PBK (was Sorting Hat mystery )

[Amy Z]

David wrote:

> OK, so we've had endless discussions about the UK (actually mostly 
> English) education system.  Here's a question the other way.
> 
> What *is* all this with phi beta kappa?  I think of it vaguely as 
> going along with frats, hazing, summa cum laude and any other bits 
of 
> Latin and Greek that seem to pop up in the US college system.

It's just an honors designation.  For some people it's actually 
social, but for the vast majority it's like summa cum laude--a way of 
saying, "I graduated with honors."  The standards vary from college to 
college--where I went to school, I think you had to graduate in the 
top something percent of the class, going by grade point average.

Amy