Grade translation (into English) needed

Dear friends,

how would you translate the Latin wording "summa cum laude" (i.e. best possible grade) for Ph.D. dissertation into (American) English?

"With distinction"?

Thanks and Cheers,
Trigger

 

"With highest praise."

That´s what it literally means. Nice to "see" you again, Trigger.

 

;-)

Okay, let me then put it into other words:
what would an American university write for the best possible grade a Ph.D. dissertation can have?

Thanks again and cheers,
Trigger
(or: Met dank en vriendelyke groeten especially for my friend JLV ;-) )

 

In the U.S. Ph.D's are typically reviewed by a panel of 5 or so reviewers on that persons doctoral commitee and then is determined if the dissertation is acceptible or not acceptible. I don't know of any grades assigned with Ph.D work.

 

There are no grades?
It's just pass or not pass?

 

That is the way I understand it. Once you have finished your seminars (which have grades in which you receive) and comprehensive exams (which are more pass/fail) you write and submit a dissertaion for review. This dissertation is then examined by individuals on a committee of 5 or so scholars (in the US they are typically professors at your institution) who review the submitted dissertation. Finally, the student is given an opportunity to defend the dissertation to those who examined it and the committee then decides if the dissertation is acceptable or not acceptable. In other countries a dissertation is read by an external examiner.

HTH,

cbryant

 

All right,
then, please, let us totally leave away the fact that I'm speaking about a Ph.D. dissertation, and let us just suppose I would only ask for the Anglo-American English language wording for what we here in Germany call "summa cum laude" (e.g. for a lower degree or so).
Is there anything else / more appropriate than "with distinction"?
Thanks a lot and best,
Trigger

 

Trigger, my wife got summa cum laude in her undergraduate and graduate studies in America. She went on to study at the LSE in London where she was awarded her degree with "distinction" because she completed all her courses, including her dissertation, with a 70% or higher marks. I guess that´s what you want to know. In every other country I know of, they use the latin nomenclature to award honors. In Spain, they confer as well degrees "apto cum laude" which is (I guess) a passing grade but with certain honor that I can´t describe exactly. Tot ziens!


Gruss aus Die Niederlande