<p>I think this is your "welcome to life" event, OP. Your feelings may be justified, but throwing a conniption fit will just make you seem like a jerk, will serve to ingratiate yourself to the faculty committee that denied you in the first place, and might just bump you out of the running of any other subjectively-decided "honors" that your school chooses to bestow upon its chosen ones.</p>
<p>I know what you're talking about, because it irritated me that I would have to spend six or seven extra grueling years in school to get those three felt doctoral stripes on each arm of my academic regalia that law students get with only three years of hard work, but it's just a part of the system and I'm going to have to deal with it... And those are academic robes that people actually have occasion to wear more than once.</p>
<p>Fighting this one's just going to make you more irritated than letting it go and getting your fair share of kudos in college and beyond. =</p>
<p>lol. my boyfriend skipped his last NHS meeting (when kids got the pin or whatever) to go to driving school, and did not wear his sash/tassle/whatever at graduation. he was also salutatorian, so that was pretty funny. anyway, if you can get a teacher to support you and appeal the decision, that might help. a friend of mine had the choir director help her out (she was told her choir activities did not count as extracurriculars, which did not make any sense), so she got in. good luck, but don't feel like it's a judgment on you if you don't get in. in fact, if you can accept yourself for not getting in, and just go to graduation knowing your worthy, you might gain more personal satisfaction with the outcome.</p>
<p>I did not even put it on any of my applications. I personally did not put any club on my applications that are not that active (ex. Key Club at my school does nothing, so it did not go on my application).</p>
<p>If you want to appeal this, get a letter from the band director who can enumerate your leadership qualities. Any other method I think would be fruitless.</p>
<p>Good luck, although I agree NHS means next to nothing in the long run.</p>
<p>NHS has become a joke at most schools.
Unless your chapter is quite involved, which you must indicated on your application, it really means nothing.</p>
<p>Well the thing is, my school's chapter is not elitist at all, that's what makes me angry. Kids got in being ranked around 90th in the class with hardly any activities or leadership positions. I provided 6 letters of recommendation, one of which was from the band director, all to no avail. The council was biased and this is just a case of favoritism.</p>
<p>Were I to take legal action, would I have a legitimate case?</p>
<p>Only on College Confidential would someone suggest legal action as a possible solution after being denied NHS membership.</p>
<p>I'd just appeal if possible, complain to the right people (adviser/Principal/superintendent) with a reasonable and thought out letter that asks for reconsideration. But it's probably not that big of a deal during senior year...in your position I'd appeal, but I wouldn't be devastated if that failed.</p>
<p>We used to have a major problem at our HS over NHS membership and the complaints sounded just like the OP's. The problem was that the requirements were very subjective. Appeals invariably failed because nothing was documented anyway. After a few years, they redid the entire NHS process to make it more objective. </p>
<p>While I happen to feel that the HS has way too many folks in NHS, at least the process if an objective one. I don't think the OP will be successful in changing anything for this year but hopefully they can influence at the school district level going forward.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
your story is the perfect example of why NHS should be boycotted/banned by every high school.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>to think that I thought I was the only one who hated NHS. lol</p>
<p>Do NOT lose one bit of sleep over this. go to graduation and hold your head up high. If people will wonder why you are not in NHS then your faculty will look bad!
my oldest graduated in 2001 and a kid in her class was railroaded like you - he is a very successful adult and college grad now. didn't hold him back and it won't hold you back.</p>
<p>My kids hate NHS because it goes by gpa but they don't care if you take college prep or honors or AP classes. One of mine missed it by .1 gpa - took all honors and AP classes and there were several kids who made it and never took even one honors course (our honors courses are not weighted in the gpa) - so yeah it is a joke.
