<p>My husband and I just got something in the mail from NSCS re son number 1 asking us to enroll him. They know where he goes to college and they say the branch at his college will have a “convocation” in the fall. He is only in his second semester freshman year? How do they get to know where he goes to college and what his GPA is? As my husband says, even we aren’t allowed to ask his college for his grades. Isn’t this a violation of FERPA laws? BTW the fee to join is now $75.</p>
<p>We just got a mailing and I really appreciate the discussion - especially post #36. Wait for the Phi Beta Kappa invitation.</p>
<p>We allowed DS to attend at near full pay at a private school so that he can attend the Dean’s Luncheons/Suppers. He didn’t think the honorary meals were all that useful or much better than the food court. He thought the meal was free-We thought the meal was worth many $10K.</p>
<p>Moral: Some will find the NSCS or PBK useful, other may not. Each to his own but saying that it’s worthless, is not correct.</p>
<p>IOW: Don’t rain on somebody’s parade.</p>
<p>I understand that a select few schools have ‘active’ chapters, but in most cases NSCS is considered to essentially be a scam–not in that it’s illegal but just that they harass you to join and then mostly just send you credit card applications and the like. </p>
<p>Because of that it hardly caries any prestige on a resume and in fact depending on whose reading the resume it may actually hurt given the organizations broadly poor reputation.</p>
<p>Not trying to “rain on somebody’s parade” just pointing out useful information for those wondering why this organization is sending them multiple pesky letters asking for money.</p>
<p>As a general rule of thumb, with a few select exceptions, no truly prestigious honor or award asks you to pay money before receiving said honor or award.</p>
<p>I wonder if this organization puts some money into chapters at a few selected schools. That would be a good business move, because it gives them credibility. If you happen to be attending one of those schools, it might be worth joining to get whatever goodies they provide there. Anywhere else, probably not.</p>
<p>My son’s letter gives names and email addresses of his school’s chapter president, VP, Treasurer, etc. I told my son if he was interested to contact them and see what it’s all about. I still don’t understand how they got his GPA, and how they know he is in the top 20% of his class.</p>
<p>My son received this invitation also.</p>
<p>Reasons to think legit: There appears to be a page/section ([NSCS</a> at The Ohio State University](<a href=“http://nscs.org.ohio-state.edu/index.html]NSCS”>http://nscs.org.ohio-state.edu/index.html)) for NSCS on the website of my son’s school (Ohio State). ([Welcome</a> to Ohio State - The Ohio State University](<a href=“http://www.ohio-state.edu/]Welcome”>http://www.ohio-state.edu/) redirects to [Welcome</a> to Ohio State - The Ohio State University](<a href=“http://www.osu.edu/]Welcome”>http://www.osu.edu/))</p>
<p>Reasons to think partial scam: 1. The page above does not appear to be maintained since 2006. 2. They let you in after only one quarter’s worth of good grades.</p>
<p>If I was hiring someone, I’d be much more impressed with a decent 4-5 year GPA than knowing they belonged to NSCS. This may be good if your chapter is active and you will be active, but seems like a waste if both are not true. Since my son is usually not active in these types of groups, I will not pay the $75.</p>
<p>PS this site hid the urls. You can see them in the status bar by hovering the mouse pointer over them. The reason I put them there is because some people “fake” a link to a legitamate site and these links are not fake.</p>
<p>It’s far better to join and be active in a society related to your major or ultimate profession, than this “honor” society.</p>
<p>My daughter’s invitation came on UC San Diego letterhead. Misleading!</p>
<p>So what do the schools get out of their relationship with this place? My son got invited to join the University of Delaware chapter. Other than room rental for their induction ceremony, what’s in it for the school? Obviously they gave out the info, and my son tells me he’s even gotten two emails from them.</p>
<p>Is your son going to a public school? If so, the fact that he is attending the university is public record and all the organization has to do is submit a request of names for students. I doubt they got anything for it.</p>
<p>If it’s private, then that’s a whole different story.</p>
<p>I went to a private college and was invited to my college’s chapter of NSCS. The college releases names of all above a certain GPA threshold to a lot of the honor societies on campus - NSCS, Golden Key, Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Lambda Delta, etc. Other campuses probably do too - what’s in it for them is boasting of the involvement of these honor socities on their campuses and announcing how many members they have in each one in promotional materials, especially the better known ones like PBK.</p>
<p>NSCS is what you make of it. My college’s chapter was active but it was a waste of money for me because I paid my $75 and went to the induction ceremony, a couple of meetings, and after that I lost interest.</p>
<p>I’m fairly sure that my son would not participate in local meetings, so the only reason to join is to make back the money in the form of a scholarship or discounts that we’d be eligible for. They have a deal with GEICO but I checked and I would only get the discount if I or my wife were members of NSCS. Allegedly they have $1000 scholarships but I am not sure what the odds of getting one are.</p>
<p>I’ve been a member for a little while and it is the real deal. They send you a pamphlet of benefits. It looks good on resumes and applications, especially for top of the line schools.</p>
<p>“It looks good on resumes and applications, especially for top of the line schools.”</p>
<p>^wrong. It’s meaningless.</p>
<p>Notice (again) that all the defenders of this ‘honor’ society have handfuls of posts on College Confidential. They just happen to join, read these posts, and feel compelled to write about the great benefits of NSCS… And I have a bridge I’d like to sell you…</p>
<p>I got an email about this today and in searching the net about this organization, I came upon this forum. </p>
<p>Seems like it is not really worth it based on the majority of the replies. The strange thing is the email came directly from my colleges enrollment services email address.</p>
<p>They probably get paid to send out the letters.</p>
<p>It may not be entirely a scam, since it does seem to have legitimate chapters that do stuff and opportunities for scholarships. However, the way they try to get you to join is clearly desperate and obvious that they’re after your money. Besides, why would I join an honors society for the top 20%? Not to sound elitist, but I don’t feel like 20% is a nearly low enough percentage for me to be so proud of. Just got a stupid letter from them today letting me know that they extended their deadline (wow! How cool! not!). The letter was designed to look scary and important. I’m pretty sure there really is no deadline. $1000 says that at any time of the year, whether I’m in the top 20% or not, they’d let me join if I sent them my money. Additionally, you’ll notice that the letters they send don’t have the option “I’m not interested” as a box. They only have one for interested. This way they get to keep trying to get you to pay them. Seriously, I’ve received like 10 letters from this company.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s school, the chapter does some community service work, which is beneficial for a kid like mine who isn’t too inclined to seek that work out on her own.</p>