Phi theta kappa scam

So like I signed up for phi theta kappa not knowing what the whole process is and falling for their so called being apart of something special community. So today I had the orientation for Phi theta kappa I was disappointed by how much they pushed for selling their membership to join Phi theta kappa. I already paid for their $75 membership before orientation, like a fool. So I wanted to go get my money refunded from this organization after their 45 minute disappointing spiel. It was suppose to be an hour, I just left after 45 minutes. I went to the phi theta kappa website to look up their refund policy and this is what I found:

All cancellations/refund requests must be made using this form no later than March 23, 2018. Fees will be processed with a $50 per person service charge.
Phi Theta Kappa is not responsible for duplicate registrations.
Refunds will be processed after May 1, 2018 and cannot be processed onsite at PTK Catalyst.

https://www.ptk.org/Events/AnnualConvention/RefundRequestForm.aspx

$50 dollars???

To me, that’s an instant red flag as a scam regardless of their notability

What are people’s thoughts on this “honors society”?

What sucks though is that they have nice professors running the gig.

I’m thinking about contacting my bank and report it as a fraudulent charge.

Phi Theta Kappa is a legitimate and highly-respected honor society. It’s one of the highest honors a community college student can receive and is similar to Phi Beta Kappa at four-year colleges. Definitely not a scam- far from it! Most honor societies have initiation fees/dues; that is completely normal.

And no, before you call me biased, I am not a member of Phi Theta Kappa- I’ve never attended a community college.

It is reputable but honestly I don’t know if it does any good. At one point I think it did but I don’t think so anymore.

I’m PBK and don’t think it’s ever boosted me. If you don’t want to spend the money, I don’t blame you.

I was super disappointed when I sat at their orientation for 45 minutes. All they kept trying to do was push for buying membership with Phi Theta Kappa. Out of the 1 minute of the 45 minutes did they talk about what the organization did at the school which was 1 week meetings, have guest speakers (1 or 2 professors of the school stop by), and eat food. They try to make it seem like this exclusive club where “YOU GET IT ALL!” with exclusive access to these scholarships. The scholarships seem like they can be found any where even if you’re not a Phi Theta Kappa member. Then supposedly you get more exclusive access to another website which offers more scholarships than the ones on Phi Theta Kappas site. I was warned if a site tries to charges a fee for access to a scholarship list instead of offering it for free, its probably a scam.

It seems no different than people holding seminars to sell the public shoddy merchandise.

https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-scholarship-coach/2011/04/07/9-signs-of-college-scholarship-scams

  1. Search fees and claims "you can't get this information anywhere else": There are many excellent scholarship search engines that are completely free to you. You should never pay for results that you can get for free. The last thing legitimate scholarship providers want is to keep their scholarship a secret.

50 dollar refund fee to get my 75 bucks back? c’mon now

Yeah, I joined under similar circumstances and was a Coke a Cola Scholarship nominee, it’s a scam. I’m so annoyed and angry at PTK and it’s administrators at my former school, I’m not likely to get over it soon. I would admonish anyone that is eligible to stay away from PTK unless PTK membership means funding for a college you plan on going to. They are a joke.

Some colleges do have transfer scholarships that are only for members of Phi Theta Kappa. The activities offered vary from school to school. The ones at the cc near me focus on things that may be useful or fun. My daughter is a high school dual enrolled student so she doesn’t pay attention to the scholarships. Since she couldn’t do the high school national honor society do to mandatory meetings she couldn’t make, required fundraisers etc she opted to do this one instead.

My daughter does not go to all of the meetings but they seem to do volunteer work, speakers, trainings etc. According to their facebook group they recently had a social justice training from someone not affiliated with the school, had an advocacy meeting against sexual assault, helped sponsor an academic Olympiad, volunteered at a local food bank etc. The activities do not always occur at meetings. The meetings do take place during a time set aside for meetings with no classes and often do have food. I would say my daughter has liked the activities she has chosen to participate in. She will be given a free graduation stole which is probably more interesting to a high school senior.

I don’t see it as a joke - if it doesn’t interest you don’t join but some students like the activities. Not everyone joins thinking it is a guaranteed scholarship. I will also say the fee we paid was less than $75 and was a one time fee. The high school national honor society would have cost me more due to all the fundraising and mandatory volunteer hours.

Phi Theta Kappa is a joke. Only for people who care about just transferring to a very good school.

It’s only good for people transferring. Often, having membership in PTK gets you an additional scholarship. I paid $75 and got a $2,000 scholarship, that’s a pretty good return on my investment lol

I think it’s a scam too, still a member though. On the common app the ask if you’re a member so…

My wife and I were members as of a year and a half ago. Our community college didn’t do very much with the program, but there were usually some sorts of volunteer/donation drives going on which were managed by the students in PTK.

Some four-year schools recognize PTK members via scholarships, some don’t. Take a look at where you want to go and whether or not they offer incentives to PTK members. The school we’re attending doesn’t officially recognize PTK, but I was given a $10k/yr National Scholarship through the school, as well as a $15k renewable interest-free loan, which I’m sure being part of PTK helped my odds with.

All in all, it ultimately comes down to how your current school runs the program, and whether or not your transfer options recognize it. It’s ultimately not a scam, though.

I am a member of Phi Theta Kappa… I think it really depends on the chapter. The chapter at my community college is amazing - very active, always organizing events, and doing everything to help their members. However, it might be different at other colleges.