Our district solved this by setting a GPA only cutoff. To stay in NHS, the student has to do a certain number of school-based volunteer hours, but admission is solely on grades.
NHS is nothing but a minimum standard for top students in our district. Some don’t even bother to meet mundane requirements if they can use that time to add something worthwhile to their resume. Most do make it as they want to wear all the honor cords with their gown to their graduation ceremony. Everyone knows that any good student is going to have much higher GPA and way more service hours then NHS requirements, caring to attend useless meetings is not everyone’s cup of tea.
However it’s a big honor for average students and their parents. My Facebook feed gets flooded with those pics.
Wow, worryhurry, your post comes off as quite a put down to kids that are NHS but are not the tippy top students. I am not sure they are “average” students, unless your HS lets in half the class or more. Many “top” students end up at colleges with those “average” NHS kids. At our school it is the top 10-15%, most of whom are very good to excellent students who will most likely be successful in life and go to great colleges (even if not in the top 15 or so schools). I have to believe you didn’t mean this the way it sounds.
For some kids, making NHS is a great achievement as they have to work hard for those grades. They certainly deserve to celebrate that.
@WorryHurry411 , afaik, my kids’ school didn’t do NHS, and I’ve already mentioned that DS didn’t get voted into the Cum Laude Society even though he’s academically accomplished. So, I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I will say that I am equally encouraged by an award founded on academics and community service (and not sports, sports, sports) as I am discouraged by it being such a potentially political award.
I thought I was elitist as could be, but you humble me.
NHS is different all over but at our school you don’t get multiple opportunities you get an invite to apply spring of junior year and that’s it you are a member during senior year. The NHS seniors do after school tutoring which is very much appreciated by all the students I know my freshman is going in for help with a couple of different classes.
I don’t see it as the big deal as it is hyped for and kids worrying about having or not having it on their resume is what I’m against. I’m all for academic recognition and community service appreciation for the sake of acknowledging time and effort kids put in their education and community.
This brings me towards GPA part of it, some kids get teachers who are generous graders and some who are stingy, some kids take easy courses and maintain a higher unweighted GPA than ones who challenge themselves. I really don’t see much difference between a kid who makes NHS with a 3.5 GPA and another one who has 3.4. To be clear, I look at it from lense of a district that has many teachers and big number of kids in every course, not necessarily how it’s implemented in your school.
Do not sweat this! I think some of the people replying don’t realize schools decide their criteria and it is different from one school to the next.
I hated it at my kids HS b/c while there was a minimum GPA, the only other thing they had to do was fill out an application to list their activities (and they only allowed activities from the HS to be listed–so if your kid had achievements outside of the school they were out of luck). The kids were then chosen from a panel of teachers. Way, way, too subjective, IMO.
Every year there was some really hardworking, deserving kids, that they didn’t get it. They tended to be the quieter ones (I should note, they were still involved-- just not in a “look at me” type way.) As an aside, I have 3 kids: 1 got it, 1 did not, 1 refused to apply (even when asked by teachers why he wasn’t applying) because he was disillusioned that the year before some really deserving kids were crushed when they did not get it.
I know of other schools in our area that had much more objective processes. For example, kids had to a) achieve a specific GPA, b) perform specific # of verified service hours c) obtain a certain # of teacher recs). If they met the requirements (and the service hours were an amount that would require commitment, btw) you were inducted. Unfortunately our school doesn’t operate that way. I would imagine that college admissions folks know it can be different everywhere and don’t put too much stock in it. One of my sons closest friends did not get in and still got into quite a few competitive colleges:)
So tell your child it is alright, let it go and she will be just fine! I feel for her (and you) but this will not stop her in any way!!
My son didn’t get into NHS his junior year, even though he was in the top 10% of his class. The reason given was that he didn’t have enough leadership experience. He decided not to bother reapplying, until he realized that half the class would be members and that he’d feel bad when his name wasn’t on the list at graduation.
So, like hundreds of schmucks before him, he went ahead and reapplied. The difference this time was that he rewrote the application, making his roles sound more leader-like, even though nothing had changed. (He didn’t lie, he just bragged more, which wasn’t his usual style.) He got in.
I think NHS is utterly worthless. The things a student achieves to qualify for NHS are sufficient for college. There is no need to have the extra stamp of approval. My daughter, who did get in as a junior, didn’t even bother to put it on her application.
She did enjoy the free pastries at the NHS reception, so if your kid likes cookies, maybe this is the reason to go for it.
@Massmomm , your son developed a useful skill, which might be distasteful to modest kids, but that will be useful in life. He rewrote a narrative, didn’t lie, but emphasized what the readers were looking for. That will come in handy when looking for a job. 
@IxnayBob, he is a modest kid (mild Asperger’s) the application process was hell, both for NHS and college. But yes, he did learn how to “spin.”
They took 23 % of the juniors at my son’s school this year.
What percentages have others experienced?
20-25%.