My daughter was just elected and I’m elated. It remains a very big deal. Don’t take my word for it: Look at the obit CBS News just posted for Bob Simon, the superb “60 minutes” reporter who was tragically killed this week.
Even after that dream of a career, CBS still deemed Phi Beta Kappa a milestone important enough to include in his obit.
It’s a generational thing . . . this generation of college students 1) don’t know Phi Beta Kappa and 2) get innundated with invitations to join honor societies (real and scams) from the time they are freshmen so by the time they hear from PBK, they’re immune.
My niece was invited to PBK as a Junior. She off-handedly mentioned it to my mom, who went nuts. My niece was puzzled and not really interested. Granny convinced her it was important, and was honored to pay the initiation fee.
Niece was convinced when she went on grad school recruiting trips and professors talked to her about PBK. Guess it was important!
I am not big on honor societies myself but I think PBK is well recognized enough that it’s a big deal. I was inducted as a junior in college back in the day but other than my senior year in college when we actually met and had some activities/speakers, PBK has never been/meant anything to me personally other than a line on my resume. I suppose I must have paid a membership fee at one time and maybe even had a key but if I ever did it is long ago lost - no earthly idea where it might be. But I do think that line on the resume is worth having!
Big deal. Congrats. But @MaineLonghorn, is Tau Beta Pi really a big deal also? I’m afraid my boys threw that one away. 
It IS a big deal – and the kids do realize it. I mean, my daughter was very happy to pay the one-time membership fee, delighted with my gift of a PDK pendant as well as my paying for framing the PBK certificate along with her diploma. Doesn’t make much of a difference in terms of day-to-day life, but I agree that it’s a line on a resume that looks a lot classier than listing one’s GPA or class rank.
^^that’s the best part: with pbk on a resume, GPA and class rank becomes superfluous.
Is there any relation between Phi Beta Kappa and the Phi Theta Kappa honors society for community college students?
Has never been important in my life or career. Don’t know what I did with the key.
“Phi Beta Kappa” - big deal or not mostly depend on the career. In case of some it did not matter, others may be big deal. My D. and several of her friends got it almost by default as if one’s goal is a Med. School, then you better have a very high GPA anyway and they also have to be involved in various ECs that make them very well rounded. Just the “nature of the beast”. But it was almost funny to hear that some parents of non-pre-meds complained after learning that cut off in the department was 3.96, specifically because of large number of pre-meds. Wrong department to be if the goal is getting Phi Beta Kappa, straight As may not be enough!
“It’s a generational thing . . . this generation of college students 1) don’t know Phi Beta Kappa and 2) get innundated with invitations to join honor societies (real and scams) from the time they are freshmen so by the time they hear from PBK, they’re immune.”
My PBK membership and $4 will get me a latte at Starbucks. There’s a key in my jewelry box somewhere.
PBK may be full of smart people, but they don’t market or promote themselves in any way. I would not be surprised if my kids have only barely heard of it. All that brainpower and it doesn’t actually go towards anything - kind of like Mensa.
Depending, it CAN make an impact on Grad School apps. D1 said it was mentioned at some point by every school with whom she interviewed. So perhaps it had an impact. Don’t know for sure.
It’s a plus for anyone going into academia, and government (?). I’ve even seen pbk listed on attorney bios posted on firm websites.
OTOH, in many other industries, no one cares once you get a job.
The earlier planetary misalignment that had me agreeing with Pizzagirl has apparently ended now. (Whew!)
Ann Landers used to claim that the “classy” thing to do is to have a Phi Beta Kappa key and never wear it. So PG is right on track in that regard. But in others:
Probably in PG’s line of work, there’s no point in having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Within my department, there is essentially zero point. However, within the University as a whole, there is a point (not that I go to the meetings), because the organization promotes the value of scholarship in the liberal arts. This support for a broad education is very valuable where I am. At a lot of universities, there is a heavy focus on the most obviously marketable majors, and students are encouraged to go into them. There are many on CC who believe that majors such as history and literature are worthless. But there are many on CC who think those majors are actually valuable as background for a later career–and they are, if the student can get a foot in the door.
