quote:Congratulations! On behalf of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society at the University of Cincinnati, we wish to congratulate you on your outstanding academic achievement. Your success has made you eligible for membership in Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society.
Now, it's nice of them to notice my GPA, even if they do not understand how to spell 'honour.' But they go on to ask for a membership fee of 30 dollars. So I ask myself, is this a scam to milk poor unsuspecting foreigners, or do they offer something worthwhile? I checked their webpage, but it seems to be mainly svada; on cursory examination I could not find any events or meetings. To be recognised as damn bright is nice, but doesn't really tell me anything new; the question is, is this useful for networking, or just a shoulder-pat?
Has anyone here had any experience with this sort of thing? I'd like to hear your horror or wonder stories. Also, the website seems geared mainly to undergraduates; I have apparently fooled them by doing my first degree at a Norwegian university. Is this important?
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
KoM, It's a test, if you send the money you forfeit your membership. Secondly, are you majoring in structural engineering or something similar? Is that why you got an award for being dam bright? All joking aside I have no clue but, like you, I would be reluctant to send any money without some assurance of credibility.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Actually, while I was attending community college, I was invited to join Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two year colleges. I kind of hesitated at the membership fee, as well (I think it was around 30 dollars at the time). But I went ahead and joined, on the theory that membership would look good on resumes and applications to 4-year schools. I never intended to get actively involved in the society's functions.
Well, I did get involved, in fact served a year as chapter historian and a year as chapter president. Who me - the ultimate non-joiner? Although there were some definite challenges, especially as president, it was a wonderful experience. Because of my activity in the society, I also won a couple of scholarships when I transferred to university for my upper-divison work. Additionally, I met some wonderful people who I probably wouldn't have met otherwise, and got a huge amount of life experience in the bargain. I learned more about human nature and dealing with people in the year I was chapter president than I learned all my life up until that time.
This is not to say that you have to "get involved" to get anything out of joining such an organization. Just having your name on their rolls so that you can list your membership on applications and resumes might be advantageous to you. I would recommend asking around about the organization if you know anyone who is already a member.
Good luck, whatever you decide.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
If you've got money to blow, go for it. Eligibility for the scholarship awards, etc makes the bet as good as the lottery. And ya get to meet a cross-section of folk you might not otherwise come into contact with. Then there is that slight hint of advantage, shared experience when meeting members that you don't know -- even those in other parts of the country -- which comes with being any part of any national social club: like the Kiwanis, the Knights of Columbus, Rotary, etc.
If you like being a little more careful with your money, check out the local chapter on your campus first. Honor societies have a vested interest in you doing well in school: the better their members do, the better they look. But a lot depends on how strongly the national leadership insists upon the local leaders running their chapeters well.
Good chapters will ease your time through school. 1) They will have (unofficial) lists of which courses are worth taking against which are not; which professors are excellent and/or entertaining against which are nearly unintelligible and/or boring; which professors see their students often, allow good personal access against professors who rarely if ever show up for lectures/class, expect their TeachingAssistants to do all the work. 2) They will have information about specific courses under specific professors: including course books, workbooks, study sheets that will be passed out in class, etc, when papers are due, etc. Which will help you in choosing classes. Which will give you an advantage in skimming, scanning, reading, or even studying the material before ever stepping a foot into the classroom. 3) They will have a schedule of probable dates for tests; and warn you if a professor or his/her TA has a habit of giving tests without warning, pop quizzes and unscheduled exams. 4) They will have a library of study material. Sometimes including course books and workbooks; though maybe not, people have a tendency of "borrowing and forgetting to return" such material. However, besides reference texts, they should have copies of study sheets...and of tests from previous years. And the reference texts are important: school libraries sometimes allow all copies of the most popular texts to be checked out by faculty and students. And those texts tend to stay unavailable. 5) If they have an active membership, you should be able to get some help from students who have previously taken your classes: not quite tutoring, but rather occasional help over the rough stuff. And advice from those students on how to deal with particular professors&TAs for the best grades: whether those profs&TAs want you to come in listen&watch quietly, then regurgitate what they said; or want you to participate but merely rephrase they said; or want you to participate and come up with your own ideas/questions.
Now I don't know about Alpha Lambda Delta specificly. You're gonna hafta make your own evaluation as to whether their services are worth the membership fee. But there is an entire alphabet soup of greek-lettered fraternities, sororities, and societies. Some of which are very academicly inclined, some being directly affiliated with professional societies. And the good chapters of the academicly inclined ones most definitely do have the advantages listed above, or more.
So if you don't like Alpha Lambda Delta, check out some others. You can find the ones to check first by inquiring at the professional organizations representing the fields which hold interest for you. And don't forget: college is for exploration of options. You can easily go into the school intending to major in one field, and find your life's passion in another.
posted
No I can't, the reason being, I am a grad student. I'm pretty well stuck with physics, which is just as well, since I like it.
Hmm. Most of what you describe sounds like it is geared for that despised species, undergraduates. Which is also the impression I got from their website. I believe I may have fooled some silly computer program by taking my first few years in Norway, so the 'first year' that shows up in UC's records is a graduate-level year.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Now, it's nice of them to notice my GPA, even if they do not understand how to spell 'honour.'
Um..."honour" is the British way of spelling, "honor" is the American English way of spelling. Both are correct.
Oh, and this thing about undergrads being a "despised species". See, that's the thing that bugs me about academia. Well, one of the things. There's this ingrained elitist feeling that having more degrees makes one "better". It doesn't, it just means that one has probably put in more time and, maybe, has the ability to play the political game a little more successfully. Honestly, what it reminds me of is being in junior high and the ninth graders (I went to a three year junior high/three year high school district) calling the seventh graders "scrubs". It makes the ninth graders feel superior, and that's about all it is good for.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
