<p>Momwaitingfornew, thanks for the thorough lowdown. Very helpful. We’ll tuck that information away for future reference.</p>
<p>Near future, for some. Bad news for D. She thought first year didn’t count for phi beta kappa. (:</p>
<p>Ok, I’ll try again; I meant :(</p>
<p>Maybe I’m wrong, LiT. I got the impression that first year grades did count. I heard someone say it, and the main reason that I believed it had to do with the senior fall elections, which go to the top 12 students in the class. If it had the same requirements as Latin Honors, you would expect all the summas to be elected in the fall. Instead, only one of the nine summas was inducted in the fall. Seven graduated magna. Four graduated cum laude.</p>
<p>More evidence that first year grades count: one of the magnas is not on the Phi Beta Kappa list.</p>
<p>PBK elections are a little more complicated in that you must have met all your distribution requirements for PBK (same as Latin Honors, I think) at the time of your election. I.e., if you’ve put off one (or more) of your breadth classes until senior year, you can’t get PBK until graduation. </p>
<p>MWFN, I was pulling for your D to make magna, sorry it didn’t happen. But cum laude and PBK aren’t chopped liver. As those late A- grades indicate, it doesn’t take much to tip the balance and I firmly believe that while achievement is rewarded, a little luck in terms of which prof you get for a class, etc., doesn’t hurt. D had one B+…but that was in the Budapest math program which Smith records as P/NP. A bit of luck there, yes? Otoh, her !@#$%^&*! ballet teacher dinged her grade for attendance because she missed a class due to orchestra rehearsal and was very cavalier about it: “You’ve got a high GPA anyway, it doesn’t matter.” Lucky that didn’t cost her.</p>
<p>For those keeping records, there were 11 summas in 2008 and a GPA cut-off of around 3.95 seems correct. The ceiling seems to be between 1.25 and 1.50 percent of graduating class. CB, as far as I know, there is no place to get this information…it’s all word of mouth, pieced together in places like CC.</p>
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<p>It’s nice that Spoleto takes reservations for graduation weekend. They want your credit card number in advance but I have no problem with that. We made a nice run of restaurants, both D’s faves and ours (there was overlap), that last weekend. </p>
<p>LOL about the Autumn Inn. Yeah, at $300/night, you would expect opulent/decadent. Otoh, we once got a room at the Ritz-Carlton for something like $99. Of course, it was Phoenix in late July or early August, a time when only those enduring Purgatory are to be found in Phoenix. At its normal price, I think the Autumn Inn is fine and for grad weekend I agree that it’s extortion but I’ll take it for the convenience over the other options. I’m blanking on the name but two of D’s aunts stayed at the hotel just directly to the east of the off-ramp from the northbound Interstate…and that wasn’t cheap either and not nearly as convenient or charming.</p>
<p>I agree about the buffet lunches in the Houses being just adequate but I reminded myself that its main purpose was a shared valedictory moment with one’s House and graduating Housemates. The ensuing packing hardly counts, does it?</p>
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<p>LiT, if it’s any consolation, my D still makes rude noises about CC but a little less now: someone in a CC discussion linked to one of her favorite work-related blogs and the conversation circled back.</p>
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<p>D was at Ivy Day and the rest, marching with the other 2008’s who came back. One of her youngest friends from Smith was graduating and at least half a dozen of them gathered together for a celebration that seems to resembled a rolling craps game that floated from location to location. She posted photos on Facebook and I was touched that they had pictures of themselves taken with their House kitchen & cleaning staffs, whom they adored.</p>
<p>The cut off for cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude varies year to year because it’s based on where you fall in relation to the other Latin-Honors eligible people in your class. So you really won’t know how close you come until you get listed and you can see who is above and below you and sort of figure it out. Cum Laude ain’t nothin’ to balk at however :-)</p>
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<p>The Clarion Hotel and Conference Center. It’s very nice. Locals often recommended the Clarion, especially because it’s located on the Smith/Northampton side of the river. The bridge traffic can be a pain. Rates are reasonable. Last week of August midweek rates are about $109.00</p>
<p>The Quality Inn is a bit closer to Smith and about the same price.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.clarionhotel.com/ires/en-US/html/CitySearch?placetype=city&placename=northampton&state_country=MAUS&chain=R&source=gcrma4[/url]”>http://www.clarionhotel.com/ires/en-US/html/CitySearch?placetype=city&placename=northampton&state_country=MAUS&chain=R&source=gcrma4</a></p>
