SUMMARIZE REQUIREMENTS FOR PHI BETA KAPPA MEN

In order that undergraduates, and especially Freshmen, may understand the requirements necessary for election to the Phi Beta Kappa, the CRIMSON prints below a brief resume of the aims and standards of the society.

The Phi Beta Kappa Society was founded at William and Mary College in 1776, and is the oldest Greek letter fraternity in America. It aims to gather together those men whose first interest is in scholarship and intellectual pursuits. The Harvard chapter, established in 1779, comprises among its undergraduates presidents such men as John Quincy Adams 1787, James Russell Lowell '38, Edward Everett Hale '39; Oliver Wendell Holmes '29, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson '41; and among its orators and poets Charles Sumner '30, Wendell Phillips '31, William Cullen Bryant '59, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow '59, Henry Ward Beecher 1821, Ralph Waldo Emerson 1821, and President Eliot '53.

Not More Than Forty from a Class.

Under the present system of election not more than forty men may be chosen from each class. At the beginning of each year the College Office sends to the society the names of the twelve highest Juniors and of the forty-four highest Seniors, exclusive of those already members; from these names eight Juniors and twenty-two Seniors are chosen. Thus, during the year the society is composed of thirty men from the Senior class and eight, the so-called "Junior Eight," from the Junior class.

Later in the year five more Seniors may be elected; these men are those whose records for the first part of their College career have been marred by sickness or other causes not affecting their good character, but who have done such excellent work that their fitness for membership cannot be questioned. At the close of the Senior year the society may choose not more than five additional men who have been successful in the award of prizes with academic distinctions, and whose worth is attested by the professors under whom they have studied.

Must Be an A. B. or S. B. Candidate.

The standard, by reason of its obviously competitive basis, varies a little, of course, with different courses; but a man who makes the first group once or the second group two or three times is usually eligible for membership--that is, he will probably be on the lists handed in by the office. He must, of course, be a candidate for the bachelor's degree, either A. B. or S. B.