Students must be enrolled in a major recognized by Phi Beta Kappa in the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Natural Sciences, the College of Fine Arts, or the Jackson School of Geosciences. The minimum eligibility requirements for Phi Beta Kappa depend on one’s hours and GPA at The University of Texas at Austin.
Students eligible for early membership must have at least 60 GPA hours of credit in residence at The University of Texas at Austin and a 4.0 GPA at the time of the election. Because the chapter seeks to elect no more than 2% of any class for early induction, additional criteria may be added in the future for early election if the number of students obtaining a 4.0 continues to rise.
Students eligible for regular membership as a degree candidate must have at least 60 in residence GPA hours at The University of Texas at Austin, have applied for graduation, and have at least a minimum qualifying GPA at the time of the election. The exact GPA cutoff varies year to year because this chapter of PBK seeks to elect no more than the top 8% of students graduating. For example, the GPA cutoff for election was 3.95 in 2020 and 3.94 in 2021. Based on the performance of UT students over the last decade, it is expected that the minimum qualifying GPA will be above 3.90.
Students eligible for regular membership as a recent graduate must have at least 60 in residence GPA hours at The University of Texas at Austin and have graduated from UT immediately prior to their election eligibility. The minimum qualifying GPA will be the same as that established for the other students elected for the same Spring induction.
Please note: If a student has restricted his or her directory information, the student’s name will not appear on eligibility ballots. If a student wish to be considered, he or she will need to petition for membership in a given election period.
As mentioned above, these are only the minimum standards for eligibility. Final selection for membership is determined by the election committee of the Alpha of Texas chapter.