Eligibility

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Eligible Majors

All majors in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) meet the liberal arts curriculum course requirements necessary for consideration for membership. If you are not completing requirements for a major in the Franklin College or SPIA, you must be nominated by the Dean’s office in your school for consideration for membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Only students whose course of study meets the rigorous liberal arts curriculum requirements for PBK (see Q&A) may be nominated by the Dean of a school or college for consideration. This nomination process must be initiated by the Dean’s office, not by an individual student. Nominations consist of a brief request for review from the Dean, along with a copy of a student’s transcript, sent directly to Sherri Bennett  by the Dean’s office using UGA SendFiles. Nominations are accepted during the month of March for Spring consideration and November for Fall consideration. 

You must receive an invitation in order to gain membership. Invitations are sent November and March each year with instructions regarding the registration process. The membership fee of $95 is a lifetime payment covering national dues, local dues, certificate, handbook, and connection to the PBK alumni network.

 

UGA Requirements

Undergraduate Students:

  • Must be invited to join
  • Minimum GPA for Juniors is a 4.0, with all hours done in residence at UGA
  • Minimum GPA for Seniors is a 3.75 on at least 120 hours (Cumulative and UGA) including current registered hours with at least 72 hours in residence
  • If your school is not the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences or the School of Public and International Affairs, your Dean or the Dean’s representative must recommend you before the officers will examine your record. Your transcript must include a broad curriculum in liberal arts. Students do not qualify based solely on high achievement.

Graduate Students:

  • If you are a graduate or professional student, you are only eligible to be considered for Phi Beta Kappa if your undergraduate alma mater did not have a chapter at the time you graduated.
  • You must have completed all work for a graduate degree in one of the liberal studies.
  • Your undergraduate record must ordinarily meet the requirements for election as an undergraduate member in course at UGA.
  • If you wish to be considered as a graduate or professional student, you must be recommended by the department chair or graduate coordinator and by your major professor as having completed your degree requirements, including the thesis or dissertation, with unusual distinction, and evidence of that distinction must be presented.

 

Phi Beta Kappa Scholarships

We recognize that the membership fee may cause an undue burden to some students who may face significant, documented financial hardship; in this case, please feel free to contact Ms. Sherri Bennett at phibetakappa@uga.edu for consideration of a partial fee waiver. 

 

Tate Scholars

One junior may be elected each year as the Dean William Tate Phi Beta Kappa Scholar. Juniors in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Public and International Affairs who meet the criteria for the Tate Scholar award will be issued invitations to apply for the award. Those invited will have the highest grade point averages among all juniors deemed eligible for membership. Only select juniors will be invited to apply.



National Stipulations

Stipulation 1:

Eligible students shall be candidates for a bachelor’s degree. The student's record shall include coursework in the liberal arts and sciences equivalent to at least three-quarters of the credits ordinarily required for a bachelor's degree in these fields (e.g., not less than 90 semester hours of work if 120 hours are normally required for such a degree). The liberal arts and sciences encompass the traditional disciplines of the natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences, and humanities. Select courses in other programs of study may be included only if they unambiguously embody the liberal arts and sciences.

Because Phi Beta Kappa honors excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, applied or pre-professional coursework shall not be considered in determining eligibility. This stipulation excludes professionally focused courses and courses devoted to the acquisition of practical skills.

Stipulation 2:

Weight shall be given to the breadth and depth of study in liberal arts and sciences, taking into account the number, variety, and level of courses taken outside the requirements of the major, and the proportion of the candidate's overall program those courses constitute. Consideration shall also be given to the number of elective courses taken above the introductory, or general education, level.

Stipulation 3:

Candidates shall have demonstrated, by successful work in high school or college, or in the two together, a knowledge of a second or non-native language at least minimally appropriate for a liberal education. In no case shall this mean less than the completion of the intermediate college level in a second, or non-native, language, or its equivalent.

Stipulation 4:

The candidate's undergraduate record shall include at least one course in college-level mathematics, logic, or statistics, with content appropriate to a liberal arts and sciences curriculum. The course should introduce the student to mathematical ideas, abstract thinking, proofs, and the axiomatic method.

Stipulation 5:

In keeping with the Founders’ interest in fostering not only academic excellence but also friendship and morality, invitation to Phi Beta Kappa should be extended only to persons of good moral character.