I don’t understand the importance of these at all - if you have a certain gpa, it will be noted by cum laude, magna, cum laude, or summa cum laude on your diploma. Why do you have to pay for an honors society for a designation that is given to your for free when you graduate? I have a summa cum laude grad that never considered paying to be part of an honor society, (invited to Tau Beta Pi) to him they all seem like a scam, no matter who it was. Not saying they are all scams (some are), but he just thought they weren’t important. Lined up amazing job for after graduation as a junior. Can’t you just put your gpa on your resume? Why just imply it with an honor society? Is it a good networking thing or something else? Not knocking them, just don’t get the need to give someone money to say you made good grades, there has to be more…
Perhaps the tech industry is such where PBK is not that big of a deal, and that is due to the fact that Tech hires a lot from Engineering and other STEM-focused schools which are ineligible for PBK. Gotta have plenty of lit/hume curricula offerings to qualify for PBK.
Caltech is not a member of PBK. Even at Uni that do belong to PBK, not all of their individual colleges do. For example, Berkeley’s Letters & Sciences, which houses most of the undergrads, is a member of PBK, but its high-ranked Engineering program is not eligible. (And those Engineers go into Tech.)
Instead, TBP may be the more recognized honor in the Tech industry?
@blueskies2day At many institutions latin honors are awarded for advanced work in a single discipline, not for GPA. And remember that for somebody who knows little about a student or their institution, a high GPA may not guarantee much since grading varies widely across institutions. Membership in the relevant honors society demonstrates strength within the institutional cohort, so some people see this as stronger proof of achievement than the absolute GPA number. A 3.7 from X university might seen as better than a 3.9 from Y if the X student has the honors society membership and the Y doesn’t. This sort of scenario may not be frequent but it can happen.
You might even run across a dyed-in-the-wool society member who sees the high GPA and wonders why your student didn’t get invited. It’s so important to some people that they might not believe anybody would turn it down.
Not all colleges use such designations to denote those with respectable/high GPAs. My LAC certainly didn’t.
Only honors awarded is done by department for students who were invited to and completed an honors thesis.
“Not all colleges use such designations to denote those with respectable/high GPAs.”
Right. I had a 3.9 GPA but only cum laude because I didn’t do a thesis. I did get PBK. It means the same thing at every school with a chapter.
I graduated magna cum laude with highest honors in my major, and my roommate was a magna with a magna thesis. She got PBK. Her major was more academic than mine, so it was fine by me.
Latin Honors are different from institution to institution, but TBP is always the same, top 1/8 of junior class or top 1/5 of senior class. My dad, now 80, still remembers when my uncle, now 84, got in. My dad didn’t, and I think he still feels the sting. He did go to MIT though. My son’s asterisk claim to fame is being inducted as a sophomore. I can’t speak as much for PBK, but within engineering, TBP is revered and not considered a scam.
Actually, PBK standards for admission with various chapters vary. There is a certain minimum class /grade standing required for eligibility, set by the national organization, but eligibility does not equate with admission, and various chapters can set their own, more stringent requirements, and the actual selection process varies. So yes, always an honor – no, not always the “same thing” in terms of getting in.
I turned down an invite to an honors society when I graduated college, also because I just didn’t have the money ($15 at the time). I have regretted it ever since, although I very strongly suspect that it has made no difference at all to my life.
You should definitely see if he can still join, and offer to pay the money.
See if he can still join.
In some circumstances it remains a ‘powerful’ signal to confirm the rest of the resume.
If not, it won’t matter in the long run, especially if he’s in tech. External confirmation will come from his achievements.
I just looked up the requirements for PBK at my D’s school. i was really surprised by the course distribution requirements. The killer is that they require one full year of the major sequence for either bio, chem, or physics. Who does that unless it’s needed for their major or they’re premed? Your typical excellent philosophy major who isn’t premed will never qualify for this. I can’t see telling a kid that they should take a year of either bio or chem (which are the premed weed out courses) just to be in an honor society.
Back to the OP, I guess I don’t see how this is a big deal. It’s good if you have it, but I don’t think that people will care if you don’t.
In a technical field, quite a few people will not have heard of Phi Beta Kappa. Students at my university who take the standard engineering curriculum would not be eligible, because of the distribution requirements for election. These include many courses in the liberal arts and the completion of two years of a foreign language at the college level (which AP in the language may or may not equal).
