Google

Membership

Although each individual chapter determines its specific application of the Phi Beta Kappa Council's 1952 Stipulations Concerning Eligibility for Membership and sets its own academic standards, even the most generous chapter will typically elect fewer than 10% among the candidates for degrees at that College of Arts and Sciences.
Phi Beta Kappa is generally considered the most prestigious American college honor society,[5] and membership is one of the highest honors that can be conferred on undergraduate liberal arts and science students.
However, in the last two decades, rates of acceptance of Phi Beta Kappa membership invitations by students or "members in course" have significantly dropped. During the last triennial convention held in October 2006, the national secretary (chief executive officer) of Phi Beta Kappa admitted in his annual State of the Society address that:
The data show a generally heartening, but not entirely untroubled picture. At about a third of our chapters, essentially no one turns down the invitation. At almost another third, the acceptance rate is above 80 percent. But at the remaining chapters, almost 100, the rates are lower. At a small number of chapters, the percentage of invited students who are subsequently initiated is as low as 40 percent and 30 percent. Some who have seen these figures question the viability of those campuses as sheltering institutions.[6]
The national secretary then admitted, "It is distressing that anyone should decline this honor. Our aim is to have strong acceptance rates at all our chapters."[6]
[edit]