"Getting recommended for high honors needn't always be a wonderful thing. It could actually be more disappointing in the end," Lee says.
With the great variation in the determination of honors distinctions and the layers of bureaucracy surrounding recommendations in the last days before Commencement, some seniors--even those nominated for the summa degree--express some dissatisfaction with how it all worked out.
"My impression of having seen my friends go through it is that sometimes it's an imperfect process," Lee says.
Summa Surprise.
Just because a department is bigger doesn't necessarily mean it offers more summa degrees. A comparison using last year's statistics:
Departments awarding
2 summa degrees
vs. total # of degrees Departments awarding 4 summa degrees vs. total # of degrees Departments awarding 5 summa degrees vs. total # of degrees