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."
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.
