Honors societies in junior college - worth it?

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
I've gotten invitations from a couple of honors societies (Phi Theta Kappa and National Society of Collegiate Scholars). They both want ~$100 to join. They make mention of scholarships and job placement, internships, etc. I'm not convinced that it's worth it. I'm not very interested in being active in a group; I have enough going on in my life. I don't think I need any help with job placement or internships, so that only leaves scholarships. Do I really need to be a member of one of these societies to get the scholarships that they are referring to? Do they expect me to be active in the group to receive the benefits? Does membership in the group look good enough on a resume to justify the $100 bullet point?
 

jaygatsby

Joined Nov 23, 2011
182
If you pay, it's not worth it. And the people who read your resume, and who are in your field, likely know the bogus organizations from the legitimate.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
One of my teachers suckered me into joining one. I never heard from them after they got my money. No employer has ever taken notice of it. That's understandable when they see a single report card with calculus, chemistry, physics, and computer programming, all in the same semester, and the grades are all A's and B's.

Honor Society my ass! Look at that education!
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
I was always being invited to them. Had to have gotten invitations for 5-10 of them, all asking for ~$50-$100 to join. I never bothered. I don't think it's important, certainly not worth the money. And future employers really don't take notice. I'd recommend not shelling out your money--I can almost guarantee it's not worth it.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
One of my teachers suckered me into joining one. I never heard from them after they got my money. No employer has ever taken notice of it. That's understandable when they see a single report card with calculus, chemistry, physics, and computer programming, all in the same semester, and the grades are all A's and B's.

Honor Society my ass! Look at that education!
I got accepted into the IB program here in Tampa. Didn't go though because the program was put in the worst HS in the town and frankley didn't wanna goto that school.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
See in my school you have Normal, honors, gifted, then IB. You weren't asked to join any but IB. Your test scores and IQ test put you in normal, Honors, or gifted. You were placed in the classes you had no choice. And they were different classes.
Like
Geometry I
Geometry I Honors
Geometry I Gifted.

IB program was completely different where all the classes were Gifted +. I was in a mixture of Honors and gifted classes. Math and Science I was gifted, English, Languages, etc.. I was Honors. Also IB program you graduate HS in 11th grade and your senior year is actually your freshman year in college. Thats how they did HS here. Honors and gifted stuff all ended after HS.
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
See in my school you have Normal, honors, gifted, then IB. You weren't asked to join any but IB. Your test scores and IQ test put you in normal, Honors, or gifted. You were placed in the classes you had no choice. And they were different classes.
Like
Geometry I
Geometry I Honors
Geometry I Gifted.

IB program was completely different where all the classes were Gifted +. I was in a mixture of Honors and gifted classes. Math and Science I was gifted, English, Languages, etc.. I was Honors. Also IB program you graduate HS in 11th grade and your senior year is actually your freshman year in college. Thats how they did HS here. Honors and gifted stuff all ended after HS.
Those are quite different from university Honor Societies, Max :p:D
 
When I was in college we called our honor society Eata Pizza Pi. The only thing that ever happened in it was a once a month meeting to discuss nothing and eat pizza, free meals were always good. Thankfully we did not have to pay to belong, I think the IEEE chapter must have given us the money for the pizza.

It is hard to take these honor society things seriously when considering a resume. I imagine my experience was not to different from many others.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Dude...we're talking about National Honor Societies with 3 greek letters for a name.
Ok I read about the guy paying to be in one and never seeing anybody again so I figured it was a scam or something. If I got something like that in the mail asking me to pay which I get all the time I woulda blown it off as spam or thought it was some frat thing. I don't think I ever qualified for anything you don't pay for. But I wouldn't consider anything you do pay for serious. Also I went to CC 20 years ago so I probably didn't get any of that stuff. I didn't ge into Tech stuff till much later from Jobs.
 
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JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
What is the odds of getting a scholarship worth more than $100? That might make the decision for you.

Internships ... yeah, that's a good one. Maybe they can pay you to offer internships to come on the job site with you.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Yeah, that was me. I paid $10 IIRC because one of my teachers told me to. Scam or not, you kiss the teacher's butt until the grades are posted.
I think that's a pretty much universal truth. When someone has more authority then you kissing a lil ass never hurts.
 

tindel

Joined Sep 16, 2012
936
I haven't found the honors society that I'm a member of to be beneficial at all. And I paid to join.

I think the Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, and Summa Cum Laude behind your degree type is much more important. That's graduating with honors! It doesn't necessarily make you a good engineer, but it will get you in the door at many places.
 
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DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
I've been invited to a bunch, one of them twice, they just want money, I've NEVER heard of them other than the invitations asking for money
Agreed. In my opinion, it's a complete scam. Not once have I seen anything good come of joining one of these things.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
I'd have to concur, if they want money something is fishy. Especially if your getting invited to numerous ones. I guess when you get invited to the Nationa honors society of jugglers you'll know its gone too far. :)
 
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