Selection Criteria

Students considered for election to Phi Beta Kappa must meet the following criteria:

1. Fulfill all the OWU requirements for the Bachelor of Arts Degree (including 34 total course units, the Cultural Diversity Requirement, and Competency Requirements in English, Writing Across the Curriculum, and Foreign Language).
2. Fulfill the OWU distribution requirements for the B.A. or B.S.
3. Achieve a refigured GPA that lies within the top 10% of the graduating class. That refiguring, which includes adjustments for inconsistent grading patterns across disciplines, is done by the Phi Beta Kappa Chapter on the following basis:
   1. Excluding:
      1. internships and applied courses in music and physical education;
      2. all accounting courses;
      3. all economics management courses, except those cross-listed with another department;
      4. all UC courses.
   2. Including actual grades for courses taken Credit/No Entry.
4. Have 20 credits outside their primary discipline (the discipline in which the student has earned most credits). (NOTE: In departments where there are two or more distinct disciplines, as in Geography/Geology or Mathematics and Computer Science, courses in the department but outside the discipline will be included in the total of 20 credits.)
5. Have at least 23 units in courses that count in Phi Beta Kappa’s refigured GPA.
6. Have earned at least 16 credit units at Ohio Wesleyan.
7. Have compiled 28 units by fall semester, senior year, and at least 33 by spring semester senior year.
8. Demonstrate good character: they must have no serious academic or behavioral offenses on their records, as attested by both the Office of the Provost and the Dean of Student Services.