Every year, a high school student somewhere in America receives a letter (or, more likely, an email) that starts, “Congratulations on your academic achievement.” The National Society of High School Scholars, or NSHSS, is the source of the letter. It has an official feel to it. The student’s school is mentioned. It has the weight of a name that sounds a lot like something significant. And as soon as the thrill subsides, one of the family members opens a web browser and types: Is NSHSS a scam? It’s a legitimate query. The truth is that it depends on what you want to gain from it.
James Lewis and Nobel Prize winner Claes Nobel founded NSHSS in 2002. It’s easy to understand why that final detail frequently appears in the organization’s materials; it gives the name a certain prestige. The organization’s declared goal is to identify exceptional students and provide them with leadership opportunities, scholarships, and access to a wider academic community. That seems reasonable enough on paper.
The $75 membership fee is the catch, as many families find out soon after receiving that congratulations letter. It is a one-time expense, and students who show financial hardship are eligible for fee waivers from NSHSS. However, trust begins to erode for many parents as soon as money is involved. Even though that instinct isn’t totally fair, it’s also not totally incorrect.
This is where the real complexity arises. The Better Business Bureau has given NSHSS an A+ rating. It has formed alliances with organizations such as Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, and Columbia University. Through its network, it awards more than $2 million in scholarships each year. That’s all real. The organization operates. It is real. It takes action. However, it is more important to ask whether membership in NSHSS truly matters in the rooms that matter, such as college admissions offices, rather than whether the organization is genuine.
A hint can be found in the membership requirements. Students are eligible if they meet a number of other academic requirements, have a GPA of 3.5 or above, score higher than 1280 on the SAT, receive a score of 26 on the ACT, or receive a score of 4 on any AP exam. It is sufficient to satisfy any one of those requirements. Because of this, NSHSS now has over 2 million members in 170 countries. That tent is enormous. Additionally, the honor of being inside the tent becomes somewhat diminished when it is so big.
In contrast, the National Honor Society (NHS) was established in 1921 and is run by individual school chapters. Grades are only one requirement for NHS membership; other requirements include community service, proven leadership, and character evaluations conducted by school personnel who have firsthand knowledge of the student. The standard has significantly increased. It’s free as well. Most advisors rank NSHSS in the lower category of extracurricular activities for college admissions purposes; it’s helpful as background color on an application, but it’s unlikely to make a significant difference. For the simple reason that it requires more, NHS is in a higher tier.
It’s also difficult to overlook the naming problem. The sounds of NSHSS and NHS are strikingly similar. Many parents understandably take the NSHSS invitation letters’ mention of the student’s high school as an endorsement. It isn’t. Over the years, that particular detail alone has led to a constant barrage of complaints and misunderstandings. Only the founders of the organization could honestly respond to the question of whether the similarity was deliberate, but it’s the kind of thing that increases skepticism.
NSHSS is not a scam in the legal sense because of any of this. It’s not gathering cash and then vanishing. There are scholarships available. There is a network. However, there is a difference between a scam and a bad investment, and for many students, that $75 might actually be better used for a college application fee, a prep course, or a donation to a cause they could write about in their admissions essay.
It’s still unclear if NSHSS will continue to expand its membership in a way that maintains its thin prestige or if it will eventually become something more selective. For the time being, this seems to be the best course of action: take pride in the invitation because the academic accomplishment that earned it is genuine. Before you grab the credit card, just give it some serious thought.
