Well, today I received my rejection letter from NHS. I was quite angry. Just for background, my school’s NHS isn’t “competitive” per se, but its a lot of form-filling-out. GPA, discipline record, awards, extracurriculars, leadership positions, service- it all has to be filled and signed by whoever is in charge. I should also mention a total of around 80 service hours, 2-3 leadership positions, etc. were required. After two round, as a junior, I finally thought that I had what it takes. Apparently I was wrong. I had all of the requirements except I was missing like 2 points on extracurriculars and was short 6 service hours; however, I had a huge excess of leadership roles and character (teacher recs). I was rejected on service, leadership (really?), and they said I duplicated some entries (ex. put the same thing for service and extracurricular- which i made sure NOT to do and even asked the moderator to make sure). Anyway, rant over. I still am aiming for top schools. I don’t care if my school’s line between honor and “deficiency” (yes, that’s the word they used in my letter) was so thin and narrow.
For what it may be worth, the abundance of NHS programs around the country has rendered them a minuscule “point” to your college apps?
Although some NHS programs are super-selective, others are not. Because of this, I get the impression (from others on CC) that seeing “NHS” on your college apps doesn’t really matter much, because it is the same as putting “Honor Roll”, which is pretty standard among applicants for top schools. So…not much to worry about?
bro NHS doesnt mean anything lol
I was kicked out of NHS for missing one ‘service point’ which means that I didnt do a ‘NHS sponsored event’, even though i did my own community service in enviornental cleanups that werent part of national honor society - big woop, i chose that over going to volunteer to help at the girls track meet?
Doesnt even matter bro, my school has 200+ NHS members, they will all get called up in graduation first, and they will wear obnoxious crests over their graduation robes to show they are ‘better’ than everyone else?
i dont really care (but everybody else does), NHS doesnt mean anything in their apps, and it especially wont help them if all the community service they do involves making ‘gift baskets’ and ‘setting up chairs for the girls track team’
lol bro dont worry, if ur on cc u probably already have a better app than most of the people in ur school that are obsessing over NHS — use ur time to do what u like
oh yea, and a bunch of these kids in NHS barely break a 1500 on the SAT with wildly inflated GPA’s – dont sweat it yo lol
“they will wear obnoxious crests over their graduation robes to show they are ‘better’ than everyone else”
Just because you’re apparently bitter about it doesn’t mean they’re lording it over you.
Hey, don’t worry, a lot of people I know didn’t even put NHS on their apps because they thought it was unimportant compared to many of their other activities. And these are people who got into top Ivy schools.
Wow this thread is really reassuring, I’m not sure if I can qualify for NHS next year because im lacking extra-curriculars and although I thought NHS wasn’t that important because literally everyone that is somewhat smart joins, some of my friends insisted its soo essential and basically expected of you to join.
The NHS at my school is also not very competitive, but you need to fill in some prerequisites to get in. At the beginning of this year, we had to fill out applications and write out an essay on why we wanted to get in, and I took a lot of time filling in my application, writing about my various awards and service projects, but I didn’t get in because I lacked leadership. What irritated me though was that there were lots of people who got in because they lied about their applications, and I thought my school was going to check and make sure that all the information on the applications were correct (even if I knew that they weren’t going to check though I still wouldn’t lie about it). I’ll still try to apply next year, though. Luckily, NHS doesn’t really seem to be much of a big deal, so colleges won’t really care whether or not you’re in it.
I was rejected from NHS at my run-of-the-mill, uncompetitive high school. I knew it wasn’t important in itself, but rejection hurts even if you don’t care about the thing you were rejected from. I had some negative thoughts like,
“If I can’t get into this relatively un-selective NHS chapter, how will I get into colleges?” and,
“Why doesn’t anyone appreciate me?” =((
At my school, NHS wanted a specific kind of student who was well-rounded, outgoing, spirited, and involved in school-affiliated ECs like sports. These people are awesome and we should recognize them, but colleges and the “real world” are less narrow about choosing who to honor. In general, you need to be strong everywhere to get into the most selective colleges, but this strength can manifest itself in a lot of ways.
With non-elite selective colleges, there’s more room for “weakness” in your resume and it’s a good idea to look for colleges that value students with whatever talents you have. My strengths were in academics and standardized testing, so I looked for schools that (unlike NHS) would overlook my relative lack of ECs.
Halcyonheather made me feel a lot better, phew.
@bodangles nah man thers a superiority complex with NHS at my school
same here. I don’t get it. I’m not saying that i’m the best, but my friend got accepted and she had a way lower gpa than me (and she’s also failing algebra), not to mention service hours, clubs, honours. The only thing she had was one leadership position in HFH and she was a group leader (which isn’t a major thing). I had over 180 hours of service, more than 8 clubs , went to BERMUN (which is a pretty prestigious conference) as a delegate, I’ve also been to 10 different schools and i’m a sophomore and i have a 4.29 overall weighted GPA. The only thing i don’t have is a leadership position because obviously, i’ve moved around A LOT. I guess I’m just really angry and upset right now not only because i got rejected, but because i feel as though they did not consider me properly. I guess my friend got the most attention because she was scholar of the year last year and technically, if i had been in the school for 1st semester i would have gotten it because i had a higher GPA than her. I’m not saying that she’s underachieving, but she’s been in fewer clubs, hardly any social service, and she wasn’t in mun either. She’s like my best friend and everything, but I don’t know. I just feel terrible for just thinking like this. Well, i guess my personality is the problem. I honestly tried SO hard at everything, and i know that nhs is not everything but i just can’t help it. This is my first rejection from anything like this, so idk i’m just really upset i guess. so lol just a rant from me ;(. But LOL at least this is last period so i can go home and just rage ahahahahhaha :(. I just read this through again, and i sound like such a bitch but, that’s how i feel right now.
It is like that at our NHS, too. There is a fairly low GPA cut off, then some soft factors that keep some kids out. And every year someone who is really good gets knocked out. Yeah, it hurts, but it isn’t such a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
If it makes you feel better, several top students at our HS get kicked out once they are in for missing meetings or hours. Kids who are in sports struggle to make enough meetings. The hours must be speed evenly through the year, which also hurts kids who have spikes of activity during the year. Kids can meet the overall hours but not the monthly hours. A few years ago two NMS top ten in their class kids who got juicy scholarships were kicked out.
The only reason I’m doing NHS is to get an extra cord at graduation lol. Don’t worry about it, it’s not like colleges will reject you because you weren’t in NHS. NHS applications look for a very specific type of student, so they reject a lot of kids who don’t represent the student they look for. I’m sure you’ll be fine!
Lowkey, I just joined NHS for the honors cord for graduation. At my hs, we don’t do anything for NHS; therefore, it will not help a whole lot in my college apps. 0 hours/week, 0 passion, and 0 “real” benefits…