NHS has always been a little weird, and I guess it’s significance has waned a little. In my HS (latter fourth of last century), you theoretically had to meet all four criteria, but often a kid missing one got in. This really irritated a friend of mine who did not have the grades, so was never identified by the school, but knocked it out of the park for the other three. He really got under the skin of school administration by fighting for membership since he had 3 out of 4, just like many other inductees. Friend ultimately fought for removing kids from membership that did not meet all requirements, and lost. This is the same kid that ran for school president and did not give the assembly speech that had been vetted, but that is a story for another time - only added here to show that the guy had a passion for questioning establishment.