National Society of High School Scholars/Whos's Who

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Alright, so within in the last 2 weeks I have received letters from both the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) and Who's Who Registry of Academic Excellence. Both commended me on my "outstanding academic achievement." Both letters looked pretty professional, but I still have heard that one should be skeptic of both these organizations.</p>

<p>My two questions:</p>

<p>1) Are these organizations just money makers (Who's Who is free) that provide no extra benefit? Or are they legitimate organizations that recognize "elite students in the nation"?</p>

<p>2) If I was to add membership to one or both of these societies on my college applications, will that be viewed by colleges as something significant? Or will colleges just take a 2 second glance on it, and think "No big deal..."?</p>

2

<ol>
<li><p>Scam.</p></li>
<li><p>Might hurt your application, if admissions officers see it as evidence that you are gullible.</p></li>
</ol>

3

<ol>
<li><p>Not scam, definitely legit. Just not very prestigious/useful.</p></li>
<li><p>Certainly won’t help. Whether it will hurt or not, I’m not sure - I would say that they’ll just see it as something insignificant.</p></li>
</ol>

4

<p>Some members of CC have benefited from this program, although I wouldn’t put it on your app because most members of the society don’t take advantage of the things they offer and just sign up for the honor.
They have scholarships and events you may apply for or attend once you join.</p>

5

<p>^ My post was referring to NSHSS…I cannot speak for who’s who.</p>

6

<p>The NSHSS annual report for 2007 is posted at their website <a href=“http://www.nshss.org/NSHSS_2007_Annual_Report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nshss.org/NSHSS_2007_Annual_Report.pdf&lt;/a&gt; . On page three it says that by 2007 they had </p>

<p>Membership
Inducted 101,766 new members, bringing total
membership to 345,492 representing over 20,000 high
schools in 180 countries.</p>

<p>Scholarships
Awarded scholarships totaling $142,448, including
$114,000 in academic scholarships and $28,448 in
partner educational and travel program scholarships.
Awarded $215,595 in full and partial membership fee
waivers to more than 5,906 underprivileged scholars.</p>

<p>While I am not a mathematics scholar, it appears to me that the 345,000 members would have paid $1,500,000 in membership fees (based upon the former $45 joining fee). This extremely stingy organization has returned only $142,488 to students in scholarship monies. Congratulations to the few students who have received scholarships, but a less than 10% disbursement rate is appalling for any organization. Someone’s pockets are getting a golden lining. These odds are slightly better than Las Vegas or Atlantic City.</p>

7

<p>These won’t be the only invitations you get to unnecessary honor societies or expensive “leadership weeks” somewhere. They’re fundraisers, and you should certainly never considering paying to be a member.</p>

8

<p>Well i have received letters from Who’s Who and NSHSS as well, and i became a member of NSHSS and I agree with ATLs09 since I personally find the NSHSS to be beneficial if you take advantage of what they offer you while Who’s Who is rather just a honor. Therefore, i dont find neither of them to be neccessarily a scam or neccessary for admissions but just be mindful of whether you can really benefit from these honors.</p>

9

<p>I wouldn’t give much value to any organization that welcomes my membership…</p>

10

<p>

To answer your question, think of the concept “value added”. These honors are based on your HS record. Colleges will see that entire record when you apply. So ask yourself – knowing you got the award(s) adds what information to your app?</p>

11

<p>The correct quote is: </p>

<p>I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.
Groucho Marx</p>

<p>;)</p>