Phi Beta Kappa Elects 24

Twenty-four juniors with some of the highest grade point averages in the College were elected last week to the Harvard chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the national collegiate honors society.

The students, whose names were announced Thursday, represent the first members of the Class of 2006 who will be inducted. Another 48 members of the Class of 2006 will be elected next year.

“I am incredibly grateful for the honor. I do hope this won’t change anything—these past three years have been a period of incredible academic growth and intellectual inspiration, inside and outside of the lecture hall,” newly-elected member Shreya N. Vora ’06, a Sanskrit and Indian Studies concentrator, wrote in an e-mail.

A total of 22 students with the highest cumulative GPAs in the social sciences, 14 in the humanities, and 12 in the natural sciences were nominated in late February for Alpha Iota of Massachusetts, Harvard’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. The nominees were asked to provide two faculty letters of recommendation.

Half of the nominees in each field were elected and notified by letters that were mailed last Tuesday, according to Senior Lecturer on Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations James F. Coakley ’68, secretary of Harvard’s chapter.

Coakley said the composition of this year’s “Junior 24” differed from those of the past in that four of the six members elected from the natural sciences were women.

“I don’t think that’s ever happened before, where women have outnumbered men in the natural sciences,” Coakley said.

The three different election committees—one for each field—are usually composed of one faculty chair and two or three other professors. The 72 seniors who are current members of Phi Beta Kappa are also invited to serve on the committee for their field.

In addition to GPA, the criteria for selection, according to the Phi Beta Kappa website, includes “excellence, reach, originality, and rigor” and “depth of study and breadth of intellectual interest.”

Coakley said that in the letters of recommendation, “mention is made of outstanding work that may not show up in grades,” such as academic research. However, “strictly speaking extracurricular activities don’t count,” he said.

None of the juniors interviewed said they had set their sights on Phi Beta Kappa from the beginning.

“I don’t think anybody’s goal is directly to get into Phi Beta Kappa,” said Kelly Shue ’06, an applied math concentrator.

“Given the talent at Harvard, I figured I wouldn’t be any kind of academic star here, so I really took off the grade point pressure,” said Elizabeth W. Carlisle ’06, a folklore and mythology concentrator. “I came in with a commitment to learn and enjoy my classes, to take advantage of being around people who were smarter than me, and the grade point just happened.”

One of the 11 elected in the social sciences, Carlisle, who studies ethnomusicology as a subfield, said, “The public face of social science here tends to be economics, and while the folks in Littauer certainly do a lot of important work, I’m glad there is also an ethnomusicologist out there to round out the picture.”

Doris C. Huang ’06, a government concentrator, said she had heard that election into Phi Beta Kappa might lead to increased interest from job recruiters.

“I don’t know if that’s sort of an urban legend, or if it’s actually true,” Huang said. “If so, it will have a tangible impact, and if not, it will just be a tremendous honor to be part of this group of really talented scholars.”

Most of the elected juniors who were interviewed said they couldn’t offer secrets to their academic success.

“Lots of work, lots of hard work,” said Carissa B. Meyer ’06, a chemistry concentrator. “I guess I’ve always dedicated a lot of time to all my classes, even Core classes.”

“I don’t have any tricks. I’m not one of those people who stays up all night long,” said Jessica L. Jones ’06, a biological anthropology concentrator. “My roommates tease me because I go to bed at like 11 p.m. on weeknights.”

The newly elected members of Phi Beta Kappa will be inducted on May 2.

According to the website, Harvard’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, established in 1779, is the oldest continuously operating chapter in the country.