does being a member of the National HOnor Society help you get into colleges? for EC?
<p>i don't know how much it helps but it definitely is a plus as an extracurricular and it shows that you have been a good student throughout hs.</p>
<p>It's not weighed heavily at all in admissions. Maybe if you were president or something it would have a little more impact, but being just another member doesn't mean that much.</p>
<p>There are some colleges that give NHS members scholarships. Try using a search engine and searching for "scholarships" and "national honor society."</p>
<p>Depending on what you do in NHS-- being an officer, organizing and working on volunteer projects -- it can be an impressive EC. Many local scholarships also are impressed if a student is simply a member. While virtually all applicants to top colleges belong to NHS (so NHS won't make you stand out in those pools), that's not the case at lower ranked colleges, where being an NHS member can make one stand out.</p>
<p>Last year I applied for the NHS second semester. i was the only freshmen who got accepted (all the "underachievers" applied and maybe that was the reason why i was the only freshman), the rest were juniors. I had to pay $5 for the stamp and i received a certificate. And that was it. It was kind of weird though. We didn't do anything at all,, just a little ceremony at lunch. i even wondered if it was really the NHS.</p>
<p>Cindy,
Check out the NHS website, and start thinking about things that your school's NHS chapter could be doing. Talk to some juniors in NHS about your ideas, and get their support. Then go with them and discuss those ideas with your chapter's advisor. Make sure that you don't expect the advisor to do all of the work: You and other students will need to take major responsibility for helping to get things done. </p>
<p>If this works, you'd be having a fun activity, helping your school and community, and getting some nice leadership experience that would be something to put on your college applications, including as an essay topic.</p>
<p>Thanks...:)</p>
<p>yea cindy, frankly, once a lot of kids get into NHS, they think its good enough and they wont try to do anything in it. perhaps it should be your endeavor to make NHS a more active and respected club on campus.</p>
<p>as for helping on admissions, its all relative to where you apply. in a way, getting into NHS already is like getting into a good college because they look for leadership, academics, community service, etc. if you apply to ivies, etc., NHS is something everyone either has or is capable of getting. if you apply to UC-level schools, its something that may be a very small boost, but nonetheless, not everyone has it. and if you apply to lower schools, it can make you stand out. </p>
<p>personally for me, NHS at our school was really tough to get into and was seen as a very selective and prestigious club where only the school's upperclassmen standouts got in. it was tough, i mean... ok i got waitlisted at stanford, and it took me 2 tries to finally get into NHS; the girl at our school who got into caltech didnt even get into NHS. </p>
<p>then i come to these CC boards and everyone laughs about NHS when they post it as one of their awards or EC's. so basically, the prestige of NHS is relative to where you apply.</p>
<p>Our NHS requires more than 100 hours of service in order to be inducted. I don't know what looks better- all the volunteering or the NHS. Getting in might just be a combination of the two.</p>
<p>In my experiences with colleges and NHS, I don't think NHS having NHS on your resume is going to get you into a college, but I guess it won't hurt. Especially since different high school's have different standards to be inducted into NHS ...</p>
<p>for example, in my school they just upped the GPA from a 3.25 requirement to a 3.5 requirement and you can't apply until late in your junior year ... and in reality, we don't do much anyway.</p>
<p>I think I really got brainwashed into thinking I had to get into NHS to be somebody to colleges ... don't get me wrong, I get along with everyone in the club and we all have a good time when we actually go out and volunteer and things ... but most of the time, it's just a bunch of blowing hot air around. It's just a lot of hassle, and I know lots of people who don't even list NHS on their list of activities ... and still get into colleges like Columbia, Amherst, etc etc.</p>
<p>Having NHS on one's resume is impressive to colleges that aren't that highly ranked. Simply being a NHS officer would also impress colleges that are competitive to get into, but not HPYS supercompetitive.</p>
<p>Spearheading a major NHS project or revitalizing an NHS club into being a major force in the school are the kind of things that can impress top colleges depending on how one presents the info in one's application. One could make this the focus of one's essay, and one could have the NHS advisor to write a recommendation documenting one's impact. This also is the type of thing that would help one obtain scholarships related to character and service.</p>
