Requirements for Election

The Beloit College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa elects new members each year from the graduating class. Our selection criteria are aligned with the national stipulations. The criteria fall into these broad categories:

• studying the liberal arts and sciences with both breadth and depth
• studying a second, non-native language
• studying mathematics, logic or statistics
• having good moral character

Selection Criteria

A student must meet all of the following criteria to be elected to Beta of Wisconsin:

1. A student must have completed a minimum of 16 units at Beloit College.
2. A student must meet all of the following course of study requirements:
   1. completed the general education requirements of domains, skills and 18 units outside of program of study for a Beloit College degree where this requirement can be modified to take into account modified Beloit College requirements, and
   2. completed successful study at high school and/or college of at least the equivalent of an intermediate college-level language course of a second (non-native) language, (listed below) and
   3. completed an appropriate college-level mathematics, statistics or logic course (listed below).
3. A student must meet these GPA requirements:
   1. If the student is a junior they must have at least a 3.95 GPA.
   2. If the student is a senior they must have at least a 3.8 GPA.
4. To elect students with good moral character, no student will be considered for selection if s/he has any of the following:
   1. been formally sanctioned for violating the academic honesty policy, or
   2. two or more security or police documented events with a substantiated judicial action taken by the Dean of Students, or
   3. any substantiated offense of theft or assault.
5. Because we are a very selective honor society, we impose the following restrictions on total electees:
   1. No more than 2% of a given class can be elected as juniors.
   2. No more than 10% of a given class can be elected. This means the total of junior and senior electees for a given class cannot exceed 10% of the total number of students in that graduating class.

If the cap on the total number of electees is hit by the other criteria, the students with the higher GPAs will be selected. Note that not being selected as a junior does not change eligibility for selection as a senior.

The list of students that are proposed to meet these criteria will be reviewed by the officers of the chapter to make sure they meet all these criteria and all such students will be approved by the officers for election to Beta of Wisconsin.

Additional Details