While rare, I have seen the designation applied to masters degrees also.
There are some schools that apply it to graduate students, but very rarely. I graduated my master's degree with a 3.96 with no honors mentioned. It is really up to the school.
At most colleges and universities, students can graduate with Latin honors. Cum laude, Summa cum laude, and Magna cum laude are the honors distinction.
The correct term is: cum laude, meaning "with distinction"; magna cum laude, meaning "with great distinction"; or summa cum laude, "with highest distinction".
Summa cum laude is the highest distinction
It means you have achieved excellent academic performance. There are three common levels of distinction as follows from lowest to highest. * cum laude * magna cum laude * summa cum laude (highest honors)
In most colleges and universities, if you graduate with a GPA of 3.5, you graduate "cum laude" (with distinction). "Magna cum lauda" and "Summa cum lauda" require slightly higher GPA's respectively.
The GPA requirement to graduate Magna Cum Laude for an under-graduate degree from UNC at Chapel Hill is 3.75. Students must also have earned a total of 75 semester hours to earn Latin honors from the University.
Summa Cum Laude: Students with a cumulative GPA of 3.900 or higherMagna Cum Laude: Students with a cumulative GPA of 3.750 to 3.899Cum Laude: Students with a cumulative GPA of 3.500 to 3.749
Nowadays, only 10% of students graduate magna cum laude or higher. It was substantially easier to get magna a few years ago.
top 2 percent typically Considering that Summa Cum Laude is a higher honor than Magna Cum Laude, I beg to differ with your assessment. I don't know the correct answer, but I do know that yours is incorrect.
Cum laude means 'with honor', magna cum laude is 'with high honor', and summa cum laude means 'with the greatest honor'. These designations are granted to every graduate who meets a required grade-point average, so several students in a class, or even an entire class, could graduate cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude. The valedictorian is the student with the highest academic rank in the class, so you would expect he would at least be a cum laude graduate. But if you have a class where no one has over a B average, there will still be a valedictorian but he will not be graduated with honors.
there is no Cum Laude here. We have a distinction program for the top 15%
No, "manga cum laude" should not be capitalized in a resume. It is not a formal academic distinction like "Summa Cum Laude" and does not require capitalization.