Magna, Summa, and the Honor Roll
What does it mean to graduate with honors? Academic honors involve these Latin terms...
What is Cum Laude: Graduating With Honor means graduating cum laude. What does cum laude mean? Translators define cum laude as With Praise. Cum laude honors, graduated with honors, graduation honors, and graduate cum laude all involve a high GPA.
What is Magna Cum Laude: The magna cum laude definition is With Great Honor. Scholars define magna cum laude meaning With Great Praise. Usually it means you had the second best grades. Frequent misspellings: magnum cum laude, magna cum laud, magna cumme laude, magna cun laude, graduated cum laude, or my favorite magma cum laude (hot honors!).
What is Summa Cum Laude: Most define summa cum laude as With Highest Praise, and the summa cum laude definition is With Highest Honor. It usually means highest grades. Misspellings: suma cum laude, sum laude, summa cumme laude, sum cum laude, cumma sum laude, cuma sum laude, and sigma cum laude.
Graduating With Honors Requirements: Graduation with honors cum laude requirements vary. Cum laude grade point average estimates: gpa for cum laude - 3.5 to 3.7; gpa for magna cum laude - 3.8 to 3.9; gpa for summa cum laude - 4.0+. Magna cum laude gpa and summa cum laude gpa can tie, broken by additional factors.
Honors Convocation: Some high school and college graduation honors invoke the honor roll (sometimes misspelled as "honor role") with initiation ceremonies or induction. Such ceremonies often involve honor cords, honor stoles, or an honor medallion. High schools usually forgo an initiation ceremony and present the honor cords and other items along with the graduation gowns.
For further information, please take a look at our honor society page.