<p>At my school NHS kids do a lot of volunteer work, so leadership and involvement in this aspect could look good. However, many schools NHS programs do little more than recognize good students. I didn't choose to join NHS because I already had a bunch of other extracurriculars that I spend a lot of time on, and it did not effect my admission.</p>
<p>At my school NHS is freakishly hard to get in to.....95 avg. to get in and a 93 to stay in. As a sophmore my avg. was a 94.6 and I was ranked 15/718 and I couldn't get in...I got in this year though 95.5(oh yeah!) and I'm ranked 6/375 (our school split). But there are only like 20 members in a school of 2500 (the junior class is really small) and we do tons of community service/ school service activities....it's really fun. Wish me luck on my bid for secretary of NHS! lol</p>
<p>Wow... NHS at your schools are impressive. at my school, you only have to have a 3.5 GPA (or above) to qualify + good citizenship. Last year, everyone was IB students. Didn't do much.</p>
<p>Good luck fut18000!</p>
<p>I guess NHS must be different at every school. At mine, you just can't apply, you have to be nominated by faculty, and only open to upper classmen. From there its a whole process that involves getting rec letters from 1 faculty member & 1 outside source. You have to have proof of community service and minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5. All nominees are also given a questionnaire that must be presented to every teacher you have for the semester you're nominated. You have a month to get all your paperwork together and then it goes off to a committee for consideration. I've heard a lot of people in school complain that its rediculous they make you go through all this when the colleges don't give it that much importance.</p>
<p>Wow happygolucky, that is a completely different approach than my school: application is open to all students and quotas are set for each grade level, including freshmen, with the bulk of the spots going to seniors of course. You're right in that your school goes through a ridiculously tough process for something that colleges do not nearly even give as much importance to. NHS is not the one EC that should be your jewel and focus or high point, unless you took the initiative to do something out of the norm or gained a leadership position and actually did something productive as a leader of the club. At my school, it's more like a pat on the back for your achievements in the 4 supposed pillars of leadership, character, academics, and I always forget the last one (not even quite sure about the first 3). At its core, it's essentially another community service club, except they have a national society scholarship application for members who excel beyond the norm (this is a national thing and my school only gets two applications which they give to the two most dedicated senior members). They really make it seem more pretigious on paper than it really is and no matter the difficulty of the process that your high school has in who gets in, it makes no difference in the eyes of adcoms (except maybe lower tier colleges who'd see it as an accomplishment as is?).</p>
<p>"Last year I applied for the NHS second semester. i was the only freshmen who got accepted (all the "underachievers" applied and maybe that was the reason why i was the only freshman), the rest were juniors. I had to pay $5 for the stamp and i received a certificate. And that was it. It was kind of weird though. We didn't do anything at all,, just a little ceremony at lunch. i even wondered if it was really the NHS."</p>
<p>I thought you had to be invited?</p>
<p>I realize now that my post made it seem like you don't do anything to get in ... we do basically the same thing as most schools, but NHS still never does anything...</p>
<p>Top 20% gets nominated in the high school automatically ... then you get lots of paperwork ... about three essays that in reality, don't matter that much ... you have to get signatures for all of your activities and a phone number and you need some volunteering. then all the names of those that did apply go out to the whole faculty to see if they say anything bad about you ... and if they get like 2-3 bad memos, then you most likely won't get in. If your application makes that, then it goes to a group of teachers chosen by the NHS advisor and they pick around 20 people.</p>
<p>It sounds hard, but it really isn't. People overplay it at my school ... they're like "people would die to be in NHS". what is NHS a cult? haha, I joined NHS for community service b/c I actually like it, but we've done so little!</p>
<p>I'm surprised that a freshman was allowed in NHS. In our HS, NHS is only for jr and sr upperclassmen. Achieving the minimum GPA doesn't automatically get you in either. All eligible students are notified that they may apply and the apps are then reviewed by a board for approval. Not all get in on their first shot. NHS bylaws state that only grades 10-12 are eligible. There is a NJHS for grades 6-9.</p>