Yet another honors student at Harvard

[JohnnyB]

So, if you click on the link to see the graphic bar graph, you get a beautiful representation of what honors means from school to school.
http://www.boston.com/globe/metro/packages/harvard_honors/part2.htm
-J

[Lowell '99]

Heh.  Still, it's not completely meaningful.  Arts and Sciences, for example grants the title "With Distinction in All Subjects" to the top 30% by GPA, and I'd imagine other schools have similar pseudo-honors that would drive up the numbers.  Sometimes it's thesis-based, sometimes it's not.  Those two categories, "with distinction" and the more traditional "(summa/magna) cum laude," might be accompanied by other types, such as "with honors in research" and other footnotes I've seen in the Commencement program.  With the 7 colleges and 7 sets of criteria, I've never really understood how it works at Cornell.

[nyc94]

I'm gonna be sick. . . .

I only hope that somebody in the Cornell contingent at Bright on the 15th can come up with a clever cheer or a sign or something.

[Greg Berge]

This is a quote that could only come from a Harvard student.

Cass Sunstein, a University of Chicago law professor, recalls higher stakes at Harvard in the early 1970s, when he was consumed with writing his thesis as a student.


''I have to confess that I was on the cusp of summa, and some of my teachers were very disappointed that I didn't get it,'' said Sunstein

Yeah, I'm sure tenured faculty were jumping off buildings because some undergrad didn't get honors.  :-D

[CUlater \'89]

Actually, that's true of many professors who advise undergrads or otherwise get know them on more than a cursory level.  When they see potential for honors, either because of the thesis itself or the student's abilities generally, many professors become stakeholders in the student's success.  Also, for professors serving as advisors, they get a "chit" for each advisee that receives honors, at many schools.

[UChicago Law]

Sunstein is considered one of the more brilliant legal minds in America today, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if his faculty advisers were disappointed that he failed to get summa cum laude.

[gtsully]

You guys know that this is the article from a year and a half ago, right?  The reason why we chant "Grade In-fla-tion (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)!" at Harvard every time we play them?  It's dated October '01.