Latin honors are graduation distinctions based on your college GPA. Cum laude (“with praise”) is the first level, magna cum laude (“with great praise”) the second and summa cum laude (“with highest praise”) the top. Many colleges use fixed cutoffs near 3.5, 3.7 and 3.9. Others give them to a set top percentage of each graduating class.
Those two systems produce wildly different numbers. A 3.85 is magna cum laude at Ohio State. At the University of Maryland’s College of Arts and Humanities, it’s no honors at all. Which system your college uses matters more than anything else on this page.
What GPA you need for each level (fixed-GPA schools)
At a fixed-GPA school, the cutoffs are published in the catalog and don’t change from year to year. Two examples:
| Honor | Ohio State | Cal State Northridge (2026–27) |
|---|---|---|
| Cum laude | 3.50 | 3.50 to 3.74 |
| Magna cum laude | 3.70 | 3.75 to 3.89 |
| Summa cum laude | 3.90 | 3.90 and above |
Ohio State’s thresholds come from its rule on honors at graduation (Ohio Administrative Code 3335-9-33, in effect since October 2023). Cal State Northridge (CSUN) prints its bands in its 2026–27 catalog. The two agree on the top and bottom and split on magna: 3.72 is magna at Ohio State and only cum laude at CSUN.
If your school works like this, Latin honors is a target you can calculate. Nobody else’s grades affect yours.
Schools that honor a percentage of the class
Other colleges fix the share of students, not the GPA. The cutoff becomes whatever GPA the top slice of the class happens to have.
Yale College awards summa cum laude to no more than the top 5% of the graduating class, magna to no more than the next 10%, and cum laude to no more than the next 15%. That’s at most 30% of the class, according to its 2026–27 handbook for directors of undergraduate studies.
The University of Maryland honors the top 10% of graduates in each college or school: summa for the highest 2% of GPAs, magna for the next 3%, cum laude for the next 5%. Because each college has its own pool, the cutoffs differ inside the same university. For students graduating between fall 2026 and summer 2027, the registrar lists these:
| UMD college | Summa | Magna | Cum laude |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arts and Humanities | 4.000 | 3.991 to 3.999 | 3.900 to 3.990 |
| Engineering | 3.992 and up | 3.965 to 3.991 | 3.900 to 3.964 |
| Architecture, Planning and Preservation | 3.926 and up | 3.887 to 3.925 | 3.815 to 3.886 |
Read the first row again. In Arts and Humanities, summa cum laude takes a perfect 4.000.
UCLA publishes a new table every year, one row per school, with cutoffs to three decimals. For the 2026–27 academic year, the College of Letters and Science needs 3.921 for cum laude, 3.970 for magna and 3.992 for summa. The School of Public Affairs needs 3.973, 3.992 and 4.000. UCLA’s registrar page notes that the requirements change yearly.
The same GPA at five schools
Here’s a 3.85 cumulative GPA run through each system above:
| School | System | Result for a 3.85 |
|---|---|---|
| Ohio State | Fixed GPA | Magna cum laude |
| CSUN | Fixed GPA | Magna cum laude |
| UMD Architecture | Top 10% of college | Cum laude |
| UMD Arts and Humanities | Top 10% of college | No Latin honors |
| UCLA Letters and Science | Yearly cutoff table | No Latin honors |
Same transcript, three different outcomes. This is also why comparing your GPA with a friend’s at another school tells you very little about your odds.
The fine print that decides it
The GPA cutoff is the headline. These rules quietly knock people out:
- Credits at the school itself. Ohio State requires at least 60 credit hours of enrollment there. UCLA requires at least 90 University of California units taken for a letter grade. CSUN requires 30 letter-graded units at CSUN. Transfer students should check this first.
- Which GPA counts. CSUN’s bands use a cumulative GPA that includes transfer units, and you also need a 3.50 or higher in your CSUN work alone. UCLA uses your overall GPA at graduation.
- Which term counts. Ohio State measures the cumulative GPA as of the term before your last one. If you reach a level only with your final grades, you can still receive the higher honor, and if your last term pulls you below a level you already reached, you keep it.
- Pass/fail credits. Ohio State doesn’t count PA/NP credits toward its 60 hours. UCLA’s 90 units have to be letter-graded.
- The commencement program. Maryland says the honors printed in the program are tentative until final grades are processed. The official record is the transcript and the diploma.
How to plan for Latin honors
At a fixed-GPA school, the math is the same one you’d use for any GPA target. Say you’re at CSUN with a 3.38 after 90 units, and you’ll graduate at 120.
- Quality points you need at graduation: 3.50 × 120 = 420.
- Quality points you have: 3.38 × 90 = 304.2.
- What the last 30 units must earn: 420 − 304.2 = 115.8, which is 115.8 ÷ 30 = 3.86 for every remaining class.
That’s hard but possible. Run the same numbers for magna (3.75) and the last 30 units would need a 4.86, which can’t happen on a 4.0 scale. With 90 units behind you, the cumulative GPA moves slowly, so the honors that are still reachable get narrower every term. What is cumulative GPA explains why.
Two habits help:
Check early. The calculation is most useful as a sophomore, when one strong year can still move the number. The Latin honors calculator does the three steps above for each level, and the raise GPA calculator answers the general version for any target.
At a percentage school, aim above last year’s line. Nobody can tell you this year’s cutoff until the class graduates. UCLA and Maryland publish their recent cutoffs, and Maryland keeps PDFs going back to 2020–21, so use the latest table and leave a cushion of a few hundredths.
Latin honors vs. other honors
Latin honors are about your whole record. A dean’s list is usually a single term (dean’s list requirements vary by college). Departmental honors are separate again: Yale, for example, has a “Distinction in the Major” that the student’s director of undergraduate studies nominates, apart from its general Latin honors. Some students graduate with one and not the other.
Quick answers
Is a 3.5 GPA cum laude? At Ohio State and CSUN, yes. At a school that honors only the top 10% or 30% of the class, usually not. Is a 3.5 GPA good? puts the number in context.
Does Latin honors show up on your diploma? Usually. Maryland notes them on both the transcript and the diploma.
Is summa cum laude the same as a 4.0? Only sometimes. At Ohio State a 3.90 is enough. In Maryland’s Arts and Humanities college, a 4.000 is required.
Do transfer credits count? It depends on the school. CSUN folds transfer units into the cumulative GPA it uses for honors, then also checks your CSUN-only GPA. Ohio State and UCLA set a minimum number of credits you must earn on campus.