Latin honors are Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. This system is primarily used in the United States and Canada. It is also used in some Southeastern Asian countries with European colonial history, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, although sometimes translations of these phrases are used instead of the Latin originals. The honors distinction should not be confused with the honors degrees offered in some countries, or with honorary degrees.

Generally, a college or university's regulations set out definite criteria to be met in order for a student to obtain a given honors distinction.

For example, the student might be required to achieve a specific grade point average, to submit an honors thesis for evaluation, to be part of an honors program, or to graduate early.

Each university sets its own standards.

Since these standards may vary widely it is possible for the same level of Latin honors conferred by different institutions to represent contrasting levels of academic achievement.

Similarly, some institutions may grant equivalent (or additional) non-Latin honors to undergraduates.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison, for example, has a series of plain English grading honors based on class standing.^[1]

These honors, when they are used, are almost always awarded to undergraduates earning their bachelor's, and, with the exception of law school graduates, much more rarely to graduate students receiving their master's or doctorate degree. The honor is typically indicated on the diploma. Latin honors are often conferred upon law school students graduating as a Juris Doctor or J.D., in which case they are generally based upon class rank or grade point average.

In North America, Latin honors are frequently used by colleges and universities to indicate a level of distinction with which a degree is granted, and are usually awarded for undergraduate degrees (such as the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science) and for the Juris Doctor law degree. They are generally not used for any other degrees, including master's degrees or the Ph.D. and M.D. degrees. Most institutions use two or three levels of Latin honors, listed below in ascending order:

Some institutions have additional distinctions, but these are uncommon.

For example, at a few universities maxima cum laude, meaning "with very great praise", is an intermediary honor between the magna and the summa honors. It is sometimes used when the summa honor is reserved only for students with perfect academic records.^[4][5] A further rarely used distinction is that of egregia cum laude which means "with outstanding praise", and if used may be for either students achieving summa cum laude honors in a particularly difficult subject area or recipients of a non-standard Bachelor's degree.^[6]

In 1869, Harvard College became the first college in the United States to award final honors to its graduates. From 1872 to 1879, cum laude and summa cum laude were the two Latin honors awarded to graduates. Beginning in 1880, magna cum laude was also awarded:

In his 1895 history of Amherst College, college historian William Seymour Tyler traced Amherst's system of Latin honors to 1881, and attributed it to Amherst College President Julius Hawley Seelye:

In the UK the Latin cum laude is used in commemorative Latin versions of degree certificates sold by a few universities (e.g. the University of Edinburgh) to denote a Bachelor's degree with Honours, but the honors classification is stated as in English, e.g. Primi Ordinis for First Class rather than summa cum laude, etc. Official degree certificates use English.^[8]

For undergraduate degrees, Latin honors are used in only a few countries such as the United States, Israel, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and Canada. Most countries use a different scheme, such as the British undergraduate degree classification (usually used in Commonwealth countries) which is more widely used with varying criteria and nomenclature depending on country, including Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe and many other countries. Malta shows the Latin honors on the degree certificates, but the UK model is shown on the transcript.

In Austria, the only Latin honor in use is sub auspiciis Praesidentis rei publicae (under the auspices of the president of the republic) for doctoral degrees. Candidates must have consistently excellent grades throughout high school and university, making it very difficult to attain: only about 20 out of a total of 2,500 doctoral graduates per year (i.e. 0.8%) achieve a sub auspiciis degree.

In Belgium, the university degree awarded is limited to:

In Brazil, most universities do not provide honors to their students. Among the few universities that do so, the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA—Aeronautical Institute of Technology) awards the cum laude honor for graduates with every individual grade above 8.5 (out of 10.0), the magna cum laude honor for graduates with average grade above 8.5 and more than 50% of individual grades above 9.5, and the summa cum laude honor for graduates with average grade above 9.5. As of 2009, only 22 graduates have received the summa cum laude honor at ITA. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro awards the cum laude honor for graduates with average grade from 8.0 to 8.9, the magna cum laude honor for graduates with average grade from 9.0 to 9.4, and the summa cum laude honor for graduates with average grade from 9.5 to 10.0. The Federal University of Ceará awards the magna cum laude honor for undergraduates who have never failed a course, achieved an average grade from 8.5 (out of 10.0) and have received a fellowship of both Academic Extension and Teaching Initiation.

In Estonia, up until 2010 both summa cum laude and cum laude were used. Summa cum laude was awarded only for very exceptional work. Since 1 September 2010, only cum laude is used. It is awarded to bachelors, masters and integrated studies graduates. Occasionally the word kiitusega, which means "with praise", is substituted for the usual cum laude. To receive cum laude one must achieve 4.60 GPA (out of 5) and receive the highest grade (A - 5.00) for the thesis or the final examination.^[9]

The Finnish Matriculation Examinations at the end of lukio uses the grades of: improbatur (I, failing; "not accepted"), approbatur (A; "accepted") lubenter approbatur (B; "willingly accepted"), cum laude approbatur (C; "accepted with praise"), magna cum laude approbatur (M; "accepted with great praise"), eximia cum laude approbatur (E; "accepted with excellent praise") and laudatur (L; "praised"). They are roughly equivalent to Finnish school grades ranging from 4 to 10. Some Finnish universities, when grading master's theses and doctoral dissertations, use the same scale with the additional grade of non sine laude approbatur (N; "accepted not without praise") between lubenter and cum laude; technical universities use a numerical scale (1-5) instead.

