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HONORS AND HONORARY SOCIETIES

Departmental Distinction

In most cases, a student can choose to pursue Departmental Distinction in his or her major. The precise requirements differ by department, but generally include a junior-level seminar or training aimed at developing the method and topic of the student’s interest, and then completing and presenting a significant research paper. Students who complete this process will graduate with a notation on their diplomas and transcripts indicating “with distinction” in the major.

Latin Honors

There are three classes of graduation honors: summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude. The awarding of graduation honors is determined by minimum GPAs announced at the beginning of the academic year for each of SMU’s four undergraduate schools. The minimum GPAs generally represent the top five percent, 10 percent and 15 percent of graduates in the school.

Honorary Societies

• Hyer Society
  Named for the founding president of SMU, the Hyer Society recognizes SMU’s most intellectually gifted undergraduates who have distinguished themselves through high academic achievement. Only a small fraction of SMU students are nominated each year for membership, roughly the top four percent of the student body.

• Phi Beta Kappa
  Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honor society in the liberal arts. Students elected to the society must not only fit stringent GPA requirements, but they also must demonstrate an impressive and challenging course of study, with a majority of hours completed in the liberal arts.

• Kappa Tau Alpha
  Kappa Tau Alpha is an honor society for communication arts that recognizes academic excellence and promotes scholarship. Membership is a mark of high distinction and honor.

• Pi Kappa Lambda
  Pi Kappa Lambda was established in 1915 to honor distinguished students for both academic and musical accomplishment.

• Beta Gamma Sigma
  Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest national recognition a student in business can achieve. Juniors selected are in the upper seven percent of their class; seniors are in the upper 10 percent.

• Tau Beta Pi
  The Tau Beta Pi Association was founded in 1885 to recognize those who have conferred honor upon their alma mater by distinguished scholarship and exemplary character as students in engineering, or by their attainments as alumni in the field of engineering.

Honors Convocation

Honors Convocation is a ceremony that celebrates academic achievement at the University and Department levels. Click here to read about this year’s Honors Convocation.