revised for Fall Semester 2026, and later terms to comply with revised stipulations of The Phi Beta Kappa Society
The selection process for invitation of juniors occurs once per year. Invitations are sent in March to those who qualify based on their record through the previous fall semester.
Up to 50 juniors are elected. Standards are more stringent than for seniors.
Criteria for Juniors
- Completion of first semester of junior status, with no more than 90 units earned.(Completion of first semester of junior status is to be interpreted as the completion of one’s fifth semester of residence at UCB, or the intention to graduate in the following academic year).
- Minimum GPA varies from year to year, depending on the pool, but is usually well above 3.95.
- Minimum letter-graded units in L&S courses taken at Cal: 65.
L&S courses include both those offered by departments in L&S and approved courses offered by non-L&S departments that satisfy the L&S Seven-Course Breadth Requirement. - Completion of the L&S 7-Course Breadth Requirement.
- Completion of L&S Language requirement. See the L&S Language Requirement page for information on ways the requirement can be completed.
- Quantitative and mathematical reasoning: satisfaction of the L&S quantitative reasoning requirement.
- In addition to the above, because Phi Beta Kappa was founded to foster friendship, moral integrity, and ethical behavior as well as academic excellence, please note the following language that is included in the invitation sent to candidates who are offered memberhip: “Upon accepting this membership invitation to Phi Beta Kappa Alpha of California, you vow that your academic record reflects honest effort, free of dishonesty and of conduct contrary to UC Berkeley’s Student Code of Conduct. You also pledge to uphold this same standard of integrity in all your future endeavors, academic and otherwise.”
The chapter’s selection process accepts the determinations of the College of Letters and Science as to which courses count as “L&S courses” and which courses satisfy criteria 5 and 6. For students outside L&S the algorithm used to produce a list of potential candidates applies a “what-if” query to the academic record, so that if the record contains the necessary courses for units and breadth, it will be included in the list as if the student were in L&S.
To learn more about the L&S 7-Course Breadth Requirement, please visit https://lsadvising.berkeley.edu/seven-course-breadth
To determine the eligibility of a course offered outside of L&S, use the search function of the Berkeley Academic Guide (https://classes.berkeley.edu) using the filter for Breadth Requirements; or search for the particular course, then click on the course name in the results to display its full information, which will show which (if any) breadth requirement(s) it satisfies.
The previous version of this page (for students graduating before Summer Session 2026) is available.