<p>I’ve wondered about this myself.</p>
<p>The way it works in the U.S. is that most degree granting institutions will award the degree “with honors” or “cum laude” if the student meets certain criteria. Sometimes it is competitive (i.e., the top X% of graduates get “with honors”). Sometimes it’s a rule like “Anyone who graduates with a GPA at least X gets “with honors””.</p>
<p>I think that the schools you are looking at in the U.S. probably DO have something like this in place, and that they award SOME, but not all, of their degrees “with honors”.</p>
<p>I have been looking at UK Grad programs, and so far I have had no issues applying with my American degree to a program that requires an “honours degree.” But my American BA was awarded “with honors”.</p>
<p>(You do know that we spell the word “honors” differently, right?)</p>