NHS doesn’t mean much at my D’s school and the requirements to get in are so onorous that many don’t bother with it. Maybe to clarify - its not the requirements are difficult to achieve academically or in number of hours, but everything has to be documented in a specific way with multiple adult attestations plus there are essays and frankly, its worse than any college application I’ve seen. Its just too much work to gather everything together for the portfolio and there doesn’t seem to be any real value. Many high achieving kids don’t bother with it. My D was invited last year as a junior but was too busy to do it. She was invited again this year as a senior and decided that there was no value as she had already been accepted to two schools and most of her other apps were already in.