Top Law Schools

I graduated from UG summa cum laude, but the catch is my uni hands this distinction out solely based on GPA. I'm worried that if I put it on my resume it would naturally invite an interviewer to inquire about my nonexistent honors thesis. Is it worth inclusion?

A lot of schools do this. Don't worry about it. They probably won't inquire and if they do just explain it signifies GPA achievements.

I actually always thought Latin Honors were based solely on GPA haha it seems like a bunch of UGs do this so you're fine.

I think what's common (correct me if I'm wrong) is that that Latin Honors is basd on GPA and you graduate with Honors if you wrote an honors thesis. So there's a difference between Graduating Summa Cum Laude and graduating with honors. I think...

The weirdest anonymous humblebrags occur on TLS

Nebby wrote:The weirdest anonymous humblebrags occur on TLS

LOL

Thomas Hagan, ESQ. wrote:I actually always thought Latin Honors were based solely on GPA haha it seems like a bunch of UGs do this so you're fine.

I think what's common (correct me if I'm wrong) is that that Latin Honors is basd on GPA and you graduate with Honors if you wrote an honors thesis. So there's a difference between Graduating Summa Cum Laude and graduating with honors. I think...

At my undergrad you could get departmental honors for writing a thesis, but Latin honors were dependent solely on GPA. Didn't realize Latin honors required more at other schools.

I guess I shouldn't have asked this. I thought my school was almost unique in not requiring a thesis.

etramak wrote:I guess I shouldn't have asked this. I thought my school was almost unique in not requiring a thesis.

Latin Honors is almost always awarded based on your GPA, I've literally never heard of a school requiring a thesis for LH. Doing an Honors Thesis will most likely give you departmental honors from whatever school or major you were associated with in UG, however. They are two different things entirely.

Also, no interviewer is going to ask you about, at length anyway, Latin Honors lol. They might make references to it/your grades to compliment you if they are gunning for you to attend, but other than that it's not really a major talking point.

Pretty sure that Latin honors are normally based solely on GPA. Thesis honors, IME, are called something like "departmental honors," "specialized honors," etc. Also, not to diminish the achievement because it is something to be proud of, but Latin honors are commonplace enough that they probably won't be a talking point in your admissions process.

emmbeegee wrote:Pretty sure that Latin honors are normally based solely on GPA. Thesis honors, IME, are called something like "departmental honors," "specialized honors," etc. Also, not to diminish the achievement because it is something to be proud of, but Latin honors are commonplace enough that they probably won't be a talking point in your admissions process.

It depends entirely upon the school. My university, for example, allowed access to all three levels of latin honors with the same GPA. Magna and summa cum laude were awarded based upon the quality of an honors thesis, while cum laude required nothing extra.

LawMan16 wrote:

emmbeegee wrote:Pretty sure that Latin honors are normally based solely on GPA. Thesis honors, IME, are called something like "departmental honors," "specialized honors," etc. Also, not to diminish the achievement because it is something to be proud of, but Latin honors are commonplace enough that they probably won't be a talking point in your admissions process.

It depends entirely upon the school. My university, for example, allowed access to all three levels of latin honors with the same GPA. Magna and summa cum laude were awarded based upon the quality of an honors thesis, while cum laude required nothing extra.

Interesting. My UG (private) and the two schools that I teach in (one state uni, one small college) all do Latin honors for GPA, and some sort of "title" for thesis work. This kind of stuff is interesting to me as I'm writing rec letters for my students -- my initial reaction would be that students from your uni are getting the short end of the stick. A resume line of "magna cum laude" implies a solid GPA, but doesn't universally imply a thesis, which is a more noteworthy accomplishment.

I don't think any of this stuff affects admissions decisions. A 3.8 is a 3.8.

emmbeegee wrote:

LawMan16 wrote:

emmbeegee wrote:Pretty sure that Latin honors are normally based solely on GPA. Thesis honors, IME, are called something like "departmental honors," "specialized honors," etc. Also, not to diminish the achievement because it is something to be proud of, but Latin honors are commonplace enough that they probably won't be a talking point in your admissions process.

It depends entirely upon the school. My university, for example, allowed access to all three levels of latin honors with the same GPA. Magna and summa cum laude were awarded based upon the quality of an honors thesis, while cum laude required nothing extra.

Interesting. My UG (private) and the two schools that I teach in (one state uni, one small college) all do Latin honors for GPA, and some sort of "title" for thesis work. This kind of stuff is interesting to me as I'm writing rec letters for my students -- my initial reaction would be that students from your uni are getting the short end of the stick. A resume line of "magna cum laude" implies a solid GPA, but doesn't universally imply a thesis, which is a more noteworthy accomplishment.

Completely agree - it's a bizarre system. In addition to failing to recognize thesis work, it makes no distinction between GPAs above 3.5. So, absent a thesis, the student graduating with a 4.0 gets the same level of honors as the 3.5 graduate.

For what it's worth, it is a gigantic public school. Currently ranked ~Top 10 among public universities - so decent, but not amazing.

LawMan16 wrote:

emmbeegee wrote:

LawMan16 wrote:

emmbeegee wrote:Pretty sure that Latin honors are normally based solely on GPA. Thesis honors, IME, are called something like "departmental honors," "specialized honors," etc. Also, not to diminish the achievement because it is something to be proud of, but Latin honors are commonplace enough that they probably won't be a talking point in your admissions process.

It depends entirely upon the school. My university, for example, allowed access to all three levels of latin honors with the same GPA. Magna and summa cum laude were awarded based upon the quality of an honors thesis, while cum laude required nothing extra.

Interesting. My UG (private) and the two schools that I teach in (one state uni, one small college) all do Latin honors for GPA, and some sort of "title" for thesis work. This kind of stuff is interesting to me as I'm writing rec letters for my students -- my initial reaction would be that students from your uni are getting the short end of the stick. A resume line of "magna cum laude" implies a solid GPA, but doesn't universally imply a thesis, which is a more noteworthy accomplishment.

Completely agree - it's a bizarre system. In addition to failing to recognize thesis work, it makes no distinction between GPAs above 3.5. So, absent a thesis, the student graduating with a 4.0 gets the same level of honors as the 3.5 graduate.

For what it's worth, it is a gigantic public school. Currently ranked ~Top 10 among public universities - so decent, but not amazing.

I hear you. I teach at Rutgers (also PhD candidate there) so while you're definitely ranked higher, I'm familiar with the bureaucracy and logical failings of the gigantic-research-uni world.

Our students get Latin honors for their GPA, and while the standards vary across the uni, they are uniform within each college regardless of major (College of Arts and Sciences, which issues most of the BAs and BSs has one set of GPA reqs... I'm pretty sure the college that issues BFAs has a slightly different set of cutoffs, no idea what the Business School or School of Engineering do because they are totally separate worlds...) Honors thesis work (in Arts and Sciences, at least) is "graded" as honors, high honors, or high honors with distinction. So a student with a decent GPA but a ballin thesis might graduate "BA, cum laude, high honors with distinction in Art History" while a student with a stellar GPA but a mediocre thesis might get "BA, summa cum laude, honors in English."

tl;dr, academia is arbitrary bullshit and I can't wait to run away to law school instead.