I just got a letter in the mail notifying me that I’ve been nominated to be an Associate Member in Sigma Xi. The yearly dues are $25. I can probably become a Full Member when I finish my Master’s next year.
I was nominated by two professors at MIT, who I don’t know. Apparently they pick by GPA or something. I didn’t think my GPA was anything special, but hey…
I have no experience with this organization. Is it worth it? Should I feel honored that I was nominated? Is Sigma Xi really a prestigious organization? Would it be an impressive thing to have on my resume, or just meaningless, like “Who’s Who of American High School Students”?
I feel bad questioning their integrity, since it seems like a legitimate organization, but there are so many scams out there with a similar story: “You’ve been nominated for membership in a very prestigious organization! Just cough up the money and you’re in!”
My father, a civil engineer, has been a member for decades. He was nominated for his master’s research – his joke is that it must have been his potential because it surely was not his grades.
It is on his cv, which he uses when he works as an expert witness. So it’s not a scam at all. Whether it is worth it depends I suppose on what you think about honor societies in general and what you do with it. I got nothing out of the honor society to which I belong other than a line on my resume and a magazine, but one of my friends was very active in the group and got a lot of networking value out of it.
As a practical matter, I think getting the magazine is probably worth 25 bucks, I have enjoyed reading his for years.
ETA, thank you for posting this, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the magazine.
I got my master’s degree in engineering in 1990 and have been employed as an engineer ever since. Until now, I’ve never even heard of Sigma Xi. If I saw it on a resume, I would have assumed that it was a standard frat.