Phi Beta Kappa Society

The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an American undergraduate honorary society (fraternity). Founded in 1776, election to it is considered by many the highest honor that can be granted to an undergraduate. Membership is granted to around 1% of college graduates.

Famous Phi Betes include:

• Alexander Graham Bell
• Leonard Bernstein
• Jeff Bezos
• George H. W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• Glenn Close
• Elizabeth Dole
• W. E. B. Du Bois
• William Rehnquist
• Condoleezza Rice
• Stephen Sondheim
• Susan Sontag
• Gloria Steinem
• Julie Taymor
• Mark Twain
• John Updike

PBK began as a secret literary and philosophical society at the College of William and Mary; chapters were established in the early 1800s at other prestigious east coast institutions. Secrecy was jettisoned during a period of strong anti-Masonic sentiment, in 1831. PBK was the first greek-letter fraternity.

Phi Beta Kappa (ΦΒΚ) stands for philosophia biou kubernetes, "philosophy, the guide of life."