Phi Beta Kappa

The Phi Beta Kappa Society (ΦΒΚ) is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It is respected by many people.^[1][2][3] due to its long history and academic selectivity.^[4][5][6] The purpose of Phi Beta Kappa is to improve study and research in the liberal arts and sciences. The society wants to have outstanding students of arts and sciences at American colleges and universities as members.^[7] It started at the College of William and Mary on December 5, 1776 as the first Greek-letter fraternity at a college and was one of the earliest collegiate fraternal societies.^[8]

Phi Beta Kappa (ΦΒΚ) stands for Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης (Philosophia Biou Kybernētēs), which means "Love of wisdom is the guide of life".

1. ↑ "Phi Beta Kappa". University of Virginia - The College of Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on October 5, 2018. Retrieved May 15, 2018. Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's oldest and most prestigious undergraduate honors organization. For more than 200 years, the Society has pursued its mission of celebrating and advocating excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, and its distinctive emblem, a golden key, is widely recognized as a symbol of academic distinction.
2. ↑ "Phi Beta Kappa". Boston College - Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved May 15, 2018. Phi Beta Kappa is the most prestigious academic honorary society in the United States. Founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and nurtured early on at Harvard and Yale, the Society is currently established at 262 of the foremost colleges and universities in the nation.
3. ↑ Bernstein, Emily. "Phi Beta Kappa Key Being Turned Down By Many Honorees". New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2018. The upshot is that Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's most prestigious honor society, has an image problem.
4. ↑ "About the Phi Beta Kappa Society". USC Dornsife - College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. Retrieved May 24, 2018. The selectivity of membership, as well as the society's rich history, is the reason that Phi Beta Kappa is considered among the most prestigious American college honor societies.
5. ↑ "Phi Beta Kappa". Honor Society. Retrieved May 15, 2018. Widely considered to be the nation's most prestigious honor society, Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences and to induct the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at American colleges and universities.
6. ↑ "What is Phi Beta Kappa?". Occidental College. Retrieved May 15, 2018. Phi Beta Kappa (ΦΒΚ) is the most prestigious and best known academic honor society in the United States ... Phi Beta Kappa celebrates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences by offering membership to the most outstanding arts and sciences students at the country's leading colleges and universities.
7. ↑ "PBK - About Phi Beta Kappa". www.pbk.org. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
8. ↑ Warren, John (2000). "Historical Information". Association of College Honor Societies. Retrieved 2009-03-10.