High school honors

July 31, 2009 10:13 AM

Is there any way to prove someone was awarded/received a high school honor such as induction into the National Honor Society or being a National Merit Scholarship finalist?

I was both (way, way) back in the day, but I don't have any documentation of either. Obviously, it matters little (or not at all) now but I wouldn't mind having some kind of documentation - just in case.

posted by anonymous to Education (10 answers total)

Yearbook? Those honors were listed in mine.
posted by emd3737 at 10:17 AM on July 31, 2009

Wouldn't your high school transcript include records of honors received as well as your grades?
posted by dersins at 10:37 AM on July 31, 2009

National Merit should have records of this stuff. Try contacting them? I know they send me snail mail constantly, so they have some sort of bureaucracy going on.
posted by oinopaponton at 10:58 AM on July 31, 2009

I just checked, and both are listed on my high school transcript, so that is an option. (Why yes, I am the sort of person who holds onto unnecessary paperwork indefinitely.) It likely depends on the high school whether or not that would be listed on yours.
posted by pemberkins at 11:05 AM on July 31, 2009

Try calling your high school. They have to deal with providing records and stuff all the time. Also at my school there was a teacher who was in charge of the Honor Society stuff. That person might have a contact with the national organization who you can talk to.
posted by amethysts at 11:31 AM on July 31, 2009

Back in the day, I think the National Merit Scholarship people used to publish a book or a directory. You could try contacting them and ask if they keep old records.
posted by hooray at 11:43 AM on July 31, 2009

Try a local newspaper's archives. That was one of the first times my name was in the paper.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 11:43 AM on July 31, 2009

In decreasing levels of awesomeness directness:
(1) There's the letter they sent you, and the recruitment letters from colleges & universities.. Even if you don't still have them (box in the attic somewhere?), the senders might still have a copy in their archives.
(2) Probably every college & university got a list of NMS finalists each year; some of them might keep that in their archives, somewhere.
(3) Iirc, the scores for SAT &/or ACT were qualifiers; those scores are certainly accessible ('tho they probably want even more money for receipt). The scores + cutoff information (surely available from NMS) = documentation, of a sort.

Obviously contacting the NMS people, mentioned above, is the definitive answer. But I thought I 'd mention some alternatives, on the chance that what they have directly available is unsatisfactory..
posted by Tuesday After Lunch at 1:15 PM on July 31, 2009

D'oh! I see that my (3) is, uh, not so much. PSAT, and the NMS isn't as candid as I supposed about cutoff scores..
posted by Tuesday After Lunch at 1:25 PM on July 31, 2009

I have, in the past, checked on claims for NMS and some other hoary old honors. It was easy - like one phone call easy - and you won't have the problem of looking for someone who used a middle name as a first name back then, or has since married and divorced twice and is now on a third last name.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 1:48 PM on July 31, 2009