You’ve been invited to an ‘honor society.’ Is it really an honor? Well, that all depends.
Student organizations provide an important opportunity to belong to a group with similar interests or goals. They also allow you to learn leadership skills and develop a sense of responsibility and accountability.
What Is an Honor Society?
An honor society is a student organization that recognizes academic, leadership, and service achievements. Membership more than likely has some exclusivity, meaning that only a limited number of people are approved for membership. If you are asked to join an organization like this, it is an honor, especially if it is directly affiliated with your school or college.
The National Honor Society
One example of a well-known honor society your school may have is the National Honor Society. The organization was founded in 1921 and is affiliated with the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Membership decisions are made by a five-member faculty council at the school that considers the student’s service, leadership, and character. It is indeed an accomplishment to be included in this group.
The ‘Exclusive’ Honor Societies
There is another type of ‘honor society,’ however, that often sends invitations to everyone enrolled in your school – even though their invite indicates it’s ‘exclusive.’ They will likely direct you to go to their website, enter a membership code, fill out an online form that asks for information about you, pay a membership fee, and you’re ‘in!’ My advice: be wary. Very wary.
How to Spot a Dubious Honor Society
How do you tell the two apart? The latter will likely tout that you will enjoy the benefits listed below with your membership.
- Your name will be published in a book. Is having your name in a book no one reads an actual benefit?
- You’ll get access to our scholarship list. You can access scholarships for FREE at EducationQuest.org with ScholarshipQuest. We also list several free, trusted national scholarship search sites on our website. Your school counselor should also know about scholarships specifically for your high school.
- You will have access to our exclusive scholarships, which are only for our members. Remember, if they invited everyone in your school to be part of their honor society, odds are they have invited thousands of others. The likelihood of you receiving their ‘exclusive’ scholarship will be extremely low.
The Hidden Truth
Here is something else they won’t tell you – they may be selling your information to their marketing partners, who, in turn, will send you junk mail. Seems like a real honor, right?
What Should You Do?
Before joining an ‘honor society’ that touts these types of benefits, consider whether you’ll get enough out of it to justify your fee. It’s highly unlikely. Instead, focus on excelling at something important to you that sets you apart from everyone else, like getting good grades or being involved with a community organization. If you’re interested in joining your school’s honor society, find out which teacher is the sponsor and ask them what they consider for membership.
There is no doubt that being asked to join a true honor society is indeed an honor. Just be careful of those trying to ‘sell’ you that distinction.
By Eric Drumheller