Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

Just how important is Cum Laude Society membership in applying to Berkley, Stanford, Cornell, Princeton etc? (Not Harv/Yale--that whole Skull and Bones thing weirds us out.) Our junior D did not get in this year (carrying all honors/AP classes, 3.7 GPA UNW) although kids who take only one honors/AP class DID get in. Headmaster says APs are more important, keep taking the brutally heavy course load (5 APs next year plus Latin) and maybe she'll get in next January. But he's on the committee that picked the non-AP Cum Laude kids. Do any parents have personal experience with this? Thanks

By Thumper1 (Thumper1) on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 03:03 pm: Edit

I hate to be thick...but what IS Cum Laude Society? Is that like National Honor Society in some other region of the country (we are in New England). I'm afraid I've never heard of Cum Laude Society.

By 3boysmom (3boysmom) on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 04:01 pm: Edit

Cum Laude is an honor society modeled on Phi Beta Kappa. Chapters generally are found at private schools. The public high school my son attended is one of the few nationally to have a chapter of Cum Laude. It was a nice honor for him to receive but in reality it doesn't mean any more than NHS. I'm not sure he included them on his college application at all . Our high school has both and I found it interesting that while some students were tapped for both, a lot of students were chosen for only one or the other. Does anyone know how the criteria differ?

By Sac (Sac) on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 04:12 pm: Edit

I believe it is up to each chapter to establish the criteria, though the national Cum Laude society sets a limit on the number of students who can be selected. At some schools it is just based on the students with the highest gpa. So, I wouldn't think colleges would get much additional information out of it than they already get from class rank or standing and, if that's the way it's done at your school, I wouldn't sweat it.

My son's school does it based on recommendations from each department. Teachers in each department meet to discuss the students and to come up with a list of the top students in their classes. A student must be on the list submitted by at least two departments. I like this, as some very interesting students end up with this honor -- students who excel in the humanities but not the sciences, for example, or those who add a lot to class discussions as opposed to those who just study for tests. And it is not just a duplicate of the list of kids with the very top gpas. I'm sure this helped in college admissions, because the GC explains the selection process in his rec.

However it works at your school, it would not really be a factor for Berkeley or other UCs. They have their own way of calculating gpa's.

By Jamimom (Jamimom) on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 08:42 pm: Edit

In the prep schools I have known, all the kids in the Cum Laude Society got into top colleges, and it appears to their first choice school. I was told several times that it is a great honor and a hook for college since many of the schools who have this honor society do not give class rank. It signals to the college that this is the creme de la creme of the school. The top 10%. A pretty strong statement from a rigorous prep school. I have only examined Cum Laude Society data from schools that fit that category, by the way, top prep school with an excellent academic reputation. I do not know if other schools have this system that are not as rigorous.

Having said that, only 10% of the kids in these schools are in Cum Laude Society and about 3 times that number get into similar colleges from these schools. I know last year at my S's school that 2 out of the 3 kids who went to Harvard were not in the Cum Laude Society. So it is not necessarily an impediment. But I am sure it is a great thing to have on the award section of a college app.

By Chasgoose (Chasgoose) on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 09:01 pm: Edit

On your question, Cum Laude is solely for the top 10% of the class regardless of the difficulty of courseload. Generally at my school, however, the people in the top of the class are also in the most advanced courses, but I could see how it could be frustrating from your perspective. For colleges, the difficulty of the courseload is much more important than rank if the people ranked above your daughter are taking significantly lighter ones.

On the prestige of Cum Laude, I don't think that it is that important to colleges. At least at my school, being in Cum Laude is mainly a subtle way for a school that technically doesn't rank to honor the top 10% of the class. Obviously these people are going to be the ones, if any, that will get into top schools.

By Eadad (Eadad) on Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 12:58 pm: Edit

Reading from "Welcome to Cum Laude"

"The major purpose of our society is to recognize scholastic achievement in our schools while simultaneously striving to encourage qualities of excellence,justice and honor."

" Each chapter may elect up to 20% of the members of the Senior Class in the college preparatory curriculum who have an honor record. Half may be elected at the end of the junior year or at any time during the Senior year and the remainder at the end of the Senior year."

At my son's school the criteria for invitation to the society in addition to academic excellence are students who have demonstrated good character and leadership in all aspects of their school life and students who demonstrate a true love of learning.

As to the question from the OP, there were students who were just inducted at the end of Senior year who were early acceptances at Yale (2), Penn, Stanford and Duke and others were accepted RD at Cornell, Columbia, Yale (2), and Harvard (2) BEFORE they were named members of Cum Laude. Incidentally of those inducted junior year two were accepted EA at Yale, two at Harvard, two at Stanford, one at Dartmouth and one at Princeton.

So what does this all mean? There certainly was no advantage or correlation for junior year inductees over senior year inductees in my son's class. Cum Laude is a big deal among students and parents at his school but doesn't appear to offer any real advantage in the college application process that we have been able to see except for the fact that the only person admitted to Princeton was a junior year inductee who applied ED. As a counterpoint to this however, he was also the only student who got an interview for Princeton as well.

By Mom1956 (Mom1956) on Thursday, April 29, 2004 - 11:07 am: Edit

I was also wondering about this. My daughter goes to a private prep school, has been on Honor roll her entire school history and was not given admission into the Cum Laude when the school announced the inductees. She takes all the rigorous courses. Her grades are in the low-mid 90's all the time. She has her hopes on some of the more selective schools. I hope this doesn't hurt her chances.