Eligibility

Consideration for PBK is given to juniors or seniors demonstrating competence in foreign language and math, who have broad interests, and who have devoted 75 percent of their coursework toward liberal studies. There is no application for membership in our chapter. To be eligible, students must meet the following criteria:

  • Have at least 24 liberal* courses completed and/or in progress
  • Have the QUANT course completed and/or in progress (AP credit does not satisfy the QUANT requirement)
  • Have demonstrated a knowledge of a second or non-native language. This is done by
    • Completing or being in the process of completing a 200-level language course at Gustavus
    • Being multilingual
    • Demonstrating competency in another language and receiving a waiver for the Gustavus language requirement
  • Have one or fewer instances academic dishonesty reported and zero instances of disciplinary probation for student conduct
  • Meet the breadth requirement. This is done by
    • Completing or being in the process of completing 3 liberal course credits in three of the five divisions or 2 liberal course credits in four of the five divisions**
    • Completing 2 liberal course credits at the 200-level or higher in two of the five divisions, excluding the first 200-level language credit
  • Meet the liberal GPA*** cutoff****. This is done by
    • Earning a minimum of a 3.7 GPA as a senior (Note: for the class of 2024, a minimum GPA of 3.9 will be required for election as a senior)
    • Earning a minimum of a 3.9 GPA as a junior (Note: no juniors will be elected in 2024)

*A course is designated as liberal if it is in the traditional disciplines of the natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences, and humanities. Applied or pre-professional courses are not considered liberal. For example, internship courses are not considered liberal. Additionally, some courses in Nursing, Education, Athletic Training, Accounting, and other areas are not considered liberal.

**There are five divisions in which courses are categorized based on the department that offers the course. The five divisions are: Education, Fine Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences/Math, and Social Sciences. Note that a course must be considered liberal to be classified into a division.

***The liberal GPA is calculated using only those courses considered liberal.

****The GPA cutoffs are minimum; higher cutoffs may be used to ensure that a maximum of 10% of eligible students from a graduating class are inducted each year.

All information for consideration comes from transcripts and school records. However, we recognize that these documents do not always contain all necessary materials. If you believe that you are eligible for induction into PBK and you did not receive an invitation, please complete the audit request form. More information about an audit request can be found below.

Audit Request Form

If you believe that you are eligible for induction into PBK and you did not receive an invitation, you can complete the form at the following link and the PBK Executive Committee will review your request. The audit request form is open only to graduating seniors and must be completed by March 19, 2024. On this form, you will be asked to provide your name, student id number, and Gustavus email address. Additionally, you will need to upload a pdf copy of your unofficial transcript (which can be downloaded from MyGustavus). There will also be a text box for you to provide more information to aid the executive committee in reviewing your transcript. If you have any questions regarding the audit request form, please reach out to the PBK president.