The Honorable Thing To Do
A recent article in The New York Times discussed criticism that too many honor societies in American high schools is, well, not very honorable. Reporter Winnie Hu writes that honor societies started out ways to distinguish the “top 5 or 10 percent of a class but have become a routine item on college résumés.” Moreover, the sheer number of societies now available for membership (some are national societies with local chapters while others are unique to each high school) does not necessarily translate into substantive experiences for the members.
This article resonated with my own experience with honor societies in high school and their ultimate role in college admissions. I was a member of my high school’s chapter of the National Honor Society as well as vice-president of our Spanish Honor Society. Picking up our membership pins was the extent of the involvement required for the former and planning the next class of members’ induction ceremony comprised my vice-presidential responsibilities. Pretty limited. Imagine my surprise when I got to college and learned that NHS is a huge time commitment at many high schools!
Part of the problem seems to be that by the time students are inducted into these honor societies (often at the end of junior year or beginning of senior year), students have already established their extracurricular commitments and it is difficult to demand that the very students being rewarded for their high achievements tack on additional activities. Faculty sponsors and brave chapter presidents must walk a fine line between fulfilling a society’s goals and not burdening its members with further obligations.
The NYT article also discusses criticisms that as more honor societies are established, the degree of “honor” associated with them diminishes. This is a point where I am somewhat torn; on the one hand, I agree with the argument that making membership in an honor society extremely accessible (by having such a multitude of organizations) rather contradicts the very meaning of an honor society. At the same time, however, I don’t want to imply that various fields (languages, the arts, etc) do not merit their own organizations with which high schools can recognize students who have achieved in a given area of study.
I did not see the potential downside to boasting two honor society memberships on my college applications until I started doing alumni interviews. Suddenly I realized that if they asked to talk about either organization, I would have almost nothing to say—what’s the point of that? I think that I only ended up being asked once about the NHS, which I honestly explained is treated more like an honorary society than an honor society at my high school. The distinction is important, especially when listing these organizations on a résumé or list of activities. Getting stuck in a situation where it’s clear that membership does not translate into substantive experience—and this was not articulated on the initial application—is not very conducive towards academic and professional success.
As the article cited here discusses, some high schools have actually cut existing honor societies in order to combat this problem. While I see the value in this action, my first choice would be for high schools to clearly convey the objective of each organization so that the role of each member is clear. If the society is intended to be purely honorary, then say so. Furthermore, it may be useful for high schools to limit the number of honor societies to which each student can belong. This would encourage students to actually consider their interests rather than simply try to rack up as many memberships as possible which, as we see from the article, may not actually help them in college admissions.
It’s a tricky situation—what do you think? Did you belong to an honor society in high school? Do you think that doing so (or not) made a difference in your college admissions results?
