Honor Societies

The University sponsors numerous discipline-specific and general honor societies across campus, ranging from organizations which are solely honorific to those honor societies which offer service to the campus and community, giving students the opportunity to develop leadership skills, academic networks, and social skills.

Honor societies specific to the various academic disciplines are sponsored by different academic departments at Illinois State, while general honor societies are sponsored at the college or university level.

Honors colleagues across the country suggest that one way you might want to use to "check out" an "honor society" is to see if it has been accepted as a member of the Association of College Honor Societies (founded in 1925). The ACHS web site http://www.achsnatl.org/ lists member honor societies.

If an honor society is a member of ACHS, you can assume that it has met the high standards of that Association and is therefore a fully-legitimate honor society. While this isn't necessarily a foolproof approach, it certainly seems like a good way to start in your evaluation of any honor society that invites you to join.

If you have been invited to join an Honor Society but are unsure of whether or not you would like to become a member, ask yourself these questions to find out if it has what you are looking for.