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<p>Oh, hell. Note to self: always proofread carefully when mocking somebody else’s bad grammar.</p>
<p>I deserve this little bit of humiliation.</p>
<p>NHS is one of those echo chambers/propaganda tools that people in HS get subjected to. “Unless you do X, you won’t get into college Y”</p>
<p>When I was a Senior, I was too busy cranking in my classes, and my leadership. Either the NHS advisor forgot to ask me or I missed the Org meeting posters. Didn’t care. Like I said, I was too busy to add just another line to my resume b/c others said it might help me. I think my decision was well founded – admitted to all schools applied. I think I was the only top ten student w/o the NHS paraphernalia at graduation. But I was the one going to the HYP, too.</p>
<p>NHS is what you’ll make of it. Go for it if you want to. Skip it if it doesn’t float your boat. If someone tries to make you feel guilty about it or tries to make you jump through hoops in order to get in, tell them to go pound sand.</p>
<p>Nah Sikorsky, you done good!</p>
<p>SkeezeyJ hit the nail on the head. Like any activity, membership to NHS is practically meaningless unless you do something with it. Any self respecting admissions counselor wouldn’t differentiate a rejected student from an accepted student because of an arbitrary membership to a certain club.</p>
<p>Does being rejected from NHS indicate that your extracurricular activities are subpar, though? Even if NHS itself doesn’t matter?</p>
<p>I dislike NHS.</p>
<p>It seemed like nearly a third of my class got in. It was mostly about whether you played sports.</p>
<p>I’m pres. of my schools chapter, and while getting in is not necessarily difficult (we have close to 100 members), I do believe we are a good channel for students to get some serious volunteering/service in. We do fundraising such as pennies for patients and relay for life, as well as provide volunteers for school and community events. That being said, there are a million ways to volunteer without NHS, and it’s not going to make your app shine unless you have some sort of leadership or have made a significant contribution to your chapter.</p>
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<p>No it means that the arbiter of community services doesn’t count volunteering in a daycare center. Our school would count it if it were non-profit and not count it if it were for-profit. Even though you are volunteering to serve people in your community either way, the organizational structure of the organization is what REALLY matters. Volunteer to change bedpans in a for-profit hospital - not for community service credit. Nice eh?</p>
<p>Really, just chuckle and move on without looking back.</p>
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<p>I don’t recall a spot on the Common App asking what clubs you were rejected from. C’mon. You’re seriously overthinking this.</p>
<p>The benefits of NHS are going to vary greatly depending on your school. If you school has a particularly strong NHS that is involved in the community and requires a significant committment on the part of members, it is likely a strong school overall. Adcoms who are familiar with such schools, and who see many applicants from those schools are also likely to be aware that NHS membership at those schools means something.</p>
<p>But there may be other benefits to the NHS application process, even for those who don’t get in. Yes, this is anecdotal, but when D was inducted last spring as a Junior, we were told her class may be the largest group inducted as Juniors, and is definitely the largest in the last 10 years since their Vice Principal has been the lead advisor (despite declining enrollment). We noticed a few missing top students, who we know are involved heavily with the school and community. D said they did apply, but were not accepted. Their application process was very much like the college application process, but with less than 2-week turnaround from nomination to due date of applications. Now that they all have the results of many of their ED and EA applications, she noticed a correlation. Many of the NHS students were accepted at their ED and EA schools, while the students she knows of who didn’t make the cut also didn’t get acceptances. I don’t think it was the NHS membership that did it, but perhaps their “weak” applications to NHS were followed by weak application to colleges. Perhaps the advisors saw something in their applications that the adcoms also saw?</p>
<p>For the OP - does you school have a community service requirement? Do they spell out what does and does not count? As unfair as it seems, there may be a reason why they only count volunteering for non-profits. Our school does the same, due to past abuses. While the children of the community may have benefited from your involvement, the daycare profited from it - they didn’t have to pay someone else to do what you did. If it had been a non-profit daycare, the community itself benefits by not having to pay someone else to do the work. The difference is between the purpose of the daycare, and how any “profits” are used.</p>
<p>Hopefully the whole application process has benefited you, as you prepare for college applications next year.</p>
