Our Mission
Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society is a society that recognizes and encourages academic excellence starting in the freshman year and throughout the college career. Phi Eta Sigma is an outward recognition of personal accomplishment and it serves as an incentive for continued high scholarship. It provides you the opportunity to meet freshman scholars from all academic disciplines and to join them in promoting academic excellence. Membership in Phi Eta Sigma identifies you to employers and to professional and graduate schools as a person of superior academic ability and performance.
Founded in 1923 at the University of Illinois, Phi Eta Sigma is the nation’s oldest and largest honor society for first-year college and university students in all disciplines.
Inspired by the past and dedicated to the future, the Society’s mission is to encourage and reward academic excellence among freshmen in institutions of higher learning.
The three Greek words appearing on our crest form the motto of the organization: “Knowledge is Power.”
Phi Eta Sigma was voted membership into the Association of College Honor Societies in 1937. Only two societies have had longer continuous membership.
Those elected to membership include those who have a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale at the end of any first year, full-time curricular period, provided they have carried a normal academic load acceptable toward a bachelor’s degree and rank in the upper 20 percent of their class.
Since its founding, more than 900,000 scholars have been inducted into Phi Eta Sigma.
Phi Eta Sigma chapters are chartered on 353 campuses across the United States.
Hundreds of college and university faculty and staff volunteers share their time to serve as advisers to local chapters.
Approximately $200,000 in scholarships is awarded annually by the national organization, and many additional thousands are awarded by local chapters.
An important strength of Phi Eta Sigma is its form of government. It is governed by a Constitution and Laws generated by student delegates attending national conventions. At the biennial conventions, student delegates also elect the national officers and Executive Committee members.
Phi Eta Sigma conducts a biennial national convention with attendee expenses paid by the national office for a chapter adviser and student delegate from each chapter.