Talk:National Society of Collegiate Scholars

Colors

The NSCS's former colors were crimson and gold. In the 2021 rebranding I note that these were switched to Burgundy and Gold, but these do not quite match the new logo. Which are correct? Vendors selling graduation cords still list the old colors (at times), and some list the new colors. I just updated the main article infobox to reflect the current address, chapter count, number of lifetime initiates, address, and new logo.

Also, is there a publication, in addition to the 3 Pillars blog? Jax MN (talk) 02:17, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

Malware

As of 10 Oct 2021 I'm getting a malware / phishing warning when I link to the official website. I didn't see any further alerts when I went to it, so it may be benign, but it should be noted by the organization for repair. Jax MN (talk) 02:19, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

scholarships and membership fee

@Jax MN: As of your edit of 23:03, 12 November 2021‎ revision, the "finances" section states:

To be eligible for scholarships, premium membership is required, with a one-time fee of $189.

while the "scholarships" section states

NSCS provides members with access to over $750,000 in scholarships and awards. Premium membership in NSCS provides access to nearly $100 million in scholarships.

Can you please resolve this discrepancy... and can you also please clarify whether the $189 is in addition to or instead of the fee for basic membership. Fabrickator (talk) 01:17, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

Done. Nice catch, with that flyer. I rewrote several passages and clarified the fees with a new section. I found the Hub, which is the source of that $100M. That passage was carefully worded to note "allow access to"", which is normally seen as weaselly wording among WP editors. I figured since it was a direct quote I'd let it stand, also noting that the group of scholars eligible for a piece of that $100M is very limited: only 15 annually, and they must be studying Islamic Studies or a related field. I'm OK with it now. I see the Founder still takes home a pretty salary. And he isn't the Executive Director... Good livin'... Jax MN (talk) 02:08, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

It seems to me that you've stumbled across some information that puts NSCS in quite a bad light. The best take on criticism of NSCS been that it's all subjective whether or not NSCS is particularly different (in a negative sense) from other honorary societies. Charging an extra $100, only to have people discover that there's very little chance the additional financial aid would be of interest to the typical member (as well as it being objectively overstated as to how much funding is actually available), it's difficult to understand what they were thinking. Fabrickator (talk) 07:39, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

Negative light? I hadn't really considered that. My entire interest is in providing factual content, fully referenced and clearly summarized from which readers may derive encyclopedic value. Looking at the article, I think readers would appreciate seeing fees delineated in the summaries for all honor societies, where at first I thought it could seem merely promotional. To the issue at hand, it may be that some potential NSCS members find that the extra $200 to gain a resume review and mentorship support is valuable (even if colleges will do this for free), where the extra $100 for NSCS' mid-level tier, upon inspection, loses its shine. (In retail we used to call this a "good-better-best" step-up strategy.) Whether a viable strategy or not, is not my role to judge. NSCS's founder and staff are well paid, which one would assume is an indication that they are extremely good at what they do, right? Jax MN (talk) 17:02, 13 November 2021 (UTC)