Tau Sigma Membership: To Join or Not to Join?
So, you just received a mail or email from Tau Sigma to join.
There are a couple of main reasons why you were invited to become a member: you meet the minimum GPA requirement and are a transfer student.
Does this mean that it’s the right honor society for you? What are the benefits of being a member of Tau Sigma?
Tau Sigma is an honor society worth joining for transferees. The mission of the organization, which has 250 chapters in the US, is to recognize and promote the academic excellence and involvement of transfer students. Members have the opportunity to win scholarships, build leadership skills and provide community service.
If you just received an invite from Tau Sigma, don’t stop reading now.
Below, you will come across some of the most important things you need to know about the national honor society. By the time you are through reading this post, you will be able to decide so much better whether or not joining is a wise move.
Who Gets Invited to Join Tau Sigma?
Like many honor societies, Tau Sigma is on an invitation-only basis — without receiving an invite from the organization through mail or email, you are not eligible to become a member.
A very important requirement to be asked to join the honor society is that you should be a transferee.
But just because you finished a handful of courses at another university before transferring doesn’t necessarily mean you are qualified to join Tau Sigma.
To be considered for membership, it’s important that you have completed courses that are equivalent to at least 1 year of undergraduate studies. So, in other words, you must have gone through being a freshman student.
Having a particular GPA is another eligibility requirement, too, which is the case with most other honor societies, especially those that carefully select their members by sending them invitations.
To be eligible to become a member of Tau Sigma, you must have a GPA of not less than 3.5 during your first term in the new institution of higher education as a full-time student — your course load should be 12 or more.
Will you lose your membership to the honor society if your GPA falls below 3.5?
Fortunately, once you become a member of Tau Sigma, you are a member for life. Needless to say, you will not be removed from the roster in case your GPA slips below 3.5 at any given time during your undergraduate college career.
Still, it prefers its members to be able to maintain their academic excellence, the reason they were asked to join in the first place.
How Much Does It Cost to be a Member of Tau Sigma?
Compared to the membership fee of other similar organizations, the amount asked by Tau Sigma for invited students to shell out to seal their membership isn’t that high. Besides, they are asked to pay dues only once.
So, in other words, there are no annual fees necessary for members to pay to remain on the roster.
However, it’s important for someone like you who gets invited to be a member of the organization and is currently contemplating whether or not to join to note that there are also local dues to take care of.
Since local dues can vary from chapter to chapter, students who wish to accept their invitation to join can expect to shell out anywhere from $50 to $65.
Here’s a breakdown of the lifetime membership fee amounting to $45:
- $30 – For the national office of Tau Sigma to provide the yearly conference, scholarships and others.
- $10 – For the chapter or institution to give members a well-deserved induction ceremony.
- $5 – For the mailings sent to new members of Tau Sigma and the maintenance of its online portal.
As mentioned earlier, failure to keep your GPA at 3.5, which is the minimum eligibility requirement, will not cause you to lose your membership to Tau Sigma.
Still, the honor society would like you to maintain the academic excellence you have obtained after a term from the time you transferred to your new institution, which was the reason why you got invited.
Similarly, you can be a very active member or not and still keep your membership to the organization intact.
Benefits of Joining Tau Sigma
As expected, there are a number of exclusive benefits that members of Tau Sigma can enjoy. Because the honor society is geared toward transfer students, members can take advantage of services that allow them to excel and get involved with the new campus. There are also scholarship and leadership-building programs available.
Because it’s a selective organization, as evidenced by being on an invitation-only basis and inviting only transferees who are able to demonstrate academic excellence, being a member of Tau Sigma can serve as a badge of merit.
Other than that, there are many other perks you can enjoy after your induction into the organization, including:
Scholarships
In the last academic year, Tau Sigma gave away scholarships amounting to $100,000. Awards, which were received by a total of 57 members of the honor society, ranged from as low as $500 to as high as $5,000 each.
In the same academic year, according to the organization itself, Tau Sigma surpassed the $1,000,000 mark in total scholarships given.
All Tau Sigma chapters may nominate at least 1 member. New chapters during the last calendar year consisting of 100 members or more, on the other hand, may nominate up to 2 members.
Leadership conference
Members of Tau Sigma can enjoy the perk of honing their leadership, collaboration, communication and other skills necessary to deal with various workplace challenges by attending leadership conferences.
However, the things they learn and develop can come in handy in attaining success not only in their future professional careers but current college careers, too.
Reputation
Tau Sigma was created, first and foremost, to recognize and promote transferee students’ academic excellence and campus involvement.
Needless to say, one of the perks that members can enjoy is motivation to attain success and gain reputation as they work on their undergraduate degrees. They are provided with a platform to bond with co-transferees, too.
A group of students per chapter is also created, whose mission is to assist the institution of higher education address and meet the unique needs of both current and incoming transfer students.
Conclusion: Is It Worth Becoming a Tau Sigma Member
Tau Sigma is created to address some of the issues that transfer students commonly face. So, in other words, if you are not a transferee, it’s very much unlikely for you to receive an invitation to join.
Membership to the national honor society doesn’t come cost-free, although it cannot be denied that it’s cheaper than the fees for other similar organizations. What’s more, there are no annual fees to worry about — the one-time fee is good for life.
In exchange for it are a number of benefits you can enjoy, many of which can help transferees adjust to their new schools.
Related Questions
When was Tau Sigma founded?
Tau Sigma was created as an honor society in 1999. It came into being at Auburn University, which serves as the home of the honor society’s first chapter, when the public land-grant research university located in Auburn, Alabama realized the significant number of transferees to it and the institution’s inability to serve them sufficiently.
Can online students be invited to join Tau Sigma?
According to the honor society itself, distance education students are welcomed, too. Although Tau Sigma knows that it can be more challenging for online students to be active members, it nonetheless recognizes their academic achievements like any other transfer students attending college in the traditional manner.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the College Reality Check.