<p>DS is trying to decide what college to attend next fall. He has been accepted at 7 schools so far and is waiting to hear from 2 others. I just found out recently that 2 of the schools he has applied to do not have Phi Beta Kappa chapters. Does this matter? </p>
<p>He will be studying engineering. Since I went to William and Mary (the home of the first chapter) I always considered a chapter on campus to be an important factor. (I guess not important enough to check before sending in applications.) The two schools in question are Northeastern and RPI. He has been accepted to Northeastern with generous merit aid and was impressed with the school on a recent visit. Still waiting to hear from RPI. Does that fact that he plans on majoring in engineering and not liberal arts effect this?</p>
<p>I can’t imagine why anyone would care whether there is a Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus. My roommate got it, I didn’t, even though I graduated with higher honors than she did. (BTW, as far as I was concerned she deserved it and I didn’t. She was a scholar, my major was a conglomeration of design courses, and more academic courses.) I think there is some special honor society for engineers if you really care.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of using the presence of a Phi Beta Kappa chapter as a measure of the school’s worth, that is, like as a kind of accreditation. I assume this is what you meant. I don’t think this has any significance. I think any accredited school can get a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.</p>
<p>No, I don’t think “any accredited school” can get a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. You first have to have some number of faculty who are PBK members, then apply. I don’t know what the evaluation process is, but there must be some I suppose.</p>
<p>Excluding technical schools where PBK might not be meaningful, I do think that the presence (or absence) of a PBK is worth tracking. But I would not make a college choice soley or even largely based only on whether or not the school has a PBK chapter. It’s just one of a number of fuzzy indicators of the academic quality of various colleges.</p>
<p>One reason why I chose my recognizable-at-CC-LAC back in the middle of the last century was because it didn’t have a PBK chapter! I didn’t want to have anyone in my family expecting me to get the grades needed for membership.</p>
<p>Actually, a university has to apply to be granted a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. The overall quality of the institution does factor into the decision-making process. </p>
<p>However, Phi Beta Kappa is an honor society for students in the liberal arts (broadly understood). Some chapters have specific course requirements–e.g., two years of a language at the university level (though this can be met by pre-college study, or by less than two years, entering at a higher level). There may be requirements for the total number of credits in the humanities.</p>
<p>Engineering is considered a “technical” field by Phi Beta Kappa–so physics, chemistry, and math majors have an easier time being admitted. RPI is well-regarded as an engineering school, and I think that the presence or absence of Phi Beta Kappa is irrelevant to selecting it.</p>
<p>However, if a student is selecting from a set of moderately selective liberal arts colleges, the ones with Phi Beta Kappa chapters are probably stronger overall.</p>
<p>Personally, it wasn’t something that my D even considered when selecting which college to apply to. As it turns out, there actually is a chapter on her campus. There are 280 colleges and universities that currently have chapters according to the PBK web site. They range from Ivies to small regional state colleges (i.e. Western Michigan University).</p>
<p>Engineering majors who do a complete liberal arts program can be elected to PBK. The Harvard chapter includes them.</p>
<p>In general, a college or university with a nationally respected liberal arts program ought to have one. There are a tiny number of exceptions, such as Bryn Mawr, which chooses not to support a chapter on philosophical grounds, but would unquestionably have gotten one 100 years ago if it wanted one.</p>
<p>Talk about putting pressure on your kid early! I didn’t even know IU had a PBK chapter until I was a sophomore…and so little emphasis was placed on it that I didn’t even realize I knew 8 inductees of 1 class because none of them ever said anything. I personally wouldn’t make a choice based on PBK, but to each their own</p>
<p>“Talk about putting pressure on your kid early!”</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP meant that the child is expected to earn membership. The presence of the chapter indicates a critical mass of liberal arts devotees on the faculty and in the student body. Its value as a signaler does not depend on joining the chapter in the future.</p>
<p>We did use it as a factor. We were looking at small LACs that offered a lot of merit aid. Knowing that it met the standards for Phi Beta Kappa made a difference.</p>
<p>As a Bryn Mawr College alum, the fact that BMC did NOT have a chapter was always considered a good thing, it added to our “cussed individualism” as we were described in the Insider’s Guide to Colleges.</p>
<p>Over many years, the PBK reference on my resume was almost always mentioned by job interviewers as an impressive achievement. It got a knee-jerk positive reaction, deserved or not. I always felt it was like having a gold star. The presence of a chapter shouldn’t be a make or break when choosing a college, but it should be one factor under consideration.</p>
<p>It did not occur to us to use that as a factor in D1’s college choice. Turns out they did have it… then when she started making very good grades in college, my dad said to tell her “not to throw anything away” if she heard from PBK. Honestly, D1 and I both scoffed that she might be PBK. But actually, she was inspired, and worked her tail off junior & senior year to make it. And she did. And my dad cried at her induction ceremony. But I do think it inspired her to greater heights her last two years of school, and now is paying off on her resume.</p>
<p>D2 just considers this accomplishment by her sister a high bar that she would prefer to dodge (think of a horse running off to the side of a jump). If she knew some colleges don’t have PBK, she would probably have applied to those! Unlikely she will make it anyway, as she is planning to pursue a much tougher major than D1 (and is a rock solid A- student in any environment, no reason to think college will be different!). So we have not used it as a search factor in either college search, but in D1’s case I am glad they had it.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I was wondering about intparent’s parenthetic comment that his D “is a rock solid A- student in any environment, no reason to think college will be different!”</p>
<p>It is axiomatic that half of kids at any college must end up in, um, the bottom half of their class. That’s true even at selective colleges … which, presumably, the kids had to have very high GPAs to get into. So either there’s huge grade inflation, or else some of them will have lower GPAs at college than they did in their previous environments. No??</p>