Every university or college outlines its own expectations for each program, and some higher education institutions do not bestow Latin honors at all. Others, like Stanford University, have a separate set of non-Latin distinctions that are typically seen as roughly equivalent to the traditional Latin titles. Increasingly, high schools across the United States also include Latin honors for students upon graduation. Although Latin honors are quite common in the United States, very few other countries around the world use the system.
Cum laude is Latin for "with honor" literally "with praise" and serves as a way to distinguish students with exemplary academic success. Schools confer honors in a variety of ways and there is no standardized set of criteria. Most colleges award three tiers of honors cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude based on the college's own unique requirements. The determining factor is usually GPA, but college prerequisites for graduating with honors may also include completion of an honors thesis or early graduation.
What Is The Difference Between Magna Cum Laude And Summa Cum Laude?
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What does cum laude mean? Translators define cum laude as With Praise. Cum laude honors, graduated with honors, graduation honors, and graduate cum laude all involve a high GPA.