The International Honor Society in History, Phi Alpha Theta, was organized at the University of Arkansas on March, 17, 1921. Since that time about 700 chapters have been organized, including our chapter at ETSU, organized about seven years ago. Phi Alpha Theta is the second oldest, after Phi Beta Kappa, of the major honor societies.

Phi Alpha Theta is composed of chapters in accredited colleges and universities. Membership is not restricted to History majors only. All student who have completed the required number of History courses and who have maintained high GPAs are eligible for membership.

Phi Alpha Theta is also a professional society. Its objective is the promotion of the study of History through the encouragement of research, good teaching, publication, and the exchange of learning and thought among historians. It seeks to bring students, teachers, and writers of History together both intellectually and socially, and it encourages and assists in a variety of ways, historical research and publication by its members.

An undergraduate student must have completed a minimum of twelve hours in History. The students grade in all of those history course must be a minimum of 3.1 on the scale used at ETSU. In addition, that student must rank in the highest 35% of the class. In practice, since a percentage ranking is not currently used at ETSU, this means that you must have at least a 3.0 in two-thirds of your earned hours of course work.

Graduate

A graduate student must have completed at least one-third of the residence requirements for the Masters degree (12 hours) before being eligible for membership. A minimum GPA of 3.5 is required and no grade in the graduate record may be an "F" or its equivalent.

Faculty

Faculty members above the rank of graduate assistant, who are teaching in the field of History, shall be eligible for membership without being required to satisfy the provisions listed above.

Phi Alpha Theta National Chapters Index

Last updated: Ides of September, 2002