Graduating with Honors

[wegotthis14]

This may be a stupid question, but I want to know since I'm borderline. Is graduating with honors based on the GPA you have at the time of the graduation ceremony (listed in the commencement booklet), or are Spring Quarter grades factored in?

Also, how much does graduating with honors actually matter?

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[ciestar]

I'm not sure if it's like this at all schools, but mine factored in your final semester grades

 

[Keladry]

It probably depends on your school, but I'd imagine most take into account your last semester/quarter (there are often earlier due dates for graduates' grades for that reason).

 

[AlteredScale]

This may be a stupid question, but I want to know since I'm borderline. Is graduating with honors based on the GPA you have at the time of the graduation ceremony (listed in the commencement booklet), or are Spring Quarter grades factored in?

Also, how much does graduating with honors actually matter?

In the context of medical school applications? Not much I've heard.

 

[darkjedi]

At my undergrad, your senior year fall semester grades can qualify you for honors. If you didn't, but your spring semester bumps you over the cutoff, you qualify too. It doesn't matter if your final GPA falls below the cutoff though.

As for how important honors is, the GPA itself is far more important, and since that is normally what honors are based on, it's usually just a reiteration of your good performance during undergrad.

I went to a very grade deflationary school however, so I'd like to think that my latin honors took some of the heat off my "lower" GPA.

 

[asw98]

At my school, honors are only awarded if you write an honor's thesis and your honors is solely based on the quality of your thesis. I think it's a bit silly to graduate with honors without doing a thesis.

 

[ciestar]

My undergrad refers to it as graduating with distinction. Those who write a thesis (honors college) are recognized in their own way.

 

[baxt1412]

ours were included. that's why submitting finals grades for seniors was priority list #1 for professors.

 

[Skull Pell]

My undergrad you can graduate with university honors (if you're in the program) or departmentmal honors (i.e. bio dept) you just have to have an honors thesis + defense before graduation. So you can be honors^2. Sortof odd..

 

[274631]

In my school you get honors if you write and defend a thesis and meet a GPA cutoff, which includes your spring/final semester grades.

 

[Person0715]

Some people are mixing up types of honors and its unclear which type OP is refering to. There are latin honors (ie summa cum laude, magna cum laude) which are dependent solely on the GPA you end up with at graduation. These have nothing to do with majors or honor's theses. There are also departmental honors (ie high honors, honors). Usually there is a minimum GPA requirement as well as a honors thesis requirement. I would presume that latin honors don't have much weight since GPA can speak for itself. Departmental honors might help a bit if it was a substantial research project or something of that nature.

 

[baxt1412]

i was talking about latin honors.

 

[asw98]

For my college, latin honors are the only honors given and they depend on one's thesis. There are general GPA ranges for each level, but a 3.3 can graduate with summa cum laude for a great thesis and a 4.0 can graduate with cum laude or nothing, if they don't write a thesis.

 

[baxt1412]

^strange

 

[asw98]

Yeah, it's a bit annoying.

 

[Keladry]

For my college, latin honors are the only honors given and they depend on one's thesis. There are general GPA ranges for each level, but a 3.3 can graduate with summa cum laude for a great thesis and a 4.0 can graduate with cum laude or nothing, if they don't write a thesis.

My college is a little different, but Latin honors depend on both GPA and thesis. A thesis is required; a grade of high honors plus a certain GPA gives you summa, honors + a lower minimum GPA is magna, and pass + lower GPA is cum laude.

In a nutshell, it varies a lot by school. 😛

 

[ciestar]

My undergrad doesn't even use the Latin distinctions.

 

[Gauss44]

This might depend on how your school defines, "with honors." If it shows that you were in the top (10, 15, etc.) percent of your class, that might make your GPA seem more/less impressive.

 

[hunterjumper14]

Some people are mixing up types of honors and its unclear which type OP is refering to. There are latin honors (ie summa cum laude, magna cum laude) which are dependent solely on the GPA you end up with at graduation. These have nothing to do with majors or honor's theses. There are also departmental honors (ie high honors, honors). Usually there is a minimum GPA requirement as well as a honors thesis requirement. I would presume that latin honors don't have much weight since GPA can speak for itself. Departmental honors might help a bit if it was a substantial research project or something of that nature.

This is completely institution specific. At my university, latin honors are only awarded after defending an honors thesis. And students were only eligible to write a thesis and contend for honors if they had a high enough GPA (>3.6= allowed to try for honors, only eligible for cum laude no matter how great the thesis was, >3.7= eligible for cum laude or magna cum laude depending on the thesis defense, >3.8= eligible for cum laude, magna, and summa). They told us up front to expect that grad schools wouldn't understand the rigor of the process because a lot of schools simply award honors for the GPA alone.🙁

Honestly, for me the importance of honors was more about the process of writing the thesis, working with a faculty member for over a year, and defending it in front of the faculty. I picked it as one of my "most important experiences." Other than reporting graduating with honors as an award/honor on AMCAS (seems weird to me-especially if it's just based on grades…), schools won't "know" that you got honors because they won't see a copy of your actual transcripts unless they accept you and you choose to attend. So I don't think it really makes a huge difference, but an honors thesis can certainly be a worthwhile activity to mention.

 

[College18]

My undergrad you can graduate with university honors (if you're in the program) or departmentmal honors (i.e. bio dept) you just have to have an honors thesis + defense before graduation. So you can be honors^2. Sortof odd..

My school separates the Latin distinctions, cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude, based on GPA. However, they don't depend on the departmental honors. For departmental honors, it requires you to submit a research project that has to be accepted. So similar to @Skull Pell's school, you can get two honors separately. However, as stated a few times before, I don't think the Latin distinctions, at my school at least, tread any water considering it's just a reiteration of the GPA. I wonder if Adcoms view this differently based on different school. @LizzyM, wanna shed some light here?

 

[LizzyM]

The only time this would be the least bit relevant would be at a school that has grade deflation. If someone can graduate with a 3.2 and still qualify for Cum Laude for being in the top 15 % of the class (just making this up) it would be a signal that we are not dealing with a school that hands out A's like candy.

 

[274631]

Some people are mixing up types of honors and its unclear which type OP is refering to. There are latin honors (ie summa cum laude, magna cum laude) which are dependent solely on the GPA you end up with at graduation. These have nothing to do with majors or honor's theses. There are also departmental honors (ie high honors, honors). Usually there is a minimum GPA requirement as well as a honors thesis requirement. I would presume that latin honors don't have much weight since GPA can speak for itself. Departmental honors might help a bit if it was a substantial research project or something of that nature.

As others have stated it varies from school to school. Lation Honors/Departmental Honors were the same thing in my school. The level of honors depends on the quality of your thesis, not GPA, once you made the GPA cutoff. So technically you could have a 3.55 and an amazing thesis and have summa/highest honors.