at least that people have some confidence in your leadership abilities.</p>
<p>I doubt it’d look as good as a major leadership experience, but it’s still something. I’d assume being an NHS officer is probably comparable to being an officer in another ordinary school-sponsored club (one you didn’t found and one that doesn’t do something huge).</p>
<p>It really depends on the chapter at your high school. Some HS, such as the one my kids attended did a lot for the community and each member demonstrates their leadership skills by mentoring children in the community. For example, each semester, they are required to do a certain number of hours of community service to mentor students in an elementary school, or middle school, or in their high school in an afterschool program. They help them with their homework, serving as a tutor in math, science, and other subjects. They also have recycling programs, serving at their school, or other community events. Also, to be selected for this chapter, the members must maintain at least a 3.75 GPA every semester and are required a letter of recommendations from a teacher, or a counselor, or a community leader. Therefore, it is quite prestigious to be a member of this Chapter. The colleges can also look up each chapter to see how active they are if they needed to.</p>