Phi Beta Kappa at Auburn University
Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's oldest, most prestigious, and most selective academic honor society. The mission of the Society of Phi Beta Kappa is to foster and recognize excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. Founded in 1776, its members have included seventeen U.S. Presidents, forty-one U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and more than one hundred and forty Nobel laureates. As the society's website attests: "Famous or not, all of our members have one thing in common — the pursuit of excellence."
2025 Initiates in the Gamma of Alabama Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa
Phi Beta Kappa celebrates and advocates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. Its campus chapters invite for induction the most outstanding arts and sciences students at America's leading colleges and universities. The Society sponsors activities to advance these studies — the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences — in higher education and in society at large.
Only about one in ten colleges and universities that display a strong commitment to the arts and sciences are found to be of such exceptional quality that they are allowed charters for local PBK chapters. Only a very small number of students at these select institutions qualify for election each year by demonstrating truly outstanding achievement in the pursuit of a rigorous education in the traditional arts and sciences. After many years of effort, Auburn University earned its PBK charter in 2001.
Among the bare minimum requirements for membership are a GPA near 4.0, at least four semesters of university-level foreign language study, MATH 1120 or higher, and 90 credit hours in the traditional liberal arts and sciences. In most years, only about 1% of all Auburn juniors and seniors earn an invitation to join the chapter.
For more information please contact chapter secretary, Elijah Gaddis or visit the national office website.
News
Dr. Djibo Zanzot’s Honors section of Organismal Biology, BIOL 1037, is a reminder that honors education at Auburn University does not proceed in isolation from teaching and learning across the university. Rather, the smaller sizes of Honors classes often provide settings in which faculty can experiment with teaching methods that they can then apply more broadly.
April 28, 2026
Honors alumna Maggie Tennant reflects on her time at Auburn University and in the Honors College, starting with her arrival in the fall of 2019, which didn’t begin in a lecture hall - it began with service.
April 27, 2026
Every spring, the Honors College celebrates students, faculty and staff through the annual Eagles of Excellence Awards. The awards recognize individuals who have gone above and beyond in the Honors College and at Auburn University in the areas of leadership, research, service and teaching.
April 27, 2026
Vivian Gates, a junior majoring in law and justice with a minor in German with the College of Liberal Arts, has been selected to represent Alabama at the Henry Clay Center’s College Student Congress, a highly competitive, two-week leadership and public policy program that selects only one student per state.
April 14, 2026
Cater Hall is home to the Auburn University Honors College, but it is the students and staff inside who bring the historic space to life. As visitors walk through the doors of Cater, their first encounter is usually with two types of student workers: associates, who staff the front desk, and ambassadors, who speak with prospective students about their Honors College experience.
April 14, 2026
Members of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) visited Auburn University this past March to celebrate current and former Astronaut Scholars and promote the foundation’s nationally competitive scholarship program.
April 14, 2026
Earlier this semester, the Honors College hosted a Professional Networking Event, offering students an opportunity to practice professional communication skills and connect with local professionals across a range of fields.
March 31, 2026
Eirik Mulder’s work at the intersection of aerospace engineering and computer science has earned him one of the nation’s top undergraduate research honors.
March 31, 2026
This fall, honors colleges and programs at ten SEC universities -- more than half of the conference -- are joining forces to offer a first-of-its-kind academic experience exploring the business, legal and media dimensions of modern college athletics.
March 17, 2026
To make it easier for students to engage more deeply in scholarly work and take the next step in their academic development, the Honors College has expanded its research grant program to offer two types of funding: Research Support and Conference Travel Grants. This program ensures financial support so students can take meaningful ideas, implement them, and share them across campus and the world.
March 17, 2026
