#Goldenkey international honour society series#

For example, large numbers of students may receive as little as $25. These organizations may offer scholarships, but the money they give out in awards tends to add up to only a small fraction of what they bring in through fees. Hundreds of these multimillion-dollar honor-type societies exist, often hovering at the outside edge of the law, offering specious awards and programs to honor wannabees. In reality, once they pay the initial fee, students are then invited to pay thousands of dollars more for access to trips, meetings, memorabilia, and competitions. Those who decide to check out their websites will find well-crafted pages devoted to enticing “opportunities” - including promises that if students pay $60-$100 to join, they will receive access to events and benefits that sound too good to be true, and usually are. Today, students targeted by these groups receive letters of invitation so sophisticated that few people think to question their legitimacy.

Seeing these students as a potentially lucrative market, entrepreneurs soon began to create, market, and sell “honors” of their own, and over time, these dubious, for-profit business came to vastly outnumber the more credible societies they mimicked. As an unintended consequence, however, this created a large and easily identifiable pool of students who were not admitted. The credibility of NHS has always rested in its strict selection criteria - from the start, it has admitted only a small percentage of high school students. As of 2014, it (along with its spin-off, the National Junior Honor Society) boasted a membership of 1.6 million students (from 94 countries) deemed high achievers in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service, and character (NASSP Student Programs, 2014). When one organization acquires information, it then transfers it to others (Russell et al., 2018 Singer, 2018), and parents and children soon find themselves pressured to purchase a whole range of products and services that promise to help them achieve their college dreams, but which in fact do nothing to help them get into or pay for college.įounded by the National Association of Secondary School Principals in 1921, the National Honor Society (NHS) is one of the oldest, largest, and best-regarded school honor societies.

#Goldenkey international honour society series#

College and university staff give no credence to most of these so-called honor societies (Vissing, 2019).įurther, few parents understand that these societies operate within a larger network of other edu-business, test-prep services, and corporations that acquire and share student data in a series of reciprocal deals. What they may not realize, however, is that no matter the promises made by those who peddle such awards, certificates, and memberships, buying these products has little to no effect on admissions and financial aid decisions. Getty ImagesĪware that their children don’t have the same opportunities as wealthy students, many middle- and working-class parents are ready and willing to purchase anything that might bolster their children’s applications.

Capitalizing on the fantasy that getting into the “right” college is a surefire ticket to success, predatory businesses have exploited millions of children by encouraging them to acquire fake or low-value “honors.” Unlike the corrupt officials in the Varsity Blues scandal, though, these edu-businesses have mostly targeted middle-class students looking for a leg up with college admissions and scholarships (though, in recent years, first-generation college students and vulnerable, at-risk, and immigrant students have become frequent targets as well).

Profiteers have marketed dubious awards to students, parents, and schools for decades without raising eyebrows. Hoping to boost their children’s chances for admission, some wealthy parents are willing to spend millions of dollars, whether through legal gifts to university endowments or illegal payments to consultants and university staff, as we saw in the Varsity Blues scandal.īut for all the shock and outrage that Varsity Blues has generated, the scandal shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Nowhere is that more evident than in the fierce competition to get into prestigious colleges (Lou & Griggs 2019 Steele, 2019). However, one doesn’t have to look far to realize that some students have better chances than others. We in the United States want to believe all students will be given equal educational opportunities - that impulse informs the name of such laws as the Every Student Succeeds Act. A glitzy invitation to join a “prestigious” honor society may look like a great opportunity, but these organizations’ promises are often empty.