<p>From what I've seen/heard, you need at least 15 credits per semester to be eligible for Phi Beta Kappa. Can anyone confirm whether or not P/F courses count into that total? I'm kind of thinking about 14 graded credits with a PE course.</p>
<p>Phi Beta Kappa is for the poors, no employer cares. Plus you're a first year, wait until school bites you in the ass and you realize that its a lot harder to get a 3.8 (Phi Beta Kappa) than you think.</p>
<p>Thank you, MVA. Ditto.</p>
<p>Umm, thanks. Very helpful.</p>
<p>MVA 8905 Who are "the poors?"</p>
<p>yeah, many of the UVA people who post on here tend not to answer the questions that are asked.....</p>
<p>jask...I can't handle more than 14 graded credits my first semester with Calc II Honors being one of the courses. So if my PE doesn't count as an official credit, so be it. Gotta stay sane.</p>
<p>Poor saps, incoming first years deluded into thinking you can just coast by and miraculously get a 3.8 like they did in high school. Also, people who think that if your transcript mentions that you have a 3.8 GPA, it is important to join a club in which the only requisite is a 3.8ish (top 15%) GPA. I worked tirelessly for my 3.75. I personally think Phi Beta Kappa is stupid, it is a bit redundant.</p>
<p>Also, a more reasonable goal would be intermediate honors (top 20% of your class after 60 credits have been taken).</p>
<p>Hey buddy. Grow the **** up. I didn't say anything about coasting in college or that I would even make Phi Beta Kappa. I asked a simple question about what it took to be ELIGIBLE for PBK. I was looking for an answer, not a cynical, above-it-all reply.</p>
<p>seriously MVA, w.t.f? You're not helping anyone. Not to mention that PBK is a VERY prestigious honor that anyone would be lucky to have. Its more than about GPA. Too bad you got your feelings hurt when you missed the GPA cut-off.</p>
<p>No one on here has said anything about how easy it will be to get a 3.8 or how they are certain they will get it. They just want to be eligible and I see no problem there. Not everyone coasted by in high school either. Some of us went to challenging high schools. I, for one, have a .4 higher GPA now than in high school taking difficult classes (ended hs with a 3.5, 3.9 right now). Also, I know a couple of kids who thought college was easier than high school (a small minority, but they exist), or are doing about the same amount of work. The IB diploma was a B!TCH, I was shocked at how much more free time I had in college than in high school. The work itself was much harder, sure, but there was much less of it, and I certainly didn't take many standard first year classes.</p>
<p>To those that are interested, email Richard Handler - rh3y at virginia.edu and ask him. I'm not sure how it all works, but he should know. He runs PBK or something, as well as the Echols scholars program.</p>
<p>Thanks, MVA8905, for giving us poor saps a wake up call. All along I had been thinking that college was kind of like High School musical but with older kids.</p>
<p>Well its not far from it buddy boy. I have a 3.75 after 2 semesters, which puts me at least in the top 20% of my class, so I could feasibly still have PBK if I considered it at all relevant to my furthering my education. I turned down NHS in high school because I thought it was stupid too though too.</p>
<p>Thanks for the contact ehiunno! I was also waiting for someone to say that college would be easier than the IB Diploma, not something I was wanting to go through again.</p>
<p>MVA, for some of us, PBK is a goal that we will work to achieve. No one here is assuming that a 3.8 comes magically, but if someone truly wants a 3.8 for PBK, they will do what it takes to get it. A difference of 0.05 on your GPA wasn't much, you were almost there. Just because you didn't quite make it, there is no reason for you to put down the whole organization with your snide remarks. I think most of us would agree that PBK is an honor, and while it may not further your education, it may very well help further you in the real world.</p>
<p>Um, you don't get PBK until 3rd/4th yr and it's by top percentage of class not "3.8 and you're in" and since MVA has only done 2 semesters then it's not like he's someone who's bitter because he missed it... Just saying...</p>
<p>If your GPA is good, you'll be getting mail from all sorts of random honor societies around grounds. 10 years from now, if you had a 3.75 vs having a 3.8 and making PBK, it really won't matter at all, which is proly what MVA is getting at. The friends you make through whatever you get involved in - those might actually have a chance at mattering in 10 years. In the end, like MVA says, if your transcript/resume has your 3.8 on it, then PBK is kind of redundant. Most ridiculous thing I saw on a resume was a girl who was PBK who somehow had gotten a hold of her UVA class rank (something like 115/3000)... Oh wait here it is, man I love Google: <a href="http://web.ics.purdue.edu/%7Ejmehr/CV.doc%5B/url%5D">http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~jmehr/CV.doc</a></p>
<p>PS. Re: intermediate honors: All</a> About Your Academic Record has the minimum required GPA for intermediate honors for the past few years</p>
<p>
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I could feasibly still have PBK if I considered it at all relevant to my furthering my education.
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<p>Wow. Just wow. MVA, you are totally ignorant. You might as well tell me that Congressional Awards, Medals of Honor, and Olympic Medals are pointless as well. Some things have INTRINSIC value. Stop being such a materialistic fool.</p>
<p>i'm suprised no one brought this page up:</p>
<p>Phi</a> Beta Kappa — Undergraduate, College of Arts & Sciences, U.Va.</p>
<p>I think that link was in another post...problem is that the link doesn't address jask's specific question. I guess some follow up research is necessary.</p>
<p>I emailed President Handler and he said that C/NC courses such as PE do count towards the 15 credit mark. He encouraged me to take more credits/more difficult courses in the future but understood why I wouldn't want to overextend myself in my 1st semester.</p>
<p>Definitely try to hit 15+ credits per semester but remember to take a wide variety of courses. If you like humanities and social sciences, getting PBK will invariably be easier than if you like math/sci.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that while PBK is a neat goal to shoot for, it's not tremendously meaningful in the long run.</p>