The purpose of Phi Beta Kappa is to recognize and encourage scholarship in the liberal arts and sciences.
Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest, most prestigious scholastic honor society and the first American society to have a Greek-letter name. Only the most outstanding undergraduates at America’s leading colleges and universities who meet the Society’s rigorous and comprehensive standards are elected to membership each year. It is arguably the highest academic honor that undergraduate students can achieve. The first chapter was founded on December 5, 1776, at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The St. Mary’s College of Maryland chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was chartered in 1997 and has since inducted 547 student members-in course (now alumni).