Phi Beta Kappa Society

Carnegie Mellon shelters a chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, sponsored by the three colleges (Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mellon College of Science, and the School of Computer Science) that comprise the University's “arts and sciences” equivalent. The chapter's name is “Upsilon of Pennsylvania,” and was formally installed in April of 1995.

The nation’s oldest and most distinguished undergraduate academic honors society, PBK was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Its primary goal is to emphasize the intrinsic value of liberal arts and science education and to champion freedom of thought. Top universities nationwide host fewer than 300 chapters, with each chapter selecting only 10 percent of their schools’ arts and sciences students for initiation.

Membership in Phi Beta Kappa key has become a universally recognized mark of academic achievement in the liberal arts and sciences. The key's venerable pointing finger proclaims for all to see the wearer's commitment to Phi Beta Kappa's ancient principles (represented in the three stars) — friendship, morality and learning. The society's name is formed by the first letters of the phrase Philosophia Biou Kybernetes, Philosophy (wisdom) is the Guide of Life. In line with the conviction that the test of education lies not in what people know but in what they are, the objectives of humane learning encouraged by Phi Beta Kappa include not merely knowledge but also intellectual honesty and tolerance, a broad range of intellectual interests and understanding.

The Carnegie Mellon chapter is active in sponsoring visiting speakers, on-campus roundtables that focus on current issues, community service activities, scholarship opportunities, student research involvement, and the like.