I disagree that Phi Beta Kappa is like Mensa. For one thing, being elected to Phi Beta Kappa is not the result of a short test; it is the result of two-and-a-half to four years of effort at a university that is well-recognized enough to have a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Most universities also require a broad educational background in the humanities, for election. Science majors can meet this requirement, but they need to select the right electives to fulfill it. A lot of universities require at least two years of a foreign language at the college level. So it’s not based purely on a high GPA in coursework (of unknown difficulty).
When we toured Williamsburg, one of the guides mentioned that Phi Beta Kappa was founded at William and Mary in 1776. (I think that’s right; it’s been a long time since I was in Williamsburg.) For me, there is an intangible benefit of having a connection to a scholarly community that has existed for 200+ years. Does it make up for the fact that our top-salaried prof in the College of Business makes 3 times what I do? Not really. But it does help to reaffirm the value of scholarly work, outside of the present time frame.
One of my university colleagues outside my department has commented on the major significance that was attached to being elected to Phi Beta Kappa, many years ago when he was at Princeton. I am not sure whether Princeton still does that, but I would guess that they do.
I’d add that at my daughter’s college, in addition to GPA and coursework, PBK required a faculty nomination from a professor who was also a PBK member. It wasn’t something that students applied for - like going to the faculty and asking for a rec. Rather, the faculty takes the initiative to nominate qualifying students from their departments. Probably not a big hurdle – but it does mean that the student at least has to have earned the respect of the profs in their department.
I don’t think any of use are claiming it’s a huge deal – just that it is a genuine honor and is respected as such.
My dad cried when D1 was inducted into PBK – pretty sure he thought no one in our family would ever make it! She can keep that on her resume for the rest of her life, and I am very proud of her. I didn’t know any PBKs when I went to Michigan… They must have been in a different social crowd!
"I disagree that Phi Beta Kappa is like Mensa. For one thing, being elected to Phi Beta Kappa is not the result of a short test; it is the result of two-and-a-half to four years of effort at a university that is well-recognized enough to have a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. "
My comparison of PBK to Mensa wasn’t about the admittance criteria. My comparison was that here are two organizations who attract / “induct” a lot of smart people, but really don’t use that brainpower towards anything and are largely invisible in society at large.
I don’t doubt that PBK membership is meaningful in your academic world, QM; it’s on my resume, but in the business world it just doesn’t seem to matter all that much after this period of time, that’s all. I’m sure it didn’t hurt when I sought out my first job, though.
H and I still have a running joke because he was Mortar Board and I was PBK and so if one of us says something particularly dumb, we say “that’s why you weren’t ___ like I was.” 
The planets are still in alignment, QM!
There must be something not quite right in my family as compared to your family.
When DS got admitted into an arguably quite prestigious college, my dad tried to persuade us not to let him attend that college (also kind of hinted that a college he almost attended (but did not) almost two generations ago was more prestgious than his grandson’s so by implication, what his grandson had achieved was not a big deal. Everything was harder in his days in his opinion. (And we were not allowed to disagree with him a bit.)
When DS was inducted into PBK, we were happy but we thought it would be better not let him know about it, to spare our potential ill-feelings by yet another comment along this line. Ditto for his admittance to a grad school. No one in our extended family would care about his academic achievement at any education level.
I am in PBK. The only reason I joined was because the Dean of my college sent me like 5 emails telling me to accept the membership. So I did. I think it might be on my CV but I’m not positive.
It has never come up among my grad student friends or faculty. No one in my family knows what it is. I don’t think I know anyone else in it. Didn’t go to the ceremony, don’t have a key. Did get a sticker of some sort.
DS attended the ceremony. I heard his suitemate noticed he dressed up that morning and was curious to know why.
He received some kind of certificate. It appears he signed on something during that ceremony.
He did not get the key, and did not receive the sticker. He might pay the membership fee for the first year (not sure here) and did not want to “buy” any other things (like keys, etc.)
I think his college inducts PBKs purely based on some (numeric) academic merit (absolute number of straight A’s.) Otherwise, he might not get it. I heard at some other college, the subjective evaluation (and nomination as well?) from a faculty member is weighed much more heavily than the other academic merits.
romani, if you wish to get another key, you can write to them in DC. They have records of every student inducted, I think. Their HQ is down the street where my D used to live in DC and my H stopped by, having lost all connection with PBK for years, sure enough his name was located and we get a bulletin now and then.