STUDENT LIFE ‘mdash; ‘It’s nearly May and high time you were recognized for your great achievements,’ reads the National Society of Collegiate Scholars recruitment letter.
These messages are sent to high-achieving freshmen and sophomores, congratulating them and offering admission to an elite-sounding club.
Soon, letters will flood campus mailboxes, appealing to these students’ academic egos and asking for their membership. While the first letters offer friendly congratulations, hasty followups come with an ultimatum: Pay us $75 or this coveted offer will never be yours to treasure.
But don’t shell out for the honor club ‘mdash; in actuality, NSCS can only b
e politely described as an exceedingly bad bargain for those who join.
Founded in 1994, NSCS has chapters at 228 colleges and universities nationwide. Its one-time $75 lifetime membership fee promises access to scholarships, special discounts and opportunities to help the local community. Though it sounds promising, a closer look at how NSCS spends its money throws the value of membership into question.
NSCS literature brags of offering more in undergraduate scholarship dollars than any other honor society in the country, with awards ranging from $250 to $7,000. According to tax documentation filed in 2007, NSCS paid $115,020 in scholarships ‘mdash; a significant number at first glance. However, in the same year NSCS had a total revenue of $6.2 million, nearly 80 percent of which came from membership dues. It’s troubling that this supposed society of scholars would charge such a steep entry fee in exchange for a handful of scholarships amounting to about 2 percent of the organization’s entire revenue ‘mdash; especially given that scholarship access is its main selling point.
Compare that amount to other scholarship-offering honor societies at UCSD. Tau Beta Pi ‘mdash; the oldest engineering honor society in the country ‘mdash; indicates that 9 percent of its 2007 revenue went to scholarships. The psychology honors society, Psi Chi, allotted 14 percent of its earnings.
There is no reason to pay NSCS for access to special scholarships when there are organizations on campus that devote more income to their members. And some of the most lucrative scholarships on NSCS’s Web site are offered by companies that do not require NSCS membership, making for an expensive Google search.
NSCS also lists membership-fee waivers as ‘scholarships.’ Though it’s admirable that NSCS understands it solicits people who may be unable to pay the membership fee and is willing to let them join, it’s insulting that NSCS considers financial need synonymous with academic ability. Obtaining a fee waiver does not require more academic qualifications, so using these waivers to pad (by a hefty $4,200, in 2006) the total amount of scholarship money awarded to members is deceptive. Not only does the true amount of scholarship money shrink, members are not informed of this distinction in NSCS’s annual finance report. No one should be part of an organization that is so misleading, much less one that allegedly considers integrity a part of its mission.
As a nonprofit organization, NSCS literature reports that ‘all income is used for the development and operation of the society.’ With the relatively small amount of money devoted to scholarships, a significant amount would have to be spent on the various additional programs to make this statement true. According to the same tax documents, $4.8 million was spent on program services such as community-service opportunities and educational seminars, but these vague terms do nothing to detail to a potential member just what their money would be used for. If the NSCS can’t explain what it spends its money on to the IRS, students shouldn’t expect explicit details either.
NSCS spends close to $2 million on day-to-day operations alone. While the organization certainly returns more to its chapters in total, it’s disconcerting how little is dedicated to scholarships. NSCS’s pushy letters asking you to pay up and join are part of about $700,000 spent on mailings. The list of current employees shows that while eight out of the nine board members receive no compensation, the founder and executive director of NSCS, Stephen Loflin, was paid $123,600 for his services in 2007.
There is no value in paying $75 to an organization that spends more on its mailings and founder’s salary than scholarships. It’s equally deceptive that NSCS does not release these two figures in its annual report to members. The absence of these figures is especially evident on the poorly explained finance page ‘mdash; a half-hearted effort to create transparency. The only chance to see any value for the membership fee would be directly through individual chapters ‘mdash; which have the largest amount of funding ‘mdash; though not all chapters receive an equal cut.
UCSD chapter President Brittany Boswell said NSCS provided $1,600 for the chapter’s annual budget. This highlights the haphazard and alarming way money is distributed by the national office, and is baffling considering 300 new members were inducted at UCSD this year. Meanwhile, NSCS charges additional fees to attend an annual conference where members discuss ideas on leadership; the group asks chapters to subsidize the cost. Despite obvious student interest to join the organization, NSCS offers little aid to members who wish to participate in NSCS-sponsored events.
The chapter does, however, provide community service in the form of a tutoring program at University City High School and participation in cancer walks such as Relay for Life. Past projects included visits to an orphanage in Tijuana, which UCSD’s chapter paid for without soliciting additional member fees. The chapter also provides its members with free presentations from test-prep companies which end up advertising ‘mdash; instead of discussing ‘mdash; test-taking strategies. NSCS encourages the sale by provide members discounted test-prep courses.
If NSCS were to allow more of the money generated by students’ membership dues to be reinvested on campus, joining the organization could become worthwhile. NSCS should give the chapter funding to hold test-prep seminars with actual information about test strategies, or create a truly distinct volunteer program within the UCSD community. But as it stands, the entrance fee is unjustifiable when other student organizations can provide alternatives at lesser costs. The A.S. Council Volunteer Connection and UCSD’s Center for Student Involvement both provide ample opportunities to help the community, without a high membership fee.
NSCS has too many misleading qualities to be worth joining. An honor society that calls itself selective while recruiting members with an academic record only one quarter long is a sign that something’s awry. Not only does NSCS misrepresent how it awards students for academic achievement, it doesn’t offer enough support to individual chapters. While NSCS claims it can offer the world for a few dollars, UCSD students already have at their fingertips ‘mdash; for free.
Readers can contact Omair Qazi at [email protected].