In France, usually the French honors très honorable avec félicitations du jury, très honorable and honorable are used. However some Grandes Écoles, like the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, HEC Paris, use the Latin and English titles "summa cum laude" / "graduated with highest honors" for the top 2% and "cum laude" / "graduated with honors" for the next 5% of a year. Since 2016, honorifics ceased to be used for the completion of a PhD.^[10]

In Germany, the range of degrees is: rite ("duly" conferred, that is, the requirements are fulfilled), cum laude (with honors), magna cum laude (with great honors), and summa cum laude (with highest honors). These degrees are mostly used when a doctorate is conferred, not for diplomas, bachelor's or master's degrees, for which numerical grades between 1.0 ("very good") and 4.0 ("pass"), and 5.0 ("fail"), are given.

In Hungary, the range of degrees — similar to the German system — is: rite ("duly" conferred, that is, the requirements are fulfilled), cum laude (with honors), summa cum laude (with highest honors). These degrees are used in university diplomas and in certain fields of sciences (medical, legal and a very few others) only. The grades of degrees are dependent on the received average points from final exams and from average points from the university studies.

In Italy, the cum laude notation ("con lode" being the equivalent in Italian) is used as an increasing level of the highest grade for both exams (30/30) and degrees (110/110), in all its levels; sometimes passing an exam cum laude (30 e lode) has only an honorific meaning, but sometimes it influences the average grade and can be useful to the student so honored. In Italy "110 e lode" (at institutions using a 110-point system) is the highest rank that can be achieved during the academic studies, although many years ago there were some other notations (that were given only to those who had attained the "lode"). These include : bacio e abbraccio accademico ("academic kiss and embrace") menzione d'onore ("honor mention") and dignità di stampa ("dignity of printing"), and were given based on various University-specific requirements, but without a legal value.

In Malta, for Bachelor Honours degrees Summa Cum Laude refers to First Class Honours, Magna Cum Laude refers to Second Class Honours (Upper Division), Cum Laude refers to Second Class Honours (Lower Division) whilst Bene Probatus refers to Third Class Honours. Professional degrees lasting longer than the standard 3 years such as the 5 year Bachelor of Pharmacy are awarded Egregia Cum Laude. Postgraduate Diplomas and Master’s degrees may be awarded as Pass with Distinction (Summa Cum Laude), Pass with Merit (Magna Cum Laude) or Pass (Bene Probatus).

In Mexico, cum laude (also known as "mención honorífica" in Spanish) is used, by the major universities, to recognize an outstanding dissertation for bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees. Also different awards on public and private universities are given to the student with the highest final grade average (i.e. Presea Lázaro Cárdenas or Gabino Barreda Medal) and a diploma is given as a form of cum laude.

In the Netherlands, both for bachelor's and master's programs, only one class of honors is used: cum laude (with honor). Typically it is reserved to mark exceptional achievement. It depends on an absolute minimum grade point average. Sometimes it is lost, despite a high average mark, when the student gets a mark of 6 or lower for one of the many exams (on a scale of 1–10, where 10 is the highest). Generally, less than 2% receive the cum laude distinction. It is also possible to receive a PhD degree cum laude, although this honor is even rarer than for master's graduates. In view of the difficulty and subjectivity of determining this, some universities and fields of study very seldom award doctorates cum laude. At Dutch University Colleges, cum laude, magna cum laude and, exceptionally, summa cum laude may be used.

In the Philippines, Junior High School - Senior High School Students under the new K–12 Curriculum an honor system using Filipino translations of the Latin original. Students who achieve a final grade average of 90-94 are awarded the title "May Karangalan" ("cum laude" in Latin or "with honors") and will receive a bronze medal with the DepEd seal.Those who have a final grade average of 95-97 receive the title of "May Mataas na Karangalan" ("magna cum laude" or "with high honors") and a silver medal with the same seal. Students with a final grade average of 98-100 shall be awarded the title of "May Pinakamataas na Karangalan" ("summa cum laude" or "with highest honors") and a gold medal with the same specification. In College, students are referred to as: Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude, respectively. ^[11]

In Russia, the honor system is based on the grade point averages. At least 4.75 out of 5.0 points are required for the cum laude degree ("с отличием" ("s otlichiem") in Russian or "with excellence").^[12] The graduate has to receive a perfect grade on all final examinations. Usually less than 2% of all graduating students accomplish this (depending on the university and year). In military schools, a "red diploma" may be accompanied by a gold medal ("summa cum laude") for outstanding performance. Russian high schools also award a gold medal to the student who achieves a perfect score in all final examinations and in all other subjects not requiring a final exam. A silver medal is awarded to high school students who have one or two grades of 4 ("хорошо" in Russian or "good", being second highest grade) on their final exams or other subjects as listed in the high school diploma ("attestat o (polnom) srednem obrazovanii").

In Singapore, the Latin honors, cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude are used by Singapore Management University. Graduates from Singapore Management University have to achieve GPAs of 3.4, 3.6 and 3.8 out of 4.0 respectively and without any exceptions, in order to qualify for the Latin honors.

It is also used by Yale-NUS College, with the top 5% of a graduating class receiving summa cum laude, the next 10% magna cum laude, and the next 20% cum laude. There are no CAP requirements to achieve the Latin honors at Yale-NUS College.^[13]

In Spain, the Latin honors cum laude is used for PhD degrees only, and is awarded after a secret vote of the jury members, using envelopes that must be opened in a separate session, and requiring unanimity.

In Switzerland, the degrees rite, cum laude, magna cum laude, insigni cum laude and summa cum laude are used, but the exact GPA corresponding to each varies by institution.

In Ukraine, the university education honor system is based on by-law # 161 (02.06.1993) of The Ministry of Education of Ukraine (3.12.3.5). In order for a student to graduate a university with a diploma with honors (cum laude), students have to receive mark "5" (excellent) at least on 75% of courses, receive mark 4 (good) at max 25% of courses, and pass the state exams only with mark "5" (excellent). Also, students are expected to have participated in research projects with visible results.^[14]