Should I start this at my school?

<p>On a lot of the "what are my chances?" topics on CC I've seen lots of members of the National Honors Society. My highschool isn't part of it, and I was wondering if I should start a chapter at our school? It looks like a lot of time & effort - finding the people, staff, finding someone to pay the money, etc.</p>

<p>I was just wondering if you guys think it's worth it for me to start it at my school or not? And noo, I'm not just doing this for college application purposes, but will it look somewhat good if I mention that I started the chapter at our school?</p>

<p>haha thanks :D!</p>

<p>You should. It's a really great organization that's pretty much a standard on most of the top applicant's extracurricular list. Like every valedictorian at my school has been part of NHS. Plus, you'll get lots of hours. It's def. worth it. You'll help so many people.</p>

<p>NHS is okay. The best part is that you can get ALOT of volunteer hours (at least at my school). See if you can find a teacher to sponsor it.</p>

<p>ohh, okay. thanks guys!</p>

<p>i was wondering if anyone could tell me how it works at their school? like, are there organized events like in key club? and that's how you get hours?</p>

<p>haha thanks guyssss</p>

<p>Most of the NHS kids at my school get community service hours for tutoring. Especially around midterms/finals- they'll put up posters all over the school and anyone can come and be tutored in any subject.</p>

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like, are there organized events like in key club? and that's how you get hours?

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<p>Our NHS has some organized events (community service) and you can get hours that way.</p>

<p>Students usually get hours by tutoring other students after school.</p>

<p>ohh, i see. and are there rankings like president, vice pres, treasurer, etc?</p>

<p>thanks! haha sorry for all the questions. it's not at my school yet but i have an appointment with the principal next week & i just wanna get an idea of what it's like at other schools. thank you thank you!</p>

<p>Thing is... at lots of schools the NHS is a joke.</p>

<p>Make sure to make it selective and difficult to join. Make sure that everyone meets frequently on a schedule, communication is VITAL. Always have lots of activities available to do. It's really great if you do it right. And if you dont' do it right, it'll be like the other highschools where it's a walkon sorta thing and colleges just gloss over it.</p>

<p>Whee NHS secretary ... <3 it.</p>

<p>i seee. how will colleges know whether it's a walkon sorta thing or not? the thing is, 90% of my school is really apathetic towards their education. so it'd be pretty hard to even get people interested.</p>

<p>
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Thing is... at lots of schools the NHS is a joke.

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</p>

<p>At my school about 100 of the 140 or so members were put on probation for failing to come to meetings or report the required community service hours...</p>

<p>At my school, we meet once a month before school. The president and other officers talk to us about new volunteer opportunities, activities, and other events. If you miss 2 meetings in one semester, you will be kicked out (although it's not really enforced much)</p>

<p>For each semester, we get sheets that we have to fill out. We need 8 hours (i know not much) of community service, 1 activity (like an NHS picnic or writing letters to soldiers), and 1 fundraiser. They can't overlap. </p>

<p>You also have to keep a certain GPA. Your school has to be really involved, because the principal gave us our certificates when we were inducted and everything. It's a good organization...not the best, but ok. There's about 300 juniors and seniors in it out of about 1200.</p>

<p>ohhh, okay! thanks so much everyone. you guys have no idea how much i appreciate this, haha. :)!</p>

<p>how is membership at you guys's school? is it hard to get into? do you just sign up / is it invite only? and are the signup forms provided or do the officers make them?</p>

<p>During sophomore year, if you had a GPA (i think) of 3.5 or more, you were invited to APPLY. Now after that, you had to fill out the application with work experience, volunteering, grades, and EC's. You also had to get 3 teacher recommendations (they were just forms they filled out like, how would you rate their class participation, or would you recommend this student). That type of thing. </p>

<p>It's not too hard to get into. Really the only people that were invited, but didn't get in, were the ones who didn't fill out the applications, or didn't meet the volunteer requirements. The officers made the signup forms. But i bet there is a website that can offer some guidance somewhere.</p>

<p>Plus, I think you may have to be approved to officially be called NHS...there is some group that creates the chapters.</p>

<p>It really depends. I went to a middle/high school where it was literally a joke-only about 5 kids out of 500 WERENT invited to join (crazy grade inflation...only needed 84.5 total in any sort of class-even the really low classes). </p>

<p>My high school now is very strict-I'm talking applications, certain volunteer hours JUST TO be considered. You have to get 10 hours only for the club (not including tutoring) and tutor on your free periods. It's very intense!</p>

<p>Try not to make your club very lax or very intense!!!!</p>