<p>What exactly is Phi Beta Kappa? How important is it that one graduates with this status, what are it's benefits, and how does one achieve it? </p>
<p>Ever heard of this internet thing?
<a href=“Phi Beta Kappa - Wikipedia”>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Beta_Kappa_Society</a></p>
<p>It is similar to National Honor Society, but for college level. It is generally a more selective (smaller % of the class) that is invited than the NHS in most high schools. It is a cool honor to get, would be a nifty honor to put on your grad school applications, but otherwise will make pretty much zero impact on your life after college. You can put it on your resume/CV. People that wear their PBK pin or make a big deal out of it in adult life generally are thought of the same way that you might think of a person in college bragging about being in the NHS in high school, or being the prom queen/quarterback in high school, etc. </p>
<p>
Not true. PBK membership is a very nice resume item for the rest of one’s life. Mine was actually brought up with an admiring nod in a job interview that took place more than 20 years after I graduated. It’s a honor that everyone has heard of, and to many it operates as short-hand assurance that one is a smart cookie. That said, I never even bought, much less wore, the paraphernalia or even mentioned my membership in any context other than a job search and never saw anyone else do so either.</p>
<p>@VSGPeanut101 and @MommaJ thank you for your responses!! Very helpful </p>
<p>why yes @soze , I have heard of the notoriously unreliable site “Wikipedia”. Thank you for your inquiry. </p>
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<p>Notoriously unreliable? You’re drinking the high school students’ Kool Aid. (You seem like you’ll want some sources, so here you go: <a href=“http://rss.sagepub.com/content/21/3/283.short”>http://rss.sagepub.com/content/21/3/283.short</a> (Dartmouth study), <a href=“http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1772943”>http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1772943</a> (Cal Poly study)) Both studies use the premise that Wikipedia, as an online encyclopedia, is reliable and valid.</p>
<p>No need to be rude to @soze; it’s easy to google “Phi Beta Kappa” with some keywords to narrow down the search. Google and Wikipedia are your friends. Learn to use online resources.</p>
<p>(Seriously, even if you doubt a Wikipedia article, the citations section of an article is a goldmine w/ plenty of resources for more reading.)</p>
<p>Answering your original question,
TITCR. </p>
<p>A lot of people put it on their resumes because it shows a respectable accomplishment. If you see someone graduated PBK, they’re probably a smart cookie.</p>
<p>(If they’re successful/noteworthy enough to have a wikipedia page, it’s usually included under ‘Education’ if they graduated w/ Phi Beta Kappa)</p>
<p>Please excuse me if I interpreted it wrong, but I do believe that the original post I responded to included sarcasm itself, or so it very much appeared that way. I’m also afraid I don’t understand your meaning behind the “kool aid” line…but then again I am just a high school kid and so I don’t believe that I should be expected to think anything other of Wikipedia than what they’ve relentlessly preached and drilled into us for the past 8 years. In any event, I do use the internet, and know I can find out fairly easily whatever I wish to learn more about just by googling it. By posting on CC I was hopefully going to get some personal experiences with the topic as well, as some above posters did include. Although, I have never considered utilizing the citations at the bottom of a Wikipedia page, and it seems as though it could really be useful. Thank you for your input, advice, and information. @Vctory </p>
<p><a href=“Drinking the Kool-Aid - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid</a></p>
<p>Interesting @Vctory </p>
<p>C’mon, “just a high school kid”? Earlier posts indicate you’re going into your senior year - it’s not amiss to assume at that point to have developed critical thinking skills, and despite having been drilled and preached to that Wiki is unreliable for formal papers, it’s common knowledge that it suffices as a reliable source of information, otherwise. </p>
<p>But yeah, in the future, if you’re specifically seeking personal accounts and experience, specify that when you ask, as you’ll get more of those responses. Also, parent forums sometimes are good for this.</p>
<p>DS got it. I think his college just counts the number of straight As the students have received in order to decide who get it.</p>
<p>At some other schools, some “soft” criteria (e.g., whether a professor thinks you are good even when your grades for many other classes may not be great and is willing to bat for you) is also used to select who will be inducted into this honor society. I guess that, by including other criteria, the education institute itself agrees with most people outside of the academia that the grades that an education institute hands out really do not carry that much weight and do not measure everything like leadership quality, EQ, or even “popularity” which the “good” students should possess.</p>
<p>thank you @mcat2 !</p>
<p>I think it was completely based on GPA at my LAC. I’m sure I used it on my resume and am still proud of it today, even though there is little reason to bring it up. I don’t know where my pin is, but am I misremembering or was there a special Phi Beta Kappa handshake?</p>
<p>@irlandaise I realize that you are right in that I should be putting my critical thinking skills to use. I appreciate the advice about increased specificity in my posts, I will stick to it in the future. </p>
<p>Not that it is an excuse, but when I posted this I was bored out of my mind on vacation. I can’t stand the beach. It (topic) crossed my mind and so I figured I’d throw it out on CC to see what came back…I had no idea it’d become a bit of an issue! It truly was just a random question…had I wanted to do a good hours’ research on PBK I could’ve run back to the house, grabbed a laptop, and tried to find someplace with working wifi! Most people on here seem really nice and I enjoy chatting with them, and I admit to stalking the forums when I have nothing better to do. Yet, I’m slightly regretting posting since we cannot delete threads!! </p>
<p>@julesegr thank you for the info!!</p>
<p>Didn’t mean to give you a hard time btw; sorry if I came off a bit harsh earlier! </p>
<p>Don’t be sorry, I wasn’t exactly right either! Tensions have been running high the past couple days, I can’t blame people for responding in a similar manner to that of the energy I put out there… @Vctory</p>