NHS Members must meet four criteria: scholarship, leadership, service, and character.

1. Students with a weighted GPA of at least 3.5 for five semesters (junior class) or seven semesters (senior class) are invited by letter to apply for membership. The invitation letter includes an Information Form which must be completed by the applicant in order to evaluate a student’s scholarship, service, and leadership abilities.

2. Those completing and returning applications by the deadline are considered by the Faculty Selection Council, a committee of 5 teachers approved by the principal.

3. The scholarship requirement is scored as follows:

*Honors classes in three or four content areas: 5 points
*Honors classes in at least 2 content areas: 4 points
*Honors classes in only 1 content area: 3 points
*No honors classes taken: 2 points
*Basic class taken: 1 point

4. The Faculty Council then evaluates all applicants on the basis of leadership and service. Each teacher on the Faculty Council will receive a packet of Information Forms. The student names are blocked out so that each teacher will base his/her evaluation on the merit of the application. Teachers score each applicant from 1 – 5 in leadership and from 1-5 in service.

5. An applicant’s scholarship scores are then added to his/her service and leadership scores. Students who score in the top 10% move to the next phase: character review.

6. Faculty Council members will receive a list of the names of the students who passed the service/leadership evaluation. If a Council member has a concern about the character of any applicant, he or she will notify the Moderator, who will then confer with the administration about these concerns.

7. Each applicant is informed in writing of his/her acceptance and asked if he or she would like to abide by the rules and standards of NHS. Those replying in the affirmative are inducted.