5325 Academic Honors

Initial Date of Approval: 4/22/09

Revision Date(s): 5/21/20, 7/10/24

Administrative Responsibility: Vice President of Student Services

PURPOSE

To recognize students’ academic achievement.

 

POLICY

Students who meet the following criteria will receive appropriate recognition for honor roll, honors and high honors, and president’s medal.

Honor Roll

Students will be placed on the quarterly honor roll if they have earned a quarterly grade point average (GPA) of 3.75 or higher for at least 12 credits of graded-basis courses.

Honors and High Honors

Students graduating with an associate’s degree or certificate requiring 45 credits or more will receive honors for a cumulative Skagit Valley College (SVC) GPA of 3.50 to 3.79 and high honors for a cumulative SVC GPA of 3.80 to 4.0 in courses numbered 100 and above. Transfer credits are not part of the cumulative SVC GPA and are not calculated for honors or high honors.

President’s Medal

Students graduating with an associate’s degree will receive the president’s medal, as a physical object, if they meet the following criteria.

• The student attended at least three quarters at SVC.
• The student earned a cumulative SVC GPA of 3.90 or higher in courses numbered 100 and above.
• The student received an A or A- in all graded-basis courses with no I, Z, Y, or V grades.
• No graded-basis courses were repeated to exclude lower grades and include higher grades.
• No more than two (2) P grades were earned in graded-basis courses.

BAS Honors: Cum laude, Magna cum laude, Summa cum laude

Students seeking a bachelor of applied science (BAS) degree who meet the criteria below at the completion of their final quarter of study will have the following BAS honors designations listed on their transcript. Their GPA calculation will only include program-specific courses (numbered 300 or higher).

• Cum laude requires a program GPA of 3.50
• Magna cum laude requires a program GPA of 3.75
• Summa cum laude requires a program GPA of 3.75, plus a grade of A in the required capstone course.

PROCEDURES

Honor Roll

The registrar processes quarterly honors, using the ctcLink batch process, after final grades are posted to transcripts each quarter. Each student’s quarterly honors are notated on their transcript as part of their permanent record. Students with questions about quarterly honors should contact enrollment@skagit.edu.

Honors and High Honors

The credential evaluation team assigns honors and high honors individually while processing graduation applications. Each student’s degree honors are notated on their transcript as part of their permanent record.

Associate and certificate students who qualify for honors or high honors at the end of the winter quarter before graduation will be issued honor cords at the spring quarter commencement ceremony. The issuance of honor cords does not guarantee that the student will receive honors or high honors upon graduation.

Students with questions about honors should contact graduation@skagit.edu.

President’s Medal

The credentials evaluation team, in coordination with the Office of Student Life, will designate and notify president’s medal recipients before the spring quarter Honors Reception. President’s medal recipients are encouraged to wear their medals as part of their commencement regalia. Students with questions about the president’s medal should contact graduation@skagit.edu.

BAS Honors: Cum laude, Magna cum laude, Summa cum laude

The credentials evaluation team assigns BAS honors individually while processing graduation applications. Each student’s BAS honors are notated on their transcript as part of their permanent record. Because spring quarter grades do not post to transcripts until after spring quarter commencement, BAS graduates are not eligible for SVC honor cords.

Students with questions about BAS honors should contact graduation@skagit.edu.

 

Definitions

Graded-basis courses: SVC-designated courses for which grades are calculated towards the cumulative GPA.