Eligibility Requirements

Phi Beta Kappa eligibility criteria substantially exceed the standard graduation requirements of the School of Arts and Sciences. Therefore, capable students should be aware of the criteria early in their college careers, so that they may plan to fulfill requirements when they have maximum scheduling flexibility.

Students Must Have Completed

1. At least the second year of a college foreign language course (through level 4—the second semester of an intermediate course), or a proficiency test from a Pitt language department (including the Department of Linguistics and its program of less commonly taught languages) certifying comparable proficiency in a language taught at Pitt, or four years of advanced secondary school instruction in one foreign language, or a high school degree from a non-Anglophone country.
2. • a) At least 15 credits of course work in both the Humanities Division and the Social Sciences Division of the School of Arts and Sciences. These 15 credits must normally include a minimum of eight credits in a single department and at least three credits in each of two other departments of each division.
   • b) At least 15 credits of course work in the natural Sciences Division, including:
     • i. A minimum of three credits in mathematics courses beyond algebra and trigonometry (e.g., calculus, introduction to mathematics, or mathematical statistics);
     • ii. A minimum of six credits taken as a two term sequence in courses required for a major in the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, or Physics and Astronomy;
     • iii. A minimum of six credits in courses in any natural science department, three of which must be taken in a department other than Mathematics and Statistics and the department chosen in ii., above.
3. At least 60 credits in liberal arts courses from the University of Pittsburgh, with letter grades. Courses from professional schools, applied studio arts, applied music, theater performance, journalism, education, military science, physical education, and career development courses do not count toward meeting the Phi Beta Kappa academic requirement. (These exclusions are illustrative; this listing is not exhaustive.)

Although the Chapter regards selection of a demanding and broadly distributed program of course work as much more significant than maintaining a perfect 4.0 average, students must meet a minimum QPA criterion based solely upon work completed in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. It ranges on a sliding scale from 3.5 to 3.9, with the lowest minimum criterion applying to students who have earned at least 90 liberal arts credits at Pitt with letter grades and the highest minimum criterion applying to students with only 60 such credits at Pitt. Transfer credits and advanced placement credits do not count for the QPA requirement though they may be used to satisfy the other requirements above.

Students normally must satisfy the "distribution of studies" requirement and have met the QPA criterion by the end of the term before the term of graduation though a student who meets all requirements only upon graduation may petition for retroactive election. Students meeting all requirements earlier than senior year may request early election. Students with QPAs of at least 3.75 who have met all requirements before senior year may qualify for special election as juniors and should contact the Selection Committee by March 1 to determine their eligibility for this honor. Students who wish help interpreting these requirements or who hope to have met them by graduation are invited to consult with the Selection Committee at any time, and students planning to satisfy the language requirement by proficiency test should definitely do so.

For more information, please take a look at our mentoring sheet