<p>I see a lot of threads come up on whether it is worth it to join Phi Theta Kappa. Based on my experience I have to say that it is. </p>
<p>I was invited to join PTK after my first semester at community college. Initially I though it was pretty expensive (~$60) but I liked the idea of being in an honor society, so I signed up. I spent some time as an officer, which earned me a small scholarship ($165) at my cc. Now I am transferring and have been offered another (renewable!) $2000 transfer scholarship at my new school, just for being a PTK member. Over the next three years that will add up to $6000.</p>
<p>That's a pretty good ROI. And that is just the financial benefit. I've also made friends and gotten great stuff to add to my resume. So yeah, I definitely think it is worth it.</p>
<p>I’ve yet to gain any sort of benefit from PTK. As a non-trad my income disqualifies me for any of their need based scholarships. I have met a lot of new friends and had the chance to make guest speeches at their regional meetings though which is fun.</p>
<p>I’m a non-traditional student also. The transfer scholarship I received was entirely merit based and had nothing to do with income. If you are a member of ptk you can go to collegefish.org and find lots of information on perspective transfer institutions, including what kind of PTK scholarships they offer (if any). There are a lot of schools that give scholarship to PTK members.</p>
<p>We have a similar honors society called AGS (Alpha GAMMA Sigma I think) Would you say it makes even a remote difference to join one of these high GPA type honors societies? Or is it just another EC that means about as much as all others?</p>
<p>I’d like to join since my gpa over qualifies me, but the eligibility requirements state that you must be invited by the chapter which is present at your current institution and they’re not at my school. :(</p>
<p>At my school the PTK faculty adviser is also the honors coordinator, but they aren’t linked other than that. You can be in one without being in the other.</p>
<p>I was in the judicial commitee and PTK was trying to start up a chapter at my school. Unfortunately, some obscure rule in the district of Orange County makes it impossible to start any frat at any CC within the OC. They can have the name but the main charter is a real life fraternity (apparantly) so they were not able to start up without either giving up ties to the main charter (affiliation), or changing the name to like chess club or some crap.</p>
<p>I didn’t get anything from PTK but a headache. Though it was nice to add it to my resume, it sounds snazzy. </p>
<p>No scholarships, the opportunities I had for stars were boring as hell and felt like busy work, and I had to put less time into better volunteer opportunities trying to get the stupid stars, and for nothing. My time was better spent with Rotoract. But perhaps my school’s chapter just blows, it sounds like it.</p>