Dean's list

Distinction

Comparison to North American Latin honors

Main article: Latin honors

Although the dean's list and Latin honors may both be issued in recognition of high scholarship, they are mostly separate awards not intended for direct comparison. Many institutions confer three levels of Latin honors, as follows:

• cum laude, meaning "with praise" (or "with honor")
  • In North America, this honor is typically awarded to graduates in the top 25 percent (or 30 percent) of their class.
• magna cum laude, meaning "with great honor"
  • In North America, this honor is typically awarded to graduates in the top 10 percent (or 15 percent) of their class; this is the highest honor awarded at some institutions.
• summa cum laude, meaning "with highest honor"
  • In North America, this honor is typically awarded to graduates in the top 1 to 5 percent of their class.

Because Latin honors are often conferred to the approximate class rank whereby students also receive the dean's list (as the top 10 to 15 percent), magna and summa cum laude are usually held in higher regard. A dean's list may therefore be seen as equal to (or more prestigious than) cum laude, depending on the specific requirements involved.

Comparison to GPA

The dean's list GPA requirements vary from school to school, although there are general standards:

• With the GPA scale from 0 to 4, 4 being an A, the dean's list cutoff is typically around 3.5 to 3.7.
• Top 10 percent of the class in GPA

Some schools maintain two lists for two different levels of GPA. For example, the dean's list records students with at least a 3.5 GPA whereas the chancellor's list records students with a higher 4.0 GPA.

Different from an academic scholarship, the dean's list award does not come with any financial aid. However, students high on the dean's list are often offered extra financial aid, especially if they express a desire to transfer or exhibit more financial need.

Comparison to British classifications

In the United Kingdom, colleges and universities may utilize variations of the British degree classifications to distinguish students of high scholarship. The classification system as currently used in the United Kingdom, for example, was developed in 1918. The system was implemented based on one from the 16th century, when the Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge implemented norm referencing to distinguish the top 25 percent of candidates, the next 50 percent, and the bottom 25 percent.

Today, first-class honours is awarded, by most institutions, to any student that receives a grade of 70 percent or higher (as opposed to classification by class rank). The number of first-class honours degrees has reportedly tripled since the 1990s, and there has been concern over possible grade inflation due to increasing numbers of higher-class honours degrees awarded per annum.

References

References

1. "Dean's List {{!}} University of Pennsylvania - College of Arts and Sciences".
2. "Congratulations to each student on the Dean's List!". Ryerson University.
3. "University of College London (UCL): Dean's Lists".
4. "National University of Singapore (NUS): Faculty of Science Dean's List".
5. "University of Melbourne Dean's Honours List {{!}} Faculty of Business and Economics".
6. "Office of the Registrar: Provost's List". [[University of Wyoming]].
7. "UNC Asheville Announces Fall 2016 Chancellor's List and Dean's List Students". [[University of North Carolina at Asheville]].
8. "Rector's List". Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien ([[Vienna University of Economics and Business]]).
9. "Class of 2014 Honors". [[Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
10. The usual translation of ''[[wiktionary:laude#Latin. laude]]'' from [[Latin]] is "with praise".
11. "Graduation Honors". New York University.
12. "Latin Honors". [[Boston University]].
13. "Dean's List". [[Ohio State University]].
14. (2008-06-16). "Dean's List Requirements". [[Cornell University]].
15. (January 11, 2017). "Falk College Spring 2016 Dean's List". [[Syracuse University]].
16. "Dean's List". [[University of Washington]].
17. (June 7, 2016). "More than 1,000 IU Southeast students honored for academics in spring semester". [[Indiana University Southeast]].
18. "University Honors". Gonzaga University.
19. Alderman, Geoffrey. (14 October 2003). "Tear up the class system". The Guardian.
20. Paton, Graeme. (10 January 2013). "Number of first-class degrees "has tripled since late 90s"". The Telegraph.
21. (12 January 2012). "Is the number of first-class degrees cause for concern?". The Guardian.
22. Shepherd, Jessica. (17 January 2012). "Is the number of first-class degrees cause for concern: Update". The Guardian.