No. The NSLS is not a scam. The NSLS is a legitimate, accredited, and esteemed leadership honor society that is nationally recognized, with over 750 chapters and more than 1.8 million members at universities nationwide.

Yes, the NSLS is a real, legitimate honor society. As a leadership honor society, our program and curriculum are focused specifically on leadership skill development and career preparation.

As a member, you have access to a wide range of training resources, networking events, and learning opportunities designed to develop your leadership skills. In order to become a fully-inducted member, students must complete the Steps to Induction.

1. Orientation: Students receive all the information they need about the program.
2. Leadership Training Day: This interactive, workbook-guided training session is designed to help new members identify and overcome any obstacles that may interfere with achieving their goals. The introspective seminar helps students to recognize their strengths and weaknesses in order to shift their focus toward their real passions.
3. Three Speaker Broadcast events: Members will hear some of the world's most successful motivational speakers discussing topics related to leadership, identifying goals, facing challenges, personal growth, and successfully transitioning from college to career.
4. Three Success Networking Team (SNT) meetings: NSLS members create a team with fellow members, or their personal/professional network in order to complete this step to hold each other accountable and offer feedback. Students will work independently on accomplishing their goals and will submit bi-weekly write-ups discussing their goals, action steps, and progress.

Members usually spend less than 10 hours total at their own pace as they work toward completing the Steps to Induction. You can choose your level of involvement in the program. To get the most out of your experience, you’ll want to be as involved as possible.

Members must meet certain nomination criteria that are specified by local chapter leaders (usually based on GPA and/or leadership potential). Once you have paid your one-time registration fee, you’re considered a pre-inducted member. In order to become an inducted member, you must complete the Steps to Induction listed in the previous question.

Students who wish to join but haven’t been nominated can still apply for membership online.

Throughout your college career, you may be invited to a number of different honor societies. Sadly, in some situations, scammers may pose as fraudulent honor societies to take advantage of college students. It’s important to know how to distinguish between a scam and an honor society that will provide value to you. 

Look for the below criteria when determining whether or not an honor society is legitimate:

• Accreditation. Accreditation ensures an organization meets the minimum standards of quality that are set by a qualified and credible accreditation institution. The NSLS is fully accredited by Cognia. In addition, our courses have been reviewed and recommended for credit reciprocity by ACE and NCCRS.

• Transparency. The organization should be transparent about its member selection criteria, accountability, and purpose. As a certified B Corporation, or For-Benefit Organization, the NSLS meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to its purpose. 

• Educational investment. Most legitimate honor societies require a one-time membership fee in order to become a member and gain access to all of the program’s benefits. 

• Registered with the Better Business Bureau. Legitimate honor societies should be registered with the Better Business Bureau and maintain the highest rating possible. The NSLS currently maintains an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

• Collaboration with thought leaders. The organization maintains strong relationships with highly successful, legitimate leaders across a variety of industries, which brings value to its members. The NSLS has worked with many notable, successful leaders to further our members’ education and growth. 

Student success stories. A legitimate honor society will have testimonials and member success stories readily available. These stories should tell you how the organization helped members prepare for—and succeed— in their endeavors and the value it brought to their college experience.

Reports of the NSLS being a scam are largely due to the fact that there are very real honor society scammers out there who take advantage of college students. The NSLS isn’t one of them. The NSLS partners with schools to bring leadership development to their campuses.

You can search through our chapter database to see more about the chapter you were invited to and our history with your school. So far, the NSLS has helped over 1.8 million members at more than 750 schools achieve success.

The fee to join the NSLS helps us continually develop our curriculum and deliver new and engaging content to our members. Without a fee, we wouldn’t be able to reach as many future leaders as we do. To that end, we know that not everyone can afford the fee and have provided options to assist members who may be experiencing financial difficulties.

Sigma Alpha Pi (ΣAπ) are the Greek letters that the NSLS uses to represent itself. We are not affiliated with campus Greek life. These letters stand for Success, Action, and Purpose, which are the guiding principles of the NSLS.

For more information, please read our extended FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS guide.

Yes, the NSLS is a real, legitimate honor society. As a leadership honor society, our program and curriculum are focused specifically on leadership skill development and career preparation.