RECOGNITION OF HONOR STUDENTS

Distinctive caps, gowns, and hoods have been worn at college and university functions since the Middle Ages, when scholarship was usually associated with a church or monastery. Over the years, the simple hooded gown or cassock evolved into a distinctive academic costume.

Baccalaureate students who achieve a grade point average of 3.5 over their entire undergraduate career, their work in residence, and their major are graduated cum laude and wear an orange honor cord. Those with a 3.7 average in each category are graduated magna cum laude and wear a royal blue honor cord, and those with a 3.9 average in each category are graduated summa cum laude and wear a gold honor cord.

The Pepperdine Graziadio Business School recognizes the superior academic performance of its graduate and undergraduate students that have qualified for and accepted membership in Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society for AACSB-accredited schools, by awarding the Beta Gamma Sigma honor medallion.

Today’s academic regalia is profoundly symbolic of the reverence that is still held for the pursuit of knowledge and the achievement of scholarship.