None of my kids were in it and that didn't hold them back.</p>
<p>Find better things to do with your time. I will add myself to the apparent legions of people here with little regard for NHS.</p>
<p>I understand your desire to get special recognition at graduation - it's nice to have it acknowledged, verbally and visibly, at a ceremony that seems set up for such, that you have done well. I can almost guarantee, though, that once the ceremony is over you will never care again.</p>
<p>My high school required (among other things) your homeroom teacher to give you a recommendation, which was ridiculous since we only had homeroom on special occasions. I knew someone who got rejected because his homeroom teacher wouldn't give him a good rec. Why not? Because he wouldn't say the Pledge of Allegiance (he was atheistic and did agree with the "under God" part).</p>
<p>I didn't bother to apply. I was going to, because it seemed like the thing to do, but they required one of your parents to come to the initial meeting and agree to the contract or whatever it is with you. My mom was in law school full time and training as a nationally competitive athlete, and also dealing with a toddler. My stepdad was dealing with the toddler too, and has an unpredictable work schedule. Had I asked, they would probably have tried to attend, but I certainly wasn't going to ask them to take time out of their schedules to come to a stupid meeting so that I could be in NHS. And I was kind of offended that they would expect that of parents, and that they wouldn't let the student handle it him/herself and have the parent sign a permission slip, the way every other EC did.</p>
<p>So yeah. Don't worry about it. Do something productive instead.</p>
<p>My D was the only summa cum laude student in her school who was not in NHS. Actually, she WAS in NHS, but she got kicked out the summer before senior year. She had completed more than enough community service & she turned in her forms, but she didn't have the right signatures. The NHS sent not D, but us ... her parents ... the letter stating that she was no longer in good standing ... but not until a couple weeks before the next school year started! I guess we were supposed to be upset & whine or something. I asked D if she wanted me to contact the advisor, since the letter was addressed to me, or if she wanted to do it. She told me that if they wanted to be like that (after 2 years of her faithful membership & the fulfillment of her requirements minus whatever signature was lacking), she didn't need to be in NHS. I reminded her that this meant no NHS recognition, no NHS collar, etc. She didn't care. The colleges didn't seem to care that she only listed NHS as sophomore & junior activity. In the end, she was a little bummed out as graduation neared, since she had never actually told any of her friends about it ... but hey, guess what? No one cared when she showed up at graduation without the collar. And no one cares to this day. And it hasn't affected her life one iota.</p>
<p>OP, if you REALLY think it's that important, then have your band director write a letter detailing your leadership. Heck, have the whole band write letters in support of your leadership. In the end, though, you will still be the you you are today.</p>
<p>In the interest of full and complete disclosure, I should mention that I was never invited to join my school's NHS chapter. I had topnotch grades & I participated in sports, orchestra, and French club. I was not, however, "cool" enough for the NHS. It didn't hurt me in any way.</p>
<p>My H was asked to join his NHS, but he didn't want to go to the meetings.</p>
<p>to the OP- No one will care one bit about the NHS thing at graduation. I understand the frustration, believe me I do, but it is better to take that energy and use it in other ways.</p>
<p>I don't think there is any harm in sending a note with your stats, etc to the NHS national program, explaining exactly what you did here. They need to see how arbitrary the whole process is. It may not change anything ,as they seem to be in it for the money, but you may feel better at having at least tried.</p>
<p>With a program so varied, arbitrary, political, based in some cases on popularity, it is kind of a meaningless club. Sure in some schools, it is a big deal, but seems that in many it is just a title.</p>
<p>OP: would you really contemplate pursuing LEGAL action? It's the middle of March and you have three more months before graduation. Please, please MOVE on. Like another poster stated, if you truly have been shafted and others know your credentials, the fact that you don't wear the sash will make the strongest statement against the spurious selection process.</p>
<p>But I fear that you seemed quite determined to push and push and push. How sad it will be that the remaining months of your otherwise beneficial HS career are marred by this crusade you seem bent upon to engage. Please don't become petty like you state the NHS admission committee has been.</p>
<p>Personally, I have no problem at all with OP or some other student pursuing legal action against a public school NHS chapter that uses arbitrary criteria to exclude qualified students. Such an action could have wide-ranging positive impacts on schools across the country, (including the possibility of abolishing NHS altogether.) Pursuing legal action to eliminate arbitrary discrimination by government-funded programs is not in the least "petty."</p>
<p>NHS is problematic because the standards for admission vary WILDLY from school to school. Some schools are very numbers-based (admitting only those with certain GPAs), some look at subjective other criteria. However, I go along with the others advising against taking legal action. Let it go, learn to deal with disappointment, and move on. Being in NHS won't change your life for the better.</p>
<p>I will be the first to admit that I am an extremely vain person. However, that does not affect my eligibility for membership.</p>
<p>My principal's ridiculous letter back to me cited a rule that I'm sure he made up on the spot as his reason for upholding the decision: Members of NHS supposedly need three leadership positions in different clubs for two consecutive years. I wouldn't put it past my school to have already altered the Constitution to include this. However, if this was a real stipulation for being a member, there'd probably be all of two or three people in NHS.</p>
<p>I met with the school system's superintendent, and she will be speaking to my principal, though I am afraid it will be to no avail, because I do recall reading in the NHS Constitution that the principal's decision after the appeal is final.</p>
<p>I appreciate all of your encouragement about this ordeal, but I the further this goes, the angrier I become. The corruption of my school and the selection of members is absolutely unbelievable, and I think that this issue has become less about my membership, but more about brining to light the injustices that this organization represents.</p>
<p>Is there a way I am able to contact the national council about this?</p>