Beta of Texas Rice University

I. THE EXCLUSION OF COURSES IN APPLIED OR PROFESSIONAL AREAS:

General Criteria. While other honoraria societies recognize academic excellence in pre-professional fields such as engineering or architecture, the purpose of Phi Beta Kappa is to honor outstanding achievement in the liberal arts and sciences, in courses that reflect a breadth of intellectual interest and a love of learning for its own sake. For purposes of determining eligibility, therefore, PBK does not count any courses that are intended primarily to develop specific skills or vocational techniques in such applied or professional fields as business administration, education, architecture, the armed forces, engineering, computer science, physical education, or the applied arts and music.

Excluded courses. All laboratory courses, when listed individually on the transcript, are disallowed, regardless of field or department. College courses are acceptable if their titles clearly reflect the criteria for "liberal" courses, as indicated above. Because of continual changes in the Rice curriculum, any listing of specific courses such as the one that follows much be carefully scrutinized and revised on an annual basis. [Note: If a department is not listed below, that means that all of its course offerings are acceptably "liberal," as defined by these criteria.]

ACCOUNTING AND ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE. Accept only: ACCO 305.

ARCHITECTURE. Accept only: ARCH 101, 102, 132, 201, 202, 301, 302, 311, 325, 331, 332, 345, 346, 347, 350, 358, 360, 362, 368, 372, 374, 375, 376, 386, 401, 402, 431, 455, 466, 470, 481, 483, 485.

ART HISTORY. Accept all HART courses.

BIOENGINEERING. Accept only: BIOE 252, 260, 301, 322, 332, 391.

BIOSCIENCES. All laboratory courses are disallowed: BIOS 211, 212, 213, 310 to 318, 401 to 412. All courses numbered 500 and higher are also disallowed.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING. Accept only: CENG 301, 302, 390.

CHEMISTRY. All laboratory courses are disallowed: CHEM 105, 106, 213, 214, 215, 311, 312, 313, 314, 403, 491, 492. All courses numbered 500 and higher are also disallowed.

CIVIL ENGINEERING. Accept only: CEVE 211.

COMPUTATIONAL AND APPLIED MATHEMATICS. All courses number 500 and higher are disallowed.

COMPUTER SCIENCE. Accept only: COMP 100, 200, 210, 211, 212, 280, 300.

EARTH SCIENCE. All laboratory courses are disallowed: ESCI 212, 334, 390, 444, 452, 480 to 492. All courses are numbered 500 and higher are also disallowed.

EDUCATION. Accept only: EDUC 311, 312, 409.

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING. Accept only: ELEC 201, 220, 241, 301, 305, 306, 320, 430.

ENGINEERING. Accept only: ENGI 202, 205, 302, 303.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. Accept only: ENVI 201, 401.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES. Accept only: ENST 114, 314.

KINESIOLOGY.
Accept only: HPER, 120, 161, 204, 205, 250, 302, 305, 311, 319, 321, 490.
Accept only: HEAL 103, 119, 201, 208, 212, 222, 313, 350, 407, 422, 460.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS SCIENCE:
Accept only: MECH 200, 211, 311, 314, 321, 371, 372, 380.
Accept only: MSCI 301, 401, 402, 406, 411, 415.

MILITARY SCIENCE. All MILI courses are disallowed.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC. Accept only:
These courses in "Composition": MUSI 303, 305, 307.
These courses in "Theory": MUSI 117, 118, 211, 212, 311, 312, 317, 318, 411, 412.
These courses in "History and Literature": MUSI 221, 222, 321 to 329, 421 to 429, 529, 624, 625, 722.
All other MUSI courses (including all performance and individual instruction courses) are disallowed.

NAVAL SCIENCE. All NAVA courses are disallowed.

PHYSICS. All laboratory courses are disallowed: PHYS 132, 231, 331, 332, 431 to 462. All courses numbered 500 and higher are also disallowed.

SPACE PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY. The laboratory course is disallowed: SPAC 330. All courses numbered 500 and higher are also disallowed.

VISUAL & DRAMATIC ARTS. Accept only: ARTS 176, 430, 432.

II. ADDITIONAL STIPULATIONS

A. The Core Requirement. Eligible students must have completed no less than 90 credit-hours of "liberal" course work, as defined by the criteria in Article I, above.

B. Transfer students must have completed a minimum of three semesters of full-time course work at Rice University. Transfer courses, listed on transcripts by their Rice University course equivalents, must also be examined in terms of the criteria stipulated in Article I, above. PBK credit is awarded only for transfer courses that pass those tests. Such transfer courses may also be used to satisfy PBK's "extra-divisional requirement," as described below. The same is true for all courses listed on the transcript as having been awarded advanced placement credit.

C. Current Courses. When considering courses designated as "liberal" studies, and when calculating the "extra-divisional requirement" (see below), courses in which the student is currently enrolled should also be taken into account.

D. The PBK GPA. Grade earned in all applied or professional courses -- the ones that are disallowed, as per the criteria in Article I -- should not be counted in computing the GPA for eligible students. Unless it is obvious that removing the "disallowed" courses would have no substantive effect on the grade-point average, the GPA should be recalculated to reflect the candidate's performance in "liberal: courses only. The following numerical equivalences should be used:

A+= 4.33	B+= 3.33	C+=2.33
A= 4.00	B = 3.00	C=2.00
A-= 3.66	B-= 2.66	C-=1.66

E. The Extra-Divisional Requirement. The United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa emphasize in their Stipulations Concerning Eligibility for Membership in Course, that "weight shall be given to the breadth and proportion of the program of each candidate as shown by the number and variety of courses taken outside the major." Accordingly, of all the "liberal" courses (as defined in Article I) that are listed on the candidate's transcript, an agreed-upon minimum number must come from outside the student's major division:

1. Single-division majors must have taken at least 10 extra-divisional "liberal" courses. (Note that this represents only 2 more than the minimum university requirement of 8 distribution courses.)

2. For Science/Engineering majors (treated here as constituting a single division), extra-divisional courses are those in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Music, and Architecture.

   For Humanities majors, extra-divisional courses are in the Social Sciences, Science/Engineering, Music, and Architecture.

   For Social Science majors, extra-divisional courses are in the Humanities, Science/Engineering, Music, and Architecture.

   For Music and Architecture majors, extra-divisional courses are those "liberal" courses that are offered in any of the other major divisions.

   [Note that for purposes of meeting this extra-divisional requirement, courses in Linguistics and History may be treated either as a part of the Social Sciences or of the Humanities; and courses in Statistics either as a part of the Social Sciences or of the Science/Engineering division.]

3. Multiple majors that cross-cut these divisions (e.g. PSYC/RELI, ECON/MATH, PHIL/HIST) automatically satisfy the extra-divisional requirement.

4. Students in a single inter-divisional major (e.g., Area Studies, Cognitive Studies) must not have taken more than three-fourths of all of their "liberal" courses in any single division.

5. Note: The Beta of Texas Chapter of PBK should find ways to publicize this extra-divisional requirement on a regular basis (perhaps in a letter to The Thresher, or in the press release containing the announcement of the newly elected Members-in-Course), in order to encourage all students to select more than the required minimum number of courses from outside the division of their major.

Maintained by Kerry Keck, last updated 07/07/2009