I'm currently at NEU through distance learning and I just saw I got several invitations from several honor societies. Of course this requires membership fees from $35-$75. Are any of these worth it? Most of the benefits are networking, certification, bla bla bla... But I was thinking of joining because of the part where I can put this on my resume. However, I'm curious.... would that make a difference on my resume?
I think that the vast majority of them are a waste of money and that I would get more use and enjoyment out of spending $35-75 on a nice dinner.
The problem with college honor societies is that they have proliferated to such an extent that they have become devalued. For example, Wikipedia currently lists something like 150 Greek-letter college honor societies. For general academics, Phi Beta Kappa (est. 1776) is the oldest, best known, and most prestigious. For specific academic fields, it varies depending on the discipline; in some fields, honor societies are a long-established tradition with chapters nationwide, in other fields, honor societies are relatively recent development with few chapters. For example, Sigma Xi (for scientists, est. 1886), and Tau Beta Pi (for engineers, est. 1885), are very well known and respected in their respective fields, but this is not necessarily true for all such societies.
I never joined any in college mainly because they held their "rush"/recruitment during the same period as the social Greek organizations. I joined a social fraternity my freshman year and could never attend the professional Greek society recruiting events as I had commitments to meet to that organization during the recruiting cycle. I don't regret it as I have never met anyone who got more out of their affiliation with a professional honor society than I did/do through my fraternity affiliation. I think that $35-75 dollars could be better spent attending professional networking events in your local area.
Well... I did some research on this and I know what you guys mean. I've received several invitations which looked like a complete waste of money. The only honor society that actually made me consider it, is Beta Gamma Sigma which is supposedly the Phi Beta Kappa for business. Beta Gamma Sigma requires students to be on the top 10% of the class plus they have about 500 chapters around the world as well and it's exclusive to AACSB accredited business schools. Also, since I'm doing distance learning, I don't really have anything under my "Activities/Honors/Awards" section other than the dean's list. I'm not able to participate or join any clubs/organizations that the school has to offer. With that said, do you think that $65 (lifetime memebership) is worth it for reasons above plus the other benefits such as networking, career center, customized recommendation letters (for grad school), possible scholarships and etc?
I was invited to join one back in 2003 at TCC and never joined it due to the fees and lack of any tangible benefits it would offer. Despite this both of my degrees through them so far had the society's crest on the diploma and I'm fairly sure the next one will as well.
Well while looking for a college in KS I found Newman University offered a scholarship for members of PTK it was like 3k if I am not wrong. So since I was taking classes at Clovis I inquired if they had a PTK chapter. They did, since I had the minimum GPA they required 3.5 and 12 credits which I obtained taking extremely easy religion classes I quaified. Some colleges like Tulane offer $8000 in scholarship for PTK members. Membership was $65 and I think it is totally worth it.
My wife was a member of PTK and was offered a free ride to one of the Florida State school (I think FAU). When you become a member, you get assess to a scholarships page. It is unreal how much free education there is for someone with good grades.
