A Scam? It's only a scam if you're too ignorant to follow up on the opporutinites. I am a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars at my univeristy. It is very similar to Golden Key. I payed a WHOPPING 70 dollars to join (less than many of my secondary fees). I have served as VP and then President of the organization. In that time I've traveled to two national conferences that I didn't pay a single penny for, and in the mean time have developed many great relationships with people.
The Big Brother's Big Sisters's organization in our county relies heavily on our support for helping them put on their two biggest fundraising events. We help keep them going. I guess if you pay the one time membership fee, and do nothing further with it, then yes, you "scammed" yourself. Congrats, you paid seventy dollars (or whatever GK charges) for a line item. You can also earn that one time fee back and more by just taking advanatge of a few opportunities. Hell, I even saved one hundred dollars off my Kaplan course with an NSCS discount.
Last fall we brought a group of high school kids onto campus and had them take a tour, see the dorms, eat in the commons, and hear from campus officials. I doubt these kids would have ever had such an experience otherwise, and many of them are now working hard on those grades and ACT scores for college. We also have a tutor/mentor program for them as well.
NSCS has played a large role in my undergraduate experience, our chapter was basicaly built from the ground up during my officer terms. It has come up in every interview so far and I won't sit here and say that it's the reason why I hold multiple acceptances, but it has indeed played a large role in my undergad experience.
So for you, I encourage you to look into your campus chapter a little bit. Look to see if they are active on campus, each chapter is different. Either way, the experience is what you make of it. I will agree that many people pay the fee and don't take advantage of it. I guess I should thank these people because we pay for everything for the active members of our chapter; socials and food at meetings and all that fun stuff. Don't waste your money if you won't be active, and it probably isn't helpful to have a line item with which you can relate no experiences. It should fit rather nicely into the EC category, not the honor category.
(cuz most U.S. schools do have Phi Beta Kappa and so those people just do those).
