<p>Honors requirements vary from school to school and some schools are changing requirements because honors was too common. Harvard used to base summa and magna mostly on gpa but is changing to a percentage system:
“Until June 2005, Harvard will award honors to students recommended by their concentrations based in most cases on their overall grade point average. Until June 2005, to be awarded the degree magna cum laude, the candidate must have a minimum grade point average of 3.33. To be awarded the degree cum laude in field, the candidate must have a minimum grade point average of 2.83. For a student not recommended for honors by their concentration to be awarded the degree cum laude based solely on overall grade point average, the student must have a minimum grade point average of 3.00. The process of determining the degrees summa cum laude will be the same as described above.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.college.harvard.edu/academics/resources/honors_faqs.html[/url]”>http://www.college.harvard.edu/academics/resources/honors_faqs.html</a></p>