Magna Cum Laude vs. Summa Cum Laude: An Overview
You might be acquainted with the phrases summa cum laude, magna cum laude, or cum laude. Collectively referred to as Latin honors, these three phrases signify various ranges of excessive educational achievement. Latin honors are conferred at many faculties and universities in america and different components of the world. Some U.S. excessive faculties additionally provide them.
Right here’s how they usually work in American academia: Summa cum laude is the prize granted on the pinnacle (suppose “summit”), awarded to a small fraction of school graduates annually. Magna cum laude comes subsequent in status, adopted by cum laude.
Key Takeaways
Magna Cum Laude
For school graduates who haven’t managed to squeeze in a Latin course or don’t have a Latin-English dictionary helpful, the time period is usually loosely translated as “with nice distinction.” It stands above cum laude, which suggests “with distinction.” It is perhaps handed out to a scholar who has earned excessive grades or another mark of educational achievement, however not the best potential.
Summa Cum Laude
Like summiting a mountain, the coed who has achieved summa cum laude has achieved “the best distinction.” This scholar has earned grades throughout the highest share of their faculty or division or has achieved another metric that the college considers worthy of the best recognition.
The Latin phrase “laude” can be translated as “honor” or “reward,” as within the English phrase “laudatory.”
How Faculties Determine Which Distinction to Award
There isn’t any nationwide commonplace for what it takes to qualify for these honors. Faculties and universities are free to set their very own standards.
On the College of Pennsylvania, for instance, college students want a grade level common (GPA) of three.8 or larger to graduate summa cum laude, 3.6 for magna cum laude, and three.4 for cum laude. Ohio State College’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences units the bars at 3.9, 3.7, and three.5, respectively.
Even the person faculties or faculties inside a selected college typically have completely different necessities. For instance, on the College of Michigan’s Faculty of Engineering, graduates should have a GPA of not less than 3.75 to qualify for summa cum laude, whereas Michigan’s Legislation Faculty graduate wants a 4.0 to qualify for a similar honor.
Fairly than utilizing GPA, some faculties award Latin honors primarily based on a scholar’s class rank. For instance, New York College confers summa cum laude honors on the highest 5% of its undergraduate class, magna cum laude on the following 10%, and cum laude on the following 15%, that means that 30% of its graduates obtain one of many three honors. At Northwestern College’s Weinberg Faculty of Arts & Sciences, summa cum laude goes to graduates within the prime 5%, magna cum laude to the following 8%, and cum laude to the following 12%, for a complete of 25%.
Along with the numerical necessities, some faculties produce other standards, reminiscent of college suggestions or a requirement that college students full a sure variety of superior programs and/or write an honors thesis.
At many colleges, educational or disciplinary infractions will disqualify college students from receiving Latin honors, irrespective of how good their grades are.
On account of all of those components, faculties and universities can fluctuate extensively in what number of such honors they bestow on their graduates annually and the way troublesome or straightforward it’s to acquire them. Some faculties, reminiscent of Stanford College, don’t provide Latin honors in any respect. Most do, nonetheless, have another system, in order that stellar college students don’t go unrecognized. Stanford, for instance, awards a Bachelor’s Diploma with Distinction to the highest 15% of its graduating class primarily based on their GPAs.
Most faculties that supply Latin (or different) honors submit details about their standards on their web sites, steadily in a bit dedicated to commencement or graduation insurance policies.
Particular Concerns
Whereas Latin honors can look good on a diploma, school transcript, or résumé, do they make any distinction in actual life? Two researchers on the College of Illinois at Chicago, Pauline Khoo and Ben Ost, tried to reply that query in a 2018 paper titled “The Results of Graduating With Honors on Earnings.”
“We discover that getting honors offers an financial return within the labor market, however this profit solely persists for 2 years,” they wrote. “By the third yr after school, we see no impact of getting obtained honors on wages, suggesting that companies could use the sign for brand new graduates, however they don’t depend on the sign for figuring out the pay of extra skilled staff.” Additionally they discovered that the financial profit utilized solely to college students who had graduated from selective faculties.
Critics of Latin honors are much less involved with their potential post-graduation advantages than the unintended impact they could have on college students whereas they’re nonetheless at school. A 2011 editorial in Harvard College’s scholar newspaper, the Crimson, known as for his or her abolition on the faculty.
“By rewarding college students who obtain a minimal GPA throughout lessons, the Latin honors system does extra to discourage educational achievement than to encourage it. It encourages college students to view lessons exterior of their focus as a method to an finish, the top being the best potential grade, quite than a possibility for mental exploration.”
Harvard, nonetheless, seems to have been unmoved by that argument and continues to award Latin honors as of this writing.
What Is the Highest Cum Laude?
The best educational distinction is summa cum laude, adopted by magna cum laude and cum laude.
When Did Latin Honors Originate?
Within the U.S. the Latin honors system may be traced again to 1869 at Harvard College. Just a few different nations, reminiscent of Indonesia, Israel, and Canada additionally use this educational award system.
The U.Okay., alternatively, makes use of a system in English as a substitute, with only a handful of lecturers institutions utilizing the Latin terminology.
How Frequent Are Latin Honors?
In some faculties, nearly half of scholars are awarded both summa cum laude, magna cum laude, or cum laude. In others, there are extra college students which might be awarded latin honors than those that usually are not.
Actually, over the past twenty years roughly 42%–48% of scholars at Princeton have been awarded one in every of these distinctions. At Harvard, they made the choice to cap these numbers after 91% of scholars graduated with honors in 2002.
What GDP Do You Want for Magna Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude?
The GDP requirements will rely on the granting establishment. Some use an absolute GDP threshold (like above 3.5 or 3.7), whereas others take a phase of the very best college students (e.g., the highest 5% of all college students, ranked by GDP). Different standards, along with uncooked GPA, could also be thought of as effectively.
For example, to be awarded summa cum laude on the College of Pennsylvania, college students should have a 3.8 GPA or larger. In contrast, Michigan’s Legislation Faculty requires a GPA of 4.0. Harvard takes the highest 4-5% of its scholar physique as summa cum laude.