Honor Societies
What is an honor society? According to Wikipedia an honor society is “a rank organization that recognizes excellence among peers… [and] recognize[s] students who excel academically or as leaders among their peers, often within a specific academic discipline”. Basically, when you do well in school you can receive invitations to join academic or even discipline specific honor societies.
If you’re anything like me you love the idea of joining an honor society if you are invited. It sounds prestigious and feels like a great accomplishment! Normally, joining an honor society is both prestigious and a great accomplishment- as long as the honor society you have been invited to join is legitimate. There are some “honor societies” whose goal is simply to get money (fees, dues, etc.) from unsuspecting college students, while giving the students zero perks for their membership. Usually, honor societies are known for the perks like access to scholarships, networking opportunities, etc.
So you’ve gotten an invitation to an honor society; how do you know whether or not it is a legitimate organization? There are a few ways to be able to tell if they are less than reputable. After I graduated with my bachelor’s I took a couple of years off before starting my master’s program.
In those two years I can recall getting countless invitations to join honor societies and they were urgently telling me that if I didn’t join now my invitation would expire. I received the *exact* same email for 2 years straight. It was pretty obvious to me that since I was not in school at the time, the organization had to be fraudulent. An honor society is generally based on your current grades/GPA, so getting an invitation while not currently taking classes was a huge red flag.
If I had been taking classes at the time I would have gone to the Association of College Honor Societies’ website to verify whether or not the organization I had been invited to join was listed as legitimate. The ACHS was established in 1925 to verify legitimate national and international honor societies. I am currently a member of a major counseling honor society, Chi Sigma Iota (CSI). We learned about CSI during orientation for my masters program, so I knew that it was legitimate because it was discussed by the leaders of our program- who were also members. Even armed with that information, I double checked the ACHS website to make sure they were listed before I was willing to hand over my hard earned money.
In my opinion, there are many reasons to join a legitimate honor society if you are invited to one. As I stated earlier, most honor societies have perks like access to scholarships, networking opportunities, involvement in campus activities, proof that you are academically elite, and it’s a nice addition to your resume. Oh, and you get to wear a cool stole around your neck that corresponds to your honor society during graduation (which looks awesome in your graduation photos). I was a part of the honor society the National Society for Leadership and Success (NSLS) while working on my undergraduate studies. I did not know to double check the legitimacy of an honor society before I joined the NSLS, but I feel that I did luck out on that one. Though the NSLS is not listed on the ACHS website as ACHS certified, it was still an excellent organization. I say this because my college’s chapter of the NSLS met up every week, we had interactive activities, and we got to network! I met a lot of other students on campus that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet had I not joined the NSLS. If you can’t find the organization you were invited to join on the ACHS website then I would do a web search to find out what other’s experiences are with said organization. If the organization has scholarship opportunities, chapter meetings you can attend, and other perks that seem enticing to you then you may decide that it is worth it for you to join. I know I am thankful for my time in NSLS and would do it again all over if I could. With that being said, the last thing I want is for you to believe you are joining an organization with perks for you and it turn out that you’ve paid money and get nothing out of it. Just make sure that you do your research before you hand over your hard earned money! Most of us college students are pretty strapped for cash, so if you’re going to spend yours I want it to be worth it.
I hope this blog post has been enlightening! And as always, if you have any questions or suggestions for new blog topics just drop me a comment below! Take care, everyone!