<p>I was cleaning out my jewelry box and came across my PBK key.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t remember any value of being in PBK aside from the one-liner on my resume, which of course didn’t matter beyond my first job anyway.</p>
<p>My sum total of involvement was getting a notice that I was in, hitting my parents up for the fee, going to some kind of initiation brunch or dinner which was so unmemorable that I don’t recall if it was brunch or dinner, getting a pin, and that was that. My parents would have come up to see me (they were 6 hours away) if it had been important, but I don’t recall it being important enough to ask them. The chapter, such as it were, was never any kind of cohesive organization. No mission, purpose, activities, nada. I could name exactly one person in my PBK “class,” because he was a friend of mine (and is now a well known author). And honestly it must have been based solely on grades and not on leadership, because while I had various activities, I certainly wasn’t any kind of campus leader. </p>
<p>Now, of course, this is the dark ages of the mid eighties I’m talking about here. Were any of your experiences different?</p>
<p>There are PBK communities throughout the world that meet for various purposes – book clubs, educational activities, community service, etc. I too graduated PBK, and have been invited to join such groups, but have never attended a get together. I avoid them because I imagine – rightly or wrongly – that participants are like people in the Mensa groups I’ve visited, and I don’t play well with self-absorbed people.</p>
<p>My experience was the same as yours, Pizzagirl. I attended the dinner, got the pin, and listed Phi Beta Kappa on my resume for the first few years after graduating. I don’t even know what happened to the pin.</p>
<p>Hey, getting that first job is really important. With no experience, PBK could definitely be the tipping factor. Especially in the olde days, when people didn’t already have 2-3 internships during college.</p>
<p>Actually, I am still impressed when I find out that someone I know is a PBK. Maybe it’s “old school” of me, but to me being a PBK means that you really achieved a level of excellence in college–which is a lot harder to achieve at the college level compared to the high school level. I’m also impressed when I learn that someone was Order of the Coif…</p>
<p>For me, I got the cheapo key that was included in the initiation price (didn’t splurge for the more expensive one). Don’t recall any ceremony or meal. Also got some certificate mailed to me and also get a periodic newsletter with requests for donations. Did/do include it as part of my resume because many know what it is & respect it.</p>
<p>Didn’t get a key, didn’t attend any ceremony BUT it stayed on my resume beyond my first job (just included it after the degree name and honors designation) and was actually mentioned favorably by an interviewer 23 years after graduation! It has a certain magic power with some people. Even though I never once paid an ongoing membeship fee or did anything else with the organization, the very boring newsletter managed to track me down no matter how many times I moved and despite adopting my husband’s last name when I married. They are a relentless bunch.</p>
<p>Yea, my parents are still proud of it & it’s still on my resume now about 30 years since I became a PBK. I don’t think it ever hurts to have that designation, as it’s one of the few honor socieities that are widely known. There was a mini-scandal way back when a newish PBK posed on Playboy with it and nothing else.</p>
<p>What would qualify you as a PBK at the college level? Is it usually more challenge to become a PBK than, say, summa cum laude? When I was in a graduate school, it seems only one student from each department (or from some departments only) was invited to join the PBK community. (not very sure here though.)</p>
<p>It is set by each school, but can’t exceed the top 10% of the student body. Summa’s usually have higher GPA requirements (depends on the school). Usually, things like university and department honors are of greater importance in employment and graduate school because they give some (little) more information about what a future employee can actually do. (When I sit on hiring committees, and see a PBK, I don’t even take note of it.)</p>
<p>I graduated PBK and was also initiated into the national music honor society, Pi Kappa Lambda. The requirements for PBK were much more stringent than the requirements for Pi Kappa Lambda. At my alma mater one not only had to have a very high GPA, but one also had to have taken a certain number of graduate level courses both within the major and outside of the major. I found that being PBK did help in getting an assistantship in grad school. I still list PBK on my music studio brochures. Most parents of prospective students seem to be impressed that a supposedly intelligent person will be teaching their child :).</p>
<p>H and I graduated from college together. He was PBK and I was not. I still remember his mother, whom I met for the first time commencement weekend, commenting, “I saw your name in the program” to me. Yes, I got it – I was without the designation. :eek:</p>
<p>Numerous decades later, his key is somewhere in a box. He would never mention it or note it on a resume – I don’t even know if our kids know he was a PBK. I may be the only person alive, aside from him, who is aware of it. (He is still very hard working and I am still a relative slacker – and I* still* have more fun LOL! ;))</p>