So I get a thick, triple-stamped envelope full of embossed ballyhoo about my academic achievements &c. &c. from this National Society of Collegeiate Scholars . They want a one-time $75 fee to join this prestigious organization. This includes a “personal diploma of membership” (sure to do very nicely at keeping my high school diploma warm at the bottom of some long-forgotten dusty file cabinet), some on-campus “induction ceremony” (is that pigs’ blood I smell? But I just had breakfast!) and the opportunity to apply for the NSCS Merit Award, which includes a “scholarship to help defray the costs of [my] education” (allow me to assure the honorable NSCS that the costs of my education are quite fresh and un-frayed at the moment. Ha ha, yes, guys, I know what you mean.)
Some quick Googling lead me to a bunch of different chapters of the org, but then I found this page, which seems to warn me as a discerning consumer of collegeiate honor society memberships that NSCS may be - quelle horreur! - a scam.
What’s the Straight Dope on these folks? Are they legit, and truly truly truly prestigious, or is this just a really mean ploy to steal my (parents’) hard-earned money? Is the three-quarters of a C-note worth it just to put this thing on my future job applications?
I hope this is in the right forum. It seemed a little subjective for GQ, and not sexy enough for IMHO somehow. Mods may move this to wherever they fancy, not that they need my permission.
I got one of these once, for the “Golden Key International Honour Society”. They’d simply mailed the out to everybody whose marks in first year at my university were in the top ten or fifteen percent. For $80, I could get a lifetime membership, a little pin, and the tremendous benefits of having this on my resume. Plus I could attend the meetings.
I spent the eighty bucks on groceries, and haven’t looked back.
Now I’m trying to decide whether to do the same with the Corporation of the Seven Wardens. I’ll be eligible to participate in the secret induction ceremony in a few months. :dubious:
Pleeze, pleeeze, pleeeeeeze mention us on your resume. Even though it won’t be worth a crap to a potential employer.
Funny, how NSCS is a new organization that sometimes isn’t even recognized on campuses that host it, but is well known by all sorts of universities (just not the one YOU’RE attending) and vague nameless corporate entities. Yeah.
So again, who’s on your board?
You have to go to their Board of Directors page for names and educational information. Some of them actually have business degrees, but many are less than than forthcoming.
The annual report pdfs, which allegedly detail the groups activities and yearly finances, do not load in either Firefox or IE. Hmm.
Their scholarship expenditures are $50,000 for Merit Award scholarships, $2000 for graduate scholarships, $12,500 for the Scholar Abroad program, and $24,000 for the Scholar at Sea program. That’s $88,500 per year. They claim 70,000 new members join every year. At $75 a pop, that’s $525,000 they’re raking in per year. They only claim to have given $400,00 in scholarship money since 1994. Those must be SOME induction ceremonies they’re hosting.
Also on that facts page, notice that out of 375,000 total members, totalling up the past nine years, the participation rates for most of their programs are in the hundreds.
I wouldn’t give 'em the time of day, much less a dime of actual money.
I had an ex who was associated with NSCS, and they did have meetings and such… but I got the sense that it was more like they were trying to build street cred than actually having any. If you want a no-name club with dubious merit and no real practical value for which you’ll have to work just to make your investment pay, I’d say go for it. Otherwise, shoot for Phi Beta Kappa.