My state flagship does Latin honors within the major (for some), within the college, and overall. Different GPA cutoffs.
As a psychology major who did not do a thesis, I was not eligible for any honors beyond cum laude and PBK, even though my GPA made me summa eligible. At least back in the day, some departments could recommend non-thesis students for departmental honors, usually because the student had taken a number of graduate courses. My friend who did the Latin Oration at commencement was summa in Classics with no thesis. My degree is cum laude, but NOT “cum laude in psychology” – the honors came from the college, not the department.
Then in law school, I missed the cum laude cutoff by 17 one-thousandths of a point. But I digress.
I didn’t get PBK I assume because my grades weren’t actually good enough and my major was suspect. (I actually tok a huge number of architectural history courses, so it was more academic than most VES majors.) Weirdly my recollection was that at the time summa was based less on GPA and more on getting A’s in the right distribution of courses.
Wisconsin (Madison) had dropped them before 1970’s ( presuming they had them at one time). More prestigious to get variation of an Honors degree (eg in the major, comprehensive).
All I know is I never told an employer my gpa, ever. Maybe some do for the first job and nowadays at internships, but I made it to a senior exec years later without ever mentioning my gpa. Wasn’t asked, didn’t bring it up.
@wis75, actually, UW-Madison may never had given out Latin honors. Stanford and UChicago (and publics in the Midwest and West like UMich) I don’t believe ever did.
Latin honors seems to be more of a thing on the East Coast and among Catholic schools (in other regions, you find them as well, but not every school). Don’t know why anyone would think that it was standard everywhere.
UMich had honors back in the 70’s.
@bookworm, UMich still has English honors now (just like UW-Madison), but did they ever list “summa cum laude”, etc.?
PT, you’re right, it lists Distinction, then Honors in department …
Yeah, I was referring to Michigan upthread. 1980 grad, my transcript says High Distinction, with Highest Honors English.
Well, they probably have diplomas that are written in English, too. If your diploma is written in Latin, then it kind of makes sense to have the honors designation on the diploma also in Latin. If the diploma were written in English, having an honors designation in Latin might be a little pretentious. (I wonder what university would do that . . . . ?)
(Now that I think about it, the Yale diploma calls its base undergraduate degree “Artium Liberalium Baccalaurei,” but everyone refers to it as a “B.A.” The Harvard diploma awards a “Bachelor of Arts,” but Harvard convention is to call that an “A.B.” Same thing at the University of Chicago.)
Wellesley still has Latin honors. I think you need a 3.9 plus an honors thesis for summa. My D does have 3.9 as of 1st semester junior year, but says there is NO WAY she will kill herself doing an honors thesis because “I want to have some fun senior year!” so no summa for her. 
After watching her work so hard all through her academic career and seeing her suffer for it, I’m not going to say one word.
@PurpleTitan University of Chicago did and does give Latin Honors. I just rechecked the UofC website, and it’s consistent with what my son experienced and with my recollection from attending commencement. When names were called out, they would be something like this, “Joseph A. Teachman, AB with Honors in Economics,” or “Joseph A. Teachman, AB in Economics with General Honors.” In the first case, Mr. Teachman completed a thesis or other special project or course of study in Economics, as well as had a cumulative GPA of 3.25. In the second case, Mr. Teachman achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.25, with a major in economics, but did not do a thesis or other special project in that field. My son was in the second category because after spending his junior year abroad he didn’t get things together in time to set up a thesis project. So he graduated with general honors.
^ That doesn’t sound like Latin honors - since they aren’t using the Latin words. But it’s a stupid distinction. They are giving the equivalent. I thought it was funny that at Harvard my overall honors was in Latin, but my departmental honors were in English. I have t say, my thesis was one of my most valuable experiences at Harvard. No regrets about doing it!
Perhaps you’re right, @mathmom. I was mainly referring to the fact that they do distinguish students who graduate with honors at Chicago – and it shows up on their diploma. My son also has honorary doctoral degrees with “true” Latin honors – “honoris causa.” One of them reads: “Scientiæ Doctor honoris causa – D.Sc. h.c.”
@mackinaw, all schools that I know of have some type of honors designation, but yes, Latin honors refers to only the ones in Latin.
“Honoris causa” is an honorary degree. . .
It took me a little longer than it should have to finally realize that this thread wasn’t anything to do with being Hispanic. 
@PurpleTitan Does it really make a difference if a diploma reads “cum laude” (with distinction) rather than “with honors”? To me, only in an artistic sense. It means the same thing.
I know that at my college, a degree was a degree, although some students were admitted into PBK, an honor not noted in their diploma and not awarded by the college itself or part of the “record” that would be sent to graduate schools, employers, etc.
Re the “honoris causa” designation on honorary doctoral degrees: the important thing is to be recognized in such a way, not whether it’s in Latin. It’s an oddity, perhaps, that even liberal arts colleges that do not offer doctoral degrees or use Latin on their BA/BS diplomas, may resort to Latin for honorary doctorates.
@Massmomm --that was my D at Wesleyan. Extremely high GPA (made PBK), but she also nixed the idea of a thesis, so no honors from department or otherwise.
Does she regret it, @garland? That’s one concern I have, not that I can do anything about it!