Mar 18, 2024  
Undergraduate Record 2014-2015 
    
Undergraduate Record 2014-2015 [ARCHIVED RECORD]

College of Arts & Sciences: Awards, Honors, and Scholarships


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Dean’s List Full-time students who demonstrate academic excellence while taking a minimum of 15 credits of graded course work are eligible for the Dean’s List of Distinguished Students at the end of each semester. Courses taken on a CR/NC basis are not counted toward the 15-credit minimum. A current minimum grade point average of 3.500 is necessary to be eligible for the dean’s list. Any student receiving an F, NC, or NG during the semester is not eligible to be on the dean’s list. The notation “Dean’s List” is posted normally within several weeks after the conclusion of the semester.

Intermediate Honors A certificate of Intermediate Honors is awarded to the top twenty percent of those students in the College of Arts & Sciences who enter the University directly from high school or preparatory school and earn at least 60 credits of course work in their first four regular semesters. The computation is based upon the cumulative grade point average at the end of the fourth semester. No more than twelve of the 60 required credits may be earned on a CR/NC or S/U basis. Advanced placement, transfer credits, January terms, and hours from a Summer Session do not count toward the required credits.

Theses and Commencement Honors Degrees with distinction, high distinction, and highest distinction are awarded by the Committee on Special Programs to students who have a grade point average of 3.400 or higher and have been recommended by the departments or interdepartmental programs in which they have completed a Distinguished Majors Program (DMP) or the equivalent. Distinguished majors programs require that students submit a written thesis. All degree programs in the College of Arts & Sciences offer a distinguished majors program except astronomy, drama, and medieval studies. In departments offering thesis courses, non-DMP students may have an opportunity to write a thesis; contact the specific departments for more information. The committee also awards distinction (but not high or highest distinction) to students who have not enrolled in, or who have discontinued, a DMP but who complete their degree with a grade point average of at least 3.600.

Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious undergraduate honors organization. For more than 200 years, the Society has pursued its mission of celebrating and advocating excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, and its distinctive emblem, a golden key, is widely recognized as a symbol of academic distinction.
Students are elected to Phi Beta Kappa for their scholarly attainment in the liberal arts and sciences. Undergraduate members of Phi Beta Kappa are chosen from the top 12 percent of the fourth-year class and the top 4 percent of the third-year class. Students must have earned at least 60 hours at the University of Virginia to be eligible; credits earned at other institutions are not counted in these computations. If you meet these basic criteria you are automatically considered, so it is not necessary to apply.
Students chosen for Phi Beta Kappa not only have earned a high grade point average but also have consistently demonstrated scholarship in the liberal arts and sciences. Generally speaking, students elected will have:

  1. chosen courses that reflect a scholarly commitment to the breadth and depth of the liberal arts,
  2. demonstrated proficiency in challenging advanced-level courses, and
  3. carried a challenging course load (usually considered to be 14-15 credit hours most semesters).

More specifically, nominees will have taken at least two courses in each of the following areas: humanities, social sciences, and the natural or physical sciences. They will also have taken at least one intermediate course in a foreign language and one course in college-level mathematics, logic, or statistics. All course work must be done in college or univeristy (No AP credits fulfill the criteria). In sum, the students who are elected choose programs that have breadth, depth, and rigor. Extracurricular activities are not taken into account.
We hope that students interested in being elected to Phi Beta Kappa will consider these criteria with their advisors as they select their courses throughout their years of study at the University. However, individual consideration is granted each transcript and election is determined by PBK faculty, not by a set of fixed criteria.

Questions about Phi Beta Kappa or its University of Virginia chapter should be addressed to Carrie B. Douglass, president or Karlin Luedtke, secretary.

We invite you to visit the web site of the National Headquarters of Phi Beta Kappa: https://www.pbk.org

Echols Scholars Program About 250 unusually accomplished students are invited to join the Echols Scholars Program at the time of their admission into the University. The program combines a stimulating residential environment with special academic advising for first-year students. Echols scholars are exempt from the foreign language, first and second writing, and area requirements. First-year Echols scholars and all Echols scholars who maintain a 3.000 or higher cumulative grade point average have priority registration for courses and the option of declaring an Echols major. Students with unusually strong academic records after their first year may apply for admission to the Echols Scholars Program. William Wilson is the Dean of the Echols Scholars Association.

Visiting Students Each year a very few students are admitted to non-degree, one-year enrollment as special students in the College. The purpose is to provide graduates of four-year institutions, with strong academic records, an opportunity to prepare themselves for graduate work in Arts & Sciences. This program is not meant for students who wish to apply to medical school, law school, or business school. Written requests for admission as a special student should be addressed to Assistant Dean Frank Papovich, Monroe Hall 101, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400133, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4133, and should be submitted by August 1 for admission for the fall semester. Such requests should include a letter of endorsement from the appropriate UVa departmental graduate program director and an official copy of the student’s transcript. Special students are not accepted for the spring semester.

Admission as a visiting student does not imply or guarantee admission to a degree program in an undergraduate or graduate school of the University. Admission to undergraduate schools may be offered only by the dean of undergraduate admission. Admission to graduate programs may be made only by the deans of graduate admission of each individual graduate school.