Phi Sigma Theta

[tgotch]

My 1st year college son was just mailed an invitation to join Phi Sigma Theta Honor Society.

The fee is $50. I just did a quick look at their site, and didn't see much benefit to joining.

Anyone familiar with this honor society, and is it worth joining? I guess worst case, it would look good on his resume coming out of college...

[growing_older]

There are quite a few of these mail order honor societies and "who's who" honor roll listings that will include anyone with a pulse for a fee. We've been deluged with offers. I haven't heard of this one, but you probably want to check it out before you "join" it. Putting a phony honor society or membership in a scam "leadership" group on a resume is probably not going to look all that good to possible future employers, it might even be seen as a negative.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tgotch My 1st year college son was just mailed an invitation to join Phi Sigma Theta Honor Society. The fee is $50. I just did a quick look at their site, and didn't see much benefit to joining. Anyone familiar with this honor society, and is it worth joining? I guess worst case, it would look good on his resume coming out of college...

Colleges care about the applicant's high-school membership in the National Honor Society, at least as a few bonus points in the total or as a tiebreaker.

I can't think of any graduate schools or businesses who'd care about an honor society.

[Bestwifeever]

My best friend in high school and I did not get into National Honor Society the first time we were eligible, so we started our own for just the two of us, complete with a Greek name. I think of this every time I see something about any honor society with a Greek name.

So congrats to your son who probably is a good student to even have received info about this group, but only he can decide if it's worth the $50 to join.

[chinaco]

I belonged to one way back in the day. A year or so ago I got a credit card offer where the Bank would give me a credit card with the Honor society name and my undergrad university name/logo on it. I realized they sold my info to a credit card company. I contacted them and demanded they never share my personal information again. They said they would comply... but who knows.

IMO - Pass, it does nothing for the student. When it comes time to job hunt... the GPA speaks much louder than a mail order honor society that just collects a fee. Nothing like Summa or Magna to make one stand out from the herd.

[msgator78]

Phi Sigma Theta is a National Honor Society worth joining!

NOT ALL COLLEGES have been accepted by Phi Theta Kappa so PST is the next best thing or even better. (Yes, PTK members must have a 3.5 GPA while PST members must have a 3.0 GPA.)

This honor society is smaller than most but vastly growing.

The members pride themselves on volunteer programs mentoring youths.

One benefit is opportunity for more scholarships.

PST also offers letters of reccomendation for those seeking admission to Grad. School.

They also offer programs to help with job placement.

So anyone who is interested in joining - SHOULD!! It is nice to be recognized for academic achievement. Many never reach this goal.

I went to a 2 year college and became a member of PTK first, but transferred to a 4 year college that only had Phi Sigma Theta as their honor society. So all you snobs out there boasting about PTK, please do your research before snubbing your noses at other honor societies...

[FUEGO]

I think I joined 5 or 6 of these back in college. None have mattered whatsoever. Except Phi Beta Kappa. I have received a couple nods from interviewers and other contacts for membership in PBK. I think it was one of the older, original honor societies. IIRC you have to be pursuing a pure science or humanities degree to qualify for membership (along with some GPA). So engineers are excluded. Since I dual-majored in a humanities program plus engineering, I still was asked to join PBK. Hence the reason why some engineering interviewers were admiring my PBK status.

Other than that, the only benefit I get is a snooty window sticker and interesting book reviews in their quarterly newsletter.

[Nodak]

I was invited to join one of these (Alpha Phi Sigma I think) when I was a freshman in college in 1966, there was no fee so i accepted. Never heard anything about them or from them again after I joined.