Beta Club vs. National Honor Society (2024)

Feedback please,

My ds is a sophom*ore and interested in the either the CGA, USAFA or USNA. I have a question regarding which one of the above honor groups is viewed as being more prestigious by the service academys for admission purposes . Our H.S. only has the BETA club. I discussed the lack of a NHS with the principal and was told by him that the BETA club is the mechanism that our high school uses to recognize top performing students. He did commit to researching the NHS though. I am looking for information to give him that will convince him that the NHS is a more prestigous honor. If that is not correct, that is okay and we will make do with the BETA club. Please feel free to comment. I hope I am in the right category for this discussion.

Thanks JMSH

I'm an USMA candidate from San Diego and at my high school we only have NHS. I know the requirement for our school is that we maintain a cumulative GPA of >4.0 and complete 5 peer tutoring hours per semester.

Personally, I feel like if your school doesn't offer NHS, don't worry. Make sure to utilize the "remarks" section of each application to note that your school does not offer NHS.

However, if your school does open a chapter of NHS, be sure to do whatever you can to join it. It's a great organization.

Good luck

-USMA 2016
CA-50

The SA's look at the school profile. They are not going to give your DS less points because he is Beta over a kid at another school that is in NHS. They will get the exact same because that is the program your school selected.

The same is true for candidates regarding AP/IB/AICE. They don't hold it against a student if they can only take AP and not IB.

The importance is they are looking to see that they have taken the most rigorous course load available to them.

There is a lot that goes into this, and even when it comes to gpa, remember they will re-weight the gpa to their stds. Your school may have 4.5 for AP, and another kids school could have it 5.0. They will re-weight so that everyone is on the same scale.

This is also true for SAT/ACT. Some kids take the SAT, some take the ACT. They are not going to fault a kid for taking one and not the other. All they will do is re-calculate the ACT into their SAT scale and go from there.

In terms of honor clubs, I don't think USNA cares and I wouldn't worry about "prestige." As said above, it's more important what classes you take and what grades you earn.

In terms of joining clubs, it's not the club you join -- or how many -- but rather what you do as a member/officer of the club. So, if your academic honor club is very active in tutoring or whatever and you coordinate/lead those activities, that's more important than just being a member of some club.