A 4.0 standard: Duke sees continued rise in GPA cutoffs for Latin honors, Dean’s List recognitions amid grade inflation

Duke students are required to achieve near perfection to earn University honors.

With Dean’s List honors released to all undergraduate students Jan. 10, data from the Office of the University Registrar revealed that at least 33% of Duke’s student population earned a 4.0 in the fall 2024 semester. For graduating seniors to earn any Latin honor, Trinity students were held to a 3.934 threshold and Pratt students a 3.881.

Throughout the past two decades, Duke students have seen a rise in grade point average cutoffs to earn Latin honors and Dean’s List/Dean’s List with Distinction. These increases show a rising threshold to reach top marks, requiring students to earn essentially all As throughout their time at Duke in order to be ranked within the top echelon of their peers.

“Increasing thresholds reflect changing patterns in grade distribution, and so we are actively reviewing how we acknowledge academic excellence in a way that is both meaningful and aligned with our institutional values,” wrote Deborah Reisinger, dean of undergraduate education for the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, in an email to The Chronicle. “… Learning should be about intellectual exploration, engagement and growth, but it is clear that grade anxiety can overshadow those goals.”

The Chronicle broke down which grades undergraduate students need to achieve per semester and throughout their four years in college in order to qualify for these honors. For the purposes of this analysis, The Chronicle did not consider students with non-traditional paths to Duke, such as transfer students who spend less time studying in Durham.

Latin honors cutoffs

In the Class of 2024 — the most recent graduating class — Trinity students were required to earn a 3.991 cumulative GPA, and students in the Pratt School of Engineering a 3.988 cumulative GPA upon graduation to earn a summa cum laude designation.

This means that students who took 32 course credits — four during each of their eight semesters — at Duke must have earned an A+ or A in every single class.

For students hoping to achieve cum laude distinction, the lowest Latin honor, the 2024 Trinity cutoff was a 3.934, while the Pratt cutoff was a 3.881. This cutoff, while giving more leeway to students, still requires students in both schools to overall earn significantly more As and A-s than B+ and Bs and makes it impossible for Trinity students to achieve Latin honors with anything lower than a C on their transcript.

Dean’s List, Dean’s List with Distinction

Duke students hoping to earn Duke’s semester honors — namely, Dean’s List or Dean’s List with Distinction — also have a small margin of error, or during some semesters, none at all.

In the fall 2024 semester, Trinity students were required to earn a 4.0 to qualify for both Dean’s List and Dean’s List with Distinction. The previous semester, Trinity students were required to earn a minimum 3.95 GPA to earn Dean’s List or a 4.0 to earn Dean’s List with Distinction.

This means that students taking a four- or five-course load must have earned a 4.0 in order to qualify for the honors, since earning one A- would have given the student a 3.925 or 3.94 GPA, respectively. Additionally, those with six courses would need a 3.95, while those taking a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory course would have to earn an S and three As.

The Pratt Dean’s List and Dean’s List with Distinction honor varies by class year. To have made the fall 2024 Dean’s List, the cutoffs were 3.925 for first-years, 3.85 for sophomores, 3.925 for juniors and 3.94 for seniors.

For Pratt first-years and juniors taking four courses, they were required to earn at least three As and only one A- to reach the 3.925 Dean’s List benchmark. In a 4.5-credit semester — the maximum number of credits in a student’s first semester at Duke — they would need to earn 3.5 credits of As and one A- to earn a 3.933. To make the cutoff in a five-credit semester, they would need to earn four As and one A- to earn a 3.94, and in a 5.5-credit semester, they would need to earn 4.5 As and one A- to earn a 3.9454.

For sophomores, those grades turn out to be at a minimum either two As and two A-s at 3.85, 2.5 As and two credits of A-s for a 3.8666, four As and one A- for 3.94 or three As and 2.5 credits of A- to earn a 3.8636.

For seniors, the minimum qualifying grades are four As for a 4.0, four As and one half-credit A- for 3.9666 or four As and one A- for 3.94.

Across all class years, students have to earn a 4.0 to qualify for Dean’s List with Distinction. For all class years, those taking an S/U course have to earn an S and three As to earn the honor.

To read more about the requirements for students to earn Trinity and Pratt Dean’s List or Dean’s List with Distinction, a full description can be found under Trinity’s Dean’s List cutoffs.

Trends over the years

Cutoffs for these two categories of honors have fluctuated over the years, showing an overall upward trend in the GPAs that qualify students for recognition.

In Trinity, while the Latin honors cutoffs ranged from 3.678 for cum laude to 3.868 for summa cum laude in 2005, that interval has since shrunk to 3.934 to 3.991 in 2024 — spanning from a 0.19 differential to just under 0.06 in 19 years.

Likewise in Pratt, the Latin honors cutoff spanned from 3.666 for cum laude to 3.905 for summa cum laude in 2005, and has since narrowed to 3.881 and 3.988, respectively. This reflects a decrease in range of roughly 0.23 to just over 0.1 across the two sets of GPA values.

For the past 10 years — excluding spring 2020 to spring 2021 due to the academic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — the threshold for Trinity students to receive Dean’s List with Distinction has been a perfect 4.0. Up until fall 2024, students were technically able to earn the Dean’s List designation with less than a 4.0 based on University statistics — at its lowest during the 10-year period, down to a 3.75 — though the allowable margin of error depended on the number of course credits the student took that semester.

Since spring 2016, Pratt students across grade levels have had to earn a 4.0 to receive Dean’s List with Distinction — excluding spring 2017, where first-years could have a 3.94, and fall 2017, where first-years could have a 3.925 and sophomores a 3.94. Dean’s List benchmarks have varied across grades but followed an overall increasing trend throughout the past 19 years.

According to Reisinger, Trinity “faculty, departments, academic deans and students” are reviewing the college’s grading practices “to foster a culture that prioritizes deep learning,” pointing to the new Trinity curriculum passed in April as “a reflection of these values.”

Vinik Dean of Engineering Jerome Lynch did not respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment in time for publication.

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