How do you know when an Honor Society is a genuine one?

[Lyric]

I got yet another invitation to join one--this one is called the "National Society for Collegiate Scholars," and their requirements are at least a 3.4 overall GPA and that members be within the top 20% of students in their class.

So how do I know whether or not this group is "real?" Or even worthwhile? There are so many fakey ones out there; it's hard to tell what's worth looking into and what should be ignored. :(

http://www.nscs.org/

[hobbit709]

1. The main thing looks to separate you from your money

in exchange for a lot of promised hype.

[JVS]

2. Look them up on here. AFAIK Phi Beta Kappa is the one that people actually care about, unless ...

they're in a field like engineering which makes it nearly impossible to fulfill the liberal arts requirements for PBK, in which case they care about Tau Beta Pi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Honor_societies

[Lyric]

3. Hey now--everybody knows that the bestest Honor Society is actually

Sigma Tau Delta. :P

[JVS]

4. STD!

[Lyric]

5. An unfortunate acronym

for the ABSOLUTE BEST SOCIETY ON THE PLANET!

*cough*

[WinkyDink]

6. Legit = No fee. :)

[JVS]

7. That's not true. One of my friends passed up Phi Beta Kappa because he didn't know what it was...

and didn't want to pay the fee. To avoid this situation, and encourage as high a number of members as possible, I've seen colleges that pick up the fee for students who are invited to join.

[Lyric]

8. There's a one-time fee for the most prestigious ones, like Phi Beta Kappa.

This one has a one-time fee, too, and it's about the same amount of money. I think a regular "dues" would be a lot more suspicious than a one-time fee that's not too ridiculously high.