Membership Requirements

All members of the honor society are inducted through the local Phi Alpha Theta chapter at their respective college or university. To find out if your school has a Phi Alpha Theta chapter, click here. Individual memberships sent directly to the National Office are not acceptable and will be returned. Our one-time initiation fee of $40.00 per student is payable at the time of initiation. This fee includes a membership certificate and four issues of our journal, The Historian. Membership in Phi Alpha Theta is a lifetime membership. Each chapter, however, may levy whatever dues or fees it deems necessary to promote its own local activities. Thereafter, there are no annual dues or fees. Members who wish to continue supporting the honor society may do so by subscribing to The Historian and/or to our newsletter.

 

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate students must complete a minimum of 12 semester hours (4 courses) in History, achieve a minimum GPA of 3.1 in History and a GPA of 3.0 or better overall. Only 3 credit hours of online, transfer, or AP credits may be applied to the membership eligibility requirement.  Membership is not limited to History majors.   A chapter advisor may also require that the student be ranked in the top 35% of their class.  The chapter advisor has the discretion of making eligibility requirements for his/her chapter more (but not less) stringent than the national requirement.

 

Graduate Students

Graduate students should have completed a minimum of 12 semester hours towards their Master’s Degree in History, have a GPA of better than 3.5, and shall have completed approximately 30% of the residence requirements for the Master’s Degree.

 

Faculty Members

Faculty members above the rank of Instructor who teach History automatically qualify. Faculty members pay the same $40 induction fee and receive the same membership privileges.  We encourage our Faculty Advisors to invite their fellow faculty to join Phi Alpha Theta.