Who's Who Among American High School Students

[pearlieq]

I got those letters back in HS. The book is meaningless. It only exists to be sold to parents and grandparents.

 

[mermaidlady]

We got this also. It was addressed to my DD "Liz". Trouble is my DD is not Liz that was a name she made up for a web site. She had signed up for it a couple of years ago and when we told her never to give her real name out she just figured her first name but gave her real last name and address. Liz is no where near her real name but according to these people she was a high acheiving student. I think it is just a ploy to buy the book.

 

[Geoff_M]

The letter states- "------- has been recommended for one of the highest honors awarded to less than 5% of American high school students."

I interpreted that to mean that ONLY THE TOP 5% of students, meaning those in the top 5% academically in their class, were eligible for this award.

No, that means that only 5% of the students either bothered to reply or they could only get their hands on 5% of the names and addresses of high schoolers! For starters, I seriously doubt the publisher knows how the top 5% of students are... privacy laws would prevent schools from openly disclosing that info. They probably get the names of high school students from mailing lists that are of known teens.

This "scam" has been around for decades. I knew about it 24 years ago when I was in high school. While not a bad student, I can assure you I wasn't in the top 5% of my class!

Save your money for something more legitimate.... like the International Star Registry!!!

 

[pearlieq]

Save your money for something more legitimate.... like the International Star Registry!!!

 

[barkley]

had a friend who was very honored to be in it in highschool (her parents paid for the book) but we could'nt figure out why she rather than much better students were in it (she was an o.k. student-nothing spectacular). learned a few years later when i was dating the son of one of the district high school administrators that most teachers don't participate in the nominatiing process (they feels it's a waste of time and a money making stunt), and some who do, do it mainly to be able to say they are educators who participate in the selection process (apparantly they can get their names listed in the book as well ).

i always get a kick when people opt into it because "it will be on my permanant highschool record"-no college i ever attended nor any that anyone else i knew attended (incl. some ivy league) every got anything from the highschool beyond your college entrance test results, your transcript and any letters of reccommendation/award letters. i hardly think a college admissions officer or board would even consider this-they just want to see the cold hard facts.

i think this is an older version of those mailings dd has been getting (since preschool) "commending academic achievement" by offering to let us pay for her to participate in "international leadership conferences"

 

[wnissen]

The Who's Who is about a half step up from those sections in the newspaper where you pay $20 to print a message to your sweetheart. Because the selection is so irregular, it is a scam to sell it as the directory of the "best" students.

Frankly, if I saw it on a resume, I would be forced to assume that the candidate was gullible, arrogant, or both.

Walt

 

[luvflorida]

Meanwhile DD #2 has always had top grades, and is a real high achiever, her goal is to make it to Yale Law School! No letter for her.

Same with my oldest daughter. Like I said, it appears they are not targeting the true high achieving students. My youngest daughter, the one that got the letter, IS a high achiever, though. She is always on the honor/high honor roll and consistently scores in the top 95-99% on standardized tests. That's why I questioned the letter.

I've thrown the letter in the trash, and didn't even tell my daughter about it. Wow, I'm embarrassed the letter was even mailed to us.

And I'm embarrassed that I didn't know anything about the publication. Live and learn.