I'm currently finishing up my BA in English with the University of Maryland University College, mostly through their distance education program. I've maintained a 3.73 GPA despite being active duty Air Force and being sent to the boonies on a fairly regular basis. I'll be graduating next May, and while asking the registrar about various issues, I found out that the minimum GPA for the 'cum laude' honor was 3.902. That's not a typo...you need a 3.9+ GPA for the lowest level of Latin Honors. UMUC awards honors based upon a percentage (top 2% gets summa cum laude, next 3% gets magna cum laude, and the next 5% gets cum laude), not by a fixed GPA. Is this typical of Distance Education colleges? Most of the other schools I've googled use a fixed GPA for the Latin Honor distictions...not a percentage.
My heavens! Is this the result of grade inflation? Or are students really doing so much better work these days? My 1975 B.A. came Magna with a puny 3.48! Come to think of it, though, there were few Latin honors given in my class.
You know, I hadn't considered that. Ideally, grades should be a bell curve, so if the cutoff for Cum Laude honors is at 3.9+, the curve must be shifted wayinthehell towards the 4.0 end. It just seems silly that I can be a member of 3 different honor societies, requiring a 3.7+ GPA, yet I don't qualify for a Latin Honor....
I graduated summa cum laude from Excelsior College in July with a 4.00 GPA; I believe the cut-off for honors was 3.5 GPA for cum laude and 3.75 GPA for magna cum laude. I'd check the Excelsior publication site to verify, but, true to form as a top achiever, I can't remember my password. Regards, Tony
The GPA requirements are similar at UOP Online. To graduate with honors a person has to maintain a 3.85 GPA or higher. Interesting though UOP Online does not distinguish between summa cum laude, mangan cum laude, or even just cum laude. They only note on your diploma and transcript that you graduated with honors.