Also, at my university, the student’s GPA is adjusted according to the average grade awarded in each of the courses that the student has taken. This means that a student who is making GPA-maximizing course choices is less likely to be elected than a student who takes courses with tougher grading. I ave heard that at Harvard the student members of Phi Beta Kappa review the transcripts of the students under consideration for election, and they take the levels of the courses into account. (Yes, there are easier and harder routes to a Harvard degree.)
Phi Beta Kappa is a “big deal” at Yale and at Princeton. At Yale, Phi Beta Kappa membership is mentioned individually at graduation. At Princeton, the induction ceremony is in a wood-panaled board room that undergrads rarely enter (at least it used to be). I think the admissions tours now go into that room.
Among the “snootiest,” election to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior is regarded as more significant than election to Phi Beta Kappa as a senior, because the selection criteria are more stringent in that year. My university’s applicants for the Rhodes Scholarship and similar graduate fellowships are encouraged to put Phi Beta Kappa on their applications, if elected as juniors; election as seniors is too late to go on the application.
Another difference at Princeton is that the faculty pay the induction fee for the students–again, I believe this is still the case, but can’t verify it.
At my university, I have noticed that quite a few students who are elected to Phi Beta Kappa are not familiar with it, and they think, “Eh, another honor society, and you have to pay for it.” One of my former students was elected as a junior, did not accept the invitation, and then was not re-elected as a senior. I found out about this too late.
As a result of that experience, I have been personally paying the induction fees for each of the elected students in a large course that I have been teaching recently. (The names are circulated to the faculty, ahead of the induction deadline.) So far, this has been readily affordable, because there have been only 3 elected students out of 248–and most of the 248 have high GPAs and take honors courses. So the GPA, Latin honors, and honors courses are not equivalent to PBK membership at my university.
Phi Beta Kappa is the original American academic honorary society, established at William and Mary in 1776. The historical connection appeals to me (just speaking personally). I would encourage a student who is elected to Phi Beta Kappa to come up with the $85 or if that is a hardship, to talk with a faculty member–perhaps the chapter president, who issues the invitation.
I attended a recent presentation by Justice Sotomayor. She devoted a significant part of her autobiographical talk to encouraging eligible students to accept PBK invitations. In her profession, she found that it was a positive factor that was frequently commented upon in interviews. In other words… it can only help.
As an undergrad, I was too cheap to buy the key, but I was impressed that one initiation fee gave me membership for life.
All of that being said, with regard to the question originally posed–I think Phi Beta Kappa membership will make virtually no difference for a person in a STEM field, because many students with STEM majors are simply ineligible for election, due to the distribution requirements.
Depending on the organization, PBK might conceivably be of some benefit for a person in STEM who wanted to move into a partner/senior management position, because it would signal that the person is not narrowly technically educated. Of course, a person’s broader education should be fairly evident from conversations. Still, my father-in-law warned my spouse about becoming stereotyped as a “techie,” in terms of later career advancement (perhaps only relevant at Booz, Allen or McKinsey, or similar organizations).
**I have broken a very long post up, because I have a lot to say on this topic. Hope the multiple posts are okay with other people! I have one more yet to be posted.
Final comment–amidst thoughts by others of “Whew!” and “About time!”: The advice columnist Ann Landers (real-life sister of “Dear Abby”) once defined “class” as having a Phi Beta Kappa key and leaving it in your dresser drawer.
If he can still join, I would highly encourage it. If he gets in, I would definitely have him include it on his resume. PBK is very very impressive. When I see that a professional I am patronizing was PBK it impresses me and I know the person worked hard and did well in school. It is definitely a credential that will impress employers. I hope my kids get PBK. What an honor. Really!!!
As has been noted, for engineering it is Tau Beta Pi. My kid went through some of the requirements for it (attended a couple meetings, polished a bent) but decided to not pursue it (more related to time involved than fees). I admit I was a little disappointed at the time but it doesn’t seem to have effected his employment in the long run. . The high GPA was what was helpful in getting internships, initial employment. After that, it is mostly how you perform on the job anyway.
Tau Beta Pi (ΤΒΠ) is the honor society for engineering majors. http://www.tbp.org/off/COnstBylaw.pdf (page 11) describes eligible majors.
Phi Beta Kappa (ΦΒΚ) is restricted to those who take at least 3/4 of their BA/BS course work in liberal arts and sciences, according to https://www.pbk.org/WEB/PBK_Member/MEMBERSHIP/Membership_Requirements/PBK_Member/Membership/Stipulations.aspx .
Computer science majors may or may not be eligible for ΤΒΠ, depending on whether computer science is part of an ABET accredited engineering major or other qualifying major. Non-engineering computer science majors appear to be eligible for ΦΒΚ in at least some schools.