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The rejected NHS applications may be weak, or merely considered weak; the question students who were rejected by NHS should ask is why their applications might be seen that way. NHS admission is NOT necessarily a litmus test for admission to highly selective schools. Each year there are CC kids (and kids from my own school system) who are accepted by top schools after having been rejected by their NHS chapters.</p>
<p>The NHS application is an opportunity to see how good the student looks on paper, as well as what the GC and recommending teachers think of him/her. If a student expected to be inducted for NHS and wasn’t, I suggest following up with the GC. If he/she puts the student off, I think a parental meeting is appropriate. Is the transcript accurate? Did the teachers point out flaws that one wouldn’t want mentioned in a college application? (If so, find other people to write the college recs, obviously.) Was someone score-settling because of a past conflict? Is the GC aware of the scope of involvement in out-of-school activities, especially if the student’s main ECs are off the school’s radar? Etc.</p>
<p>Overall, there were no issues with my application except for the argument over what is and is not considered acceptable volunteer hours. My GPA is high, my teachers reported no issues with my character or integrity, and my leadership is strong. I just find their selection of people slightly arbitrary and overly focused on whether or not the voluntary work was done for a non- or for- profit. I think it’s unfair to discredit every other positive aspect of my academic success or my leadership over a small discrepancy in whether or not a daycare makes money. I mean, how is the way that a daycare uses their funds (to pay salaries to the employees, to buy resources and supplies for the children) any different than what a library or a hospital would use their profits for? The daycare isn’t distributing capital gains to shareholders, it’s using the money to maintain functioning of the center and make sure their employees earn a living. Plus, not to be derogatory, but I think my time is better spent and the community better served by teaching kids math and reading and science than it is by me re-shelving books at a library.</p>
<p>Anyway, the admissions process at my school is done by an unknown committee, so I’m not even sure who to go talk to if I find their decision unfair. I mean, the best I can hope for is that it doesn’t make my community service look less worthwhile to colleges.</p>
<p>OP, I’d admit you over those library reshelving brownnosers anytime :-)</p>
<p>frazzled - that’s exactly what I meant. If their classmates thought they were a shoe-in, and they didn’t make the cut, there must have been a weakness in their application. Should have been a hint that they might want to follow up and find out what kept them out.</p>
<p>The guidance Counselors are not involved in the process at our high school, so they might not be aware of what issues arose, but it should serve as a warning that there might be something worth addressing before it’s time to submit college applications.</p>
<p>trackandhp7, I understand your concern, but it sounds like they have a set of guidelines they follow, and you didn’t meet them. I know with our HS there are many community service hours that don’t count toward the graduation requirement that do count toward NHS - but they have to have completed the graduation requirements with hours that do count before they will be accepted. At our HS, even if the hours were done at a church or for a non-profit, if they were required by someone else (including earning Eagle Scout rank, Girl Scout Gold Award, or required for Confirmation) they don’t count. Our kids aren’t particularly happy about that (when you put 100+ hours in toward your Gold Award, not just participating but running a project to benefit the community, you still have to complete 30 other hours for the HS), but those are the rules.</p>
<p>aww thanks ClassicRockerDad, i appreciate the sentiment</p>
<p>It doesn’t seem fair that your volunteer hours were not accepted, but if the rules for NHS were posted and explained for students early in their high school career, then that seems fair. Our high school decided to go with an unweighted grade system the year my daughter qualified - with no forewarning. Many students did not make the cut and the numbers for acceptance were halved. They also had odd rules for submitting your application At the ceremony, I noticed a few high academic students missing. NHS is not just about being tops in academics. It’s about involvement and leadership in the school and community while maintain good grades. When I was inducted many years ago, it was the pin ceremony and that was it - no community service, tutoring, or fundraising - really pointless for the resume. I realized times had changed because my daughter’s NHS is time consuming with mandatory community service and meetings. I would hope colleges recognize that commitment - didn’t know there was such a variety of NHS societies out there.</p>
<p>lol actually i was told my hours were unacceptable two months after i applied, after which i was told to submit 80 additional qualified hours within the next week. the entire process is stupid, and honestly, im not going to let something like this determine my self-worth. i think i’ll just stick to doing what i like instead of trying to please the authority. if anything, this has inspired me to work as hard as i can to get into a good school, even without nhs</p>