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<p>That’s correct on both counts. Because my D finished all her Latin Honors requirements by the end of her third semester, I tend to forget that other students spread them out over all four years.</p>
<p>TD, am I correct that Phi Beta Kappa includes first year grades?</p>
<p>And to elaborate on TD’s comments about cut-offs: it depends both on class size and grades within the class. Each year, the GPA cut-offs are slightly different. We knew that D was on the cusp of Magna (thanks for the consolation, TD!) because of past year cut-offs that flirted with the 3.8 mark. All it takes is one or two grades to take a student from summa or magna to cum. With Latin Honors, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that it’s the breadth and depth of education, and not the individual honors, that are most important. If students chose their classes without taking some academic risks, just because they wanted As, then they might miss out on some wonderful opportunities.</p>
<p>re the Clarion, in which it is demonstrated that people of good will and intelligence can have radically different opinions. Di gus and all that jazz. Though we once arranged to meet Jane Yolen at the Clarion and she spent a couple of hours with us, which was pretty cool.</p>
<p>Yes, MWFN, I’m pretty sure that PBK includes first-year grades.
D never ducked a class choice but a couple of times she did consider profs when choosing a section…a great advantage of the House system.</p>
<p>Pshaw to GPA contests…take the hardest, most challenging courses that interest you and let the grades fall where they may!! I see too many 4.0 undergrads who come to grad school and flounder.</p>
<p>As an aside to the discussion of GPAs, Latin honors, PBK and local lodging, we picked up our daughter after her last work shift for commencement/reunion yesterday and celebrated her end-of-First Year with some Smithie friends living in Noho for the summer: an obligatory but highly desirable trip to Herrell’s, followed by a very full car-load up to the Bookmill in Montague (my first time and certainly not my last!), and ending with dinner at Osaka (my first time and certainly not my last!), and then home.</p>
<p>She loved seeing the Smith graduation traditions for the first time and said she had many bursting moments of “I AM a Smithie!”.</p>
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<p>That’s a whole other topic! 
They founder not because they took easy classes, but because all they know is how to study and get As. In grad school, it’s not enough to be a good student; you must be a good researcher and scholar. Many can’t make that transition.</p>
<p>CarolynB: I can understand why she felt that surge of pride. You could almost reach out and touch the fierce pride of being a Smithie that weekend.</p>
<p>I attended an undergrad institution that fostered the same kind of community, and I wanted that for my daughter. I’m delighted that she found that at Smith.</p>
<p>*I got the impression that first year grades did count. I heard someone say it, and the main reason that I believed it had to do with the senior fall elections, which go to the top 12 students in the class. If it had the same requirements as Latin Honors, you would expect all the summas to be elected in the fall. Instead, only one of the nine summas was inducted in the fall. Seven graduated magna. Four graduated cum laude. *
I have finally got the answer to part of my question. Senior fall PBKs are judged on sophomore-junior grades at Smith, completion of LH requirements AND involvement in other campus activities. I guess that many of the summas did a JYA, so were ineligible for fall election (I am specifically thinking of TD’s daughter). First year does not count for either election.</p>
<p>If PBK does not count first year grades, then why was one Magna not on the PBK list? I suppose they could have made a mistake and omitted her name.</p>
<p>LiT, does this new information mean that your daughter was elected to Fall PBK?</p>
<p>No more than 10% of the total PBK electees for a single year can be picked for Fall election. That’s another factor limiting people that get chosen at that time. A lot of people who are otherwise eligible are then held over for sprign election, when the majority of the new inductees come in.</p>
<p>Mwfn, I’m not sure why one magna was omitted. It seems that PBKs are elected by other members of the chapter, which logically means that they can choose not to elect someone despite their GPA. I know that your daughter was elected; did the letter she received at the time explain their criteria, or just tell her she was in the top 10 percent?</p>
<p>Yes, to your other question. :)</p>
<p>Congrats to her! I remember when she was struggling with her first English paper – and now look at her!</p>