Academic Honors

In determining an undergraduate student's eligibility for academic recognition and honors, only institution credit and grades earned in Rice University courses are considered.

Rice University recognizes outstanding undergraduate students with the following academic honors:

President's Honor Roll

The President's Honor Roll, published in the Fall and Spring semesters, is recognition of an undergraduate’s outstanding academic achievement that particular semester. Based on semester GPA, approximately the top 30 percent of all undergraduates receive this academic recognition. This President’s Honor Roll designation is placed on the student’s academic transcript for the appropriate semester.

To be eligible for the President's Honor Roll, students must meet the following requirements:

• Undergraduate students must meet the minimum GPA that is calculated from approximately the top 30 percent of all eligible undergraduate GPAs.
• Undergraduate students must have grades, exclusive of Pass/Fail and Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory, in a total of 12 or more semester (GPA) hours and must not have any grade of F or U.
• Students with temporary grades, such as OT and INC are not eligible until those grades have been converted. Please consult the academic calendar for term-specific temporary grade deadlines.
• Undergraduates enrolled in four-year bachelor's degree programs are always eligible for the Honor Roll.
• Students enrolled in five-year bachelor's/master's programs are eligible only during their first eight semesters.

The minimum GPA requirements to qualify for the President’s Honor Roll are as follows:

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University (Latin) Honors

Unlike the President's Honor Roll, which recognizes academic excellence achieved over a single semester, eligibility for the three categories of Latin Honors (summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude) are based on the cumulative grade point average for all undergraduate work at Rice.

At the end of the Spring semester and after receipt of all grades, graduating undergraduate recipients are determined by the following procedure:

• summa cum laude — the grade point average within the highest five percent of the year's graduating class is recommended for the honor.
• magna cum laude — the grade point average included within the next highest ten percent is used to determine those eligible to graduate with the honor.
• cum laude — the grade point average included within the next fifteen percent is used to determine those students eligible to graduate with the honor.

Thus, approximately thirty percent of each graduating class receives Latin Honors upon graduation.

The following table lists the minimum GPA required to qualify for the various University (Latin) Honors in previous years:

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Ranking and Top 10 Percent

As a practice, Rice University does not "rank" the undergraduate degree recipients in a graduating class. Many of Rice's graduating undergraduates go on to graduate school. For those completing medical and law school applications, and needing the "top 10%" GPA for your graduating class, please make note of the following:

Questions

For more information about academic honors, refer to the Information for Undergraduate Students section in the General Announcements.

If you have any questions about the President's Honor Roll, please contact the Office of the Registrar at registrar@rice.edu.

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