How hard is it to be a part of an honor society?

This year only 20 students made it into the Phi Beta Kappa Society on campus. Which is the oldest and some would argue the most prestigious Honor Society in the United States. In the California CSU system there are only 3 chapters of its kind and CSULB is part of that group.  

An extensive selection process must be done in order for a school to be granted a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. The officers of the chapter must do a walkthrough of the school campus, the school must show enough resources to be able to support it, and there has to be enough staff on campus that are Phi Beta Kappa members as well. Once a chapter is established the recruiting begins.

There are several requirements that a student must fulfill in order to be considered a runner up for membership. A student must have completed at least 60 units while attending CSULB and of those 60 units a student must have acquired an overall GPA of at least 3.7. A student must also have taken a broad range of classes to show that they have an overall knowledge of various subjects. After completing all of these requirements you are sent an invitation letter that invites you to apply for the society but it does not guarantee acceptance.

Phi Beta Kappa admits around 20-30 students from CSULB each year. The group that is responsible for looking over applications and deciding who will be accepted are the chapters President, Vice-President and other officers in charge of the Chapter at school.  

To many it is a huge honor to be awarded the letter of acceptance into the society. It helps many with things like applying for a new job. When Phi Beta Kappa is put on a resume many employers recognize the name and understand that hard work that goes into being part of the society.

Although many students can agree it isn’t easy to fulfill all of the societies’ requirements it isn’t impossible.

Dr. Kelemen President of the Phi Beta Kappa chapter at CSULB explains, “it’s matter of how they do academically, every year I see several students who have families, students who are non-traditional students, just last year we admitted a mother of two who had come back to college, and who also had her two sons attending college at the time.”

The best thing a student that wants to be part of the society can do, besides just getting good grades, is to look very carefully at their criteria on their website http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/phibetakappa/Selection_Criteria.html and make sure to take courses that are required in order to be considered a good candidate for membership.

To find out who belongs to Phi Beta Kappa go to: http://www.pbk.org/infoview/PBK_InfoView.aspx?t=&id=59

For a list of Phi Beta Kappa students at CSULB go to: http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/phibetakappa/Members-in-Course.html