<p>Graduating with a Summa or Magna were always difficult...
These were and are significant honors.</p>
<p>But Harvard would pratically give away Cum Laude degrees and
Cum Laude in General Studies degrees like water.
I especially thought the Cum Laude in General Studies honors were nothing but a joke... you did not have to take the honors track in your field, nor write a thesis, and as long as you maintained a B-minus average... then you got Cum Laude in General Studies.</p>
<p>All they really needed to do to reduce the number of honors degrees was just axe the Cum Laude in General Studies award.</p>