Phi beta kappa honor society - significant soft? Forum

[drdolittle]

4. List significant scholastic honors received (Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude, prizes, etc.)

OP, PBK appears to be "significant" to the good folks in New Haven - and I don't imagine there being many schools taking dissimilar stances. Don't get caught up in what future employers may or may not think of the honor (and contrary to what is being tossed around ITT, it most certainly is an honor); they're not the ones sitting on the adcoms.

+1, excellent point, this discussion should just end here. But wtf, these PBK haters really have an ax to grind?!

However, what those wonderful human beings in New Haven think is significant is an entirely seperate issue, irrelevant to this discussion, really...

OP: Your PBK creds likely won't matter much (especially to those who didn't get it) once you have years of work experience and demonstrated expertise/ability in an area. Before you get there, it might help a little and I certainly wouldn't leave it off your resume. That'd be silly. It's not a truly significant soft, but it's something. Definitely much more significant than spurious honors like Golden Key. Btw, at Ivy League and similar schools, PKB means quite a lot so there'll be people out there who'll respect it much more than others, evidently.

[mel2010]

When a lot of partners at Cravath put it on their firm bio pages when they are 20+ years out of undergrad, I would say it is a big deal:
http://www.cravath.com/lawyers/list.asp ... ta%20kappa

You know what is an even bigger deal?

http://www.cravath.com/lawyers/list.asp ... se=Harvard

So is the point here that both are relevant, or that neither is relevant?

[drummerboy]

all academic honors are extremely important and will distinguish you from the mediocre for years to come. and yes they are very relevant to the law school admissions process (personal anecdotal evidence during my 2010- 2011 cycle)