The Office of Registrar Services offers this explanation of IU policy:
Degree Type
- Honors are for Bachelor degree recipients only
Everyone in the Class
- At IU Columbus, a graduating class is all of the students expected to graduate at the end of the spring, or the summer, or the fall term. For example, all those graduating in December are part of the December class. There is no calculation by division.
Indiana University Hours
- To qualify for honors consideration, the graduate must have earned at least 60 credit hours in the Indiana University system at the time of honors calculation. Thus, a student with a disproportionately high number of transfer credits will not be a candidate for honors.
Timing of Calculation
- We calculate honors for the December class immediately after fall term grades post. We calculate honors in early March for May and August students who have declared their intentions to graduate. We base our calculations upon the cumulative IU grade point average and IU credit hours earned at the end of the student’s preceding fall semester. For example, we will use fall 2018 grade data for May and August 2019 graduates. WARNING: students who apply late (after February) for May or August graduation will receive no evaluation for honors.
Top 10%
- Only ten percent of each class receives honors, even if more candidates with high grades qualify. The Assistant Director of Registrar Services makes the final determination on how many honors to award when the mathematical ten percent is not a whole number.
Candidate GPAs
- Calculations for students with enough IU hours focus on the Grade Point Average cumulative. The IU Columbus standard is as follows:
| Honors Scale | GPA |
| Highest Distinction | 3.90 - 4.00 |
| High Distinction | 3.75 - 3.89 |
| Distinction | 3.60 - 3.74 |
