I’m 18 years old and graduated high school. I plan to go to college, but I’m curious what you need to graduate cum laude because I heard someone (clearly older than me) say they graduated cum laude.
It varies depending on the school. Most schools have a GPA requirement, such as cum laude >3.7, magna cum laude >3.8, and summa cum laude is >3.9.
For my associates a 4.0 was required for summa cum laude but that seemed uncommon. My bachelor’s required the former system.
Yet some still just assign it based on top % of the graduating class. You can almost certainly Google, “Latin honors YourUniversityHere” and find it for a specific university.
Wish you the best of luck with your studies. I’m in the UK and so graduated as a Cum Lord which is still good, but no help to you. Either way- you can do it! ♥️
Good job, Cum Lord!
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it depends on the school and sometimes even the program
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my advice is to slow your roll and focus on transitioning to college successfully, meaning establishing good study habits (they will have to change from high school), staying healthy during the time that is often the first extended time away from parent(s) (food, sleep, hygiene, keeping the drugs/booze under control, proper response to inevitably getting sick, mental health), and finally, enjoy the experience by making friends and trying new activities.
I have never once thought about what I could have done to earn another point on my GPA. I have thought a lot about the friends I made and the things I got to experience.
enjoy the experience by making friends and trying new activities.
Big emphasis on this. Nepotism and cronyism are the best ways to get a good job. If you don’t talk to people, and keep in touch with them after college then finding a job is going to be that much harder. GPA doesn’t mean shit if someone in the right position really thinks you’re a good person for the job.
Lol, I’d settle for communication, social skills, and some awareness of professional etiquette if one doesn’t want to go as far as nepotism and cronyism.
I’m probably in a bit of a bubble but I work with too many engineers who don’t like that they have to work with other people. If a super STEM person ever wonders how “less smart but friendly with the boss” people advance further, introspect a bit on whether anyone else can understand your big brain thoughts or if they die as soon as they leave your mouth.
Making friends and doing clubs in college is a good way to learn to be smart and to make sure you can adequately communicate your smart ideas. Goes with the theme of “don’t stress GPA, be well-rounded”.
Yeah. I went to a tech school, so the school was set up to teach the importance of communication and team building because they knew the engineers needed to be taught this and that understanding human systems was as important as understanding technical systems.
Agreed. Jobs don’t go to the applicant with the highest GPA (or the most “skilled”), they go to whoever had an internship at their dad’s friend’s company (or friend’s dad’s company, etc.) each summer and got grades that were “good enough”. If you can get something like that, even if it’s not exactly in your area of interest, you don’t need to be too concerned about grades.
On the other hand, if you don’t have those connections, you need to be smart.
There are people who are able to get decent enough grades and get jobs on charisma alone, but they are a nightmare to work with cause you’ll always be picking up their slack (even if they are perfectly nice people that you enjoy being around).
Wise advice
I’ve thought a few times, my gpa was laughably low. Another little on my gpa would have saved some stress, maybe I’d not have stress related back problems (this is a lie I tell myself, these problems would definitely still be there). But all in all, the last time I had to think hard about my gpa was during the interview for the first job I landed.
As the joke goes, what do you call the person who finishes at the bottom of their class in med school? Doctor.
Agreed.
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If you’re not cumming laude you’re not doing college right.
Beat me to it.
If I’m doing that, I’m not laude.
A few other people mentioning precise GPA requirements, but for the computer science school at my (large) university it was top 10% of your class for cum laude, top 5% for magna cum laude, top 2% for summa cum laude
As someone who graduated cum laude, I sorta regret it. I wish I spent more time socializing, networking, and generally managing my anxiety better. I was able to land a job after graduating sooner than a lot of my classmates, but I also had some internships and some personal projects under my belt, so it’s hard to say how much GPA played a role. It all comes down to what’s important to you, your field, and how much work you’d be willing to put in after graduating to get your first job
I graduated from college magna cum laud 20 years ago. This is the first time it has come up in any context since I graduated. I took it off my resume 15 years ago to make room for experiences.
Others have talked about the ultimate measure: your GPA. However, for you to get that high GPA it can help to:
- Train your relational frame skills.
- Develop good learning habits through Tiny Habits or something like that.
- Develop a good relationship with your thoughts and emotions through something like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or the Healthy Minds Program or any program designed to improve your relationship with your thoughts.
- Internalize something like Make it Stick or another book that teaches how to learn quickly and well.
- Internalize habits of mind such as Harvard’s Project Zero’s Visible Thinking Routines.
In my college it was just a GPA requirement. I think mine was 3.8 out of 4.
Awesome!!
So there seems to be a lot of regret here. In college you can retake courses that you weren’t happy with the grades on. I felt during my senior year that I should have had a better grasp on some of the courses I passed but didn’t really understand as a freshman. I retook them. Not only did I raise my GPA I really cemented some fundamental concepts I could use but didn’t understand.
I’m not yet in college.
You can take courses that you weren’t happy with the grades on.
thanks!
You can check with your colleges policy, but it could make it less stressful knowing that a ‘C’ or ‘D’ can be taken over. Some courses you just need to get though and the ideas only ‘click’ later
It says 3.5-3.7. I graduated cum laude with 3.65 GPA.
That’s graduating cum laude in course. To graduate cum laude in thesis, you’d need to complete an honors project, typically during your last year, write and submit an honors thesis to your university’s honors committee, and defend your thesis, where you present and answer questions about it.
My high school GPA was 3.7
My daughter graduated from high school with 3.4 GPA. She’s your age :)
I’m very proud of all of you. Like another comment says though, my daughter was more happy hanging with her friends than thinking about how to get a 4.0 GPA.
It’s going to vary.
My daughter’s high school was 3.95, 4.25 and 4.45 for the three honors. She had a 4.3 GPA and got the middle honor. At the college she’s in now it goes by top percentage and is somehow based on the previous year’s GPA. So, I think, they average everyone’s GPA from the previous grads and you get an honor for being in the top 5 or 10 percent of that number.
