Phi Beta Kappa
Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest and most widely recognized honor society. Founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary, the society celebrates and advocates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences and has promoted freedom of expression and intellectual inquiry for two and a quarter centuries. An invitation to join Alpha of Michigan acknowledges distinguished performance sustained over an entire undergraduate career and is recognized as such by graduate and professional schools and potential employers.
Members include leaders in every aspect of human endeavor and it has been a pretty diverse group since the turn of the twentieth century. Membership will add you to a distinguished group that includes John Marshall, Stephen Sondheim, John Quincy Adams, Paul Robeson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Angela Davis, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Pearl Buck, Grace Hopper, Betty Friedan, Tom Lehrer, E. O. Wilson, George H. W. Bush, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, E. Annie Proulx, Joshua Redman, Peyton Manning, Bill Clinton, and the list goes on.
The U-M chapter, Alpha of Michigan, was founded in 1907 and has inducted over 7,000 exceptional students into its ranks. Membership in the chapter is by invitation. Invitees are typically in their senior year at U-M and are selected based on their exemplary achievement in the liberal arts including the breadth and strength of their academic program. A very small number of extraordinarily high-achieving juniors are invited each year also. Induction of new members takes place each year in early April.
For more information about the society as a whole, visit pbk.org.