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National Honor Society Scholarships
National Honor Society Scholarships range from the top award of $25,000 to the semi-finalist awards of $3,200 with a total of $2 million dollars earned by college-bound students!
[2023 Edition]
Students need to carefully heed these guidelines when writing their essay,
“Explain how the four pillars of NHS membership—scholarship, service, leadership, and character—have shaped your high school experience and post-secondary aspirations. This is where we want to hear a personal journey from you about the way NHS has impacted you. Include specific examples. You may type your essay into the application or type it in another document and paste it into the text box. This section has a 1,000 character limit.”
Note: Do not confuse the character limit with word count as I share in this tip.
There are very four very detailed NHS Scholarship Application Guides that MUST be read and followed to apply correctly and within the required timelines.
Students need to begin the application process as early as possible to give their NHS advisors and letter of recommendation writers time to submit their required materials.
Here are all the details about the National Honor Society Scholarships:
Since 1946, more than $21 million in scholarships have been awarded to outstanding NHS senior members.
The scholarship program is supported by the parent organization of NHS, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).
The NHS Scholarship application opens on October 1 each year.
How to Apply
- Senior members of an active NHS chapter who are in good standing are eligible to apply for an NHS Scholarship.
- NHS Members must create a student account before they can access the NHS Scholarship application.
- The NHS adviser must verify the student’s membership before the student can begin the application.
- Verified NHS members may start the NHS Scholarship application beginning on September 19.
- All applications require two recommendations, and certification by the NHS adviser in order to be considered complete. Incomplete applications are not evaluated.
Deadlines – Double-check each year before adding to your scholarship lists
5:00 pm EST on November 30 – The student portion of the application is due.
5:00 pm EST on November 30 – All recommendations (two) and adviser certification are due.
Go here to apply for the NHS Scholarships:

Open to High School Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors! APPLY NOW HERE
National Honor Society Scholarships
FAQ: Does being in the National Honor Society help win scholarships?
Answer: The interesting thing about the NHS is that even though it is a national organization, the rules for which students can be members and the guidelines for membership vary for each high school in the United States. Some schools have very strict guidelines, GPA requirements, and service hour commitments and others do not. Because of this, NHS membership alone will not guarantee that students will win more scholarships than non-NHS members.
That being said, the experiences that students may have when volunteering to complete their NHS hours can be priceless and give them very personal details to share when writing their scholarship essays. Along with this, the connections they may make with leaders of various organizations while volunteering can result in very high-quality letters of recommendation to be used for scholarship applications.
This article shares how all three of my boys used their community service projects to help others, gain NHS hours, and apply for even more scholarships than most high school students. Volunteering opens up many scholarship opportunities for students!
National Honor Society Scholarships range from $25,000 to $3,200 with a total of $2 million dollars earned by college-bound students. Learn winning tips! #NHS Click To Tweet
Monica Matthews is the author of How to Win College Scholarships. She helped her own son win over $100,000 in college scholarships and now shares her expertise with other parents and their students. She truly has “been there, done that” in regards to helping parents and students navigate the scholarship process.
Her method of helping students in finding college scholarships, writing unique and compelling scholarship essays, creating amazing scholarship application packets and more, have taught desperate parents to help their own students win thousands of scholarship dollars.
Monica’s scholarship tips have been featured on many prominent websites and she has been dubbed the “Go-To” expert on college scholarships.