Honors, Woolsack and CALI Awards

Academic Honors*

Academic Honors are awarded as follows: cum laude to graduates who rank in the top 30 percent of the graduating class, magna cum laude to those who rank in the top 15 percent and summa cum laude to those who rank in the top 5 percent of their class. Please refer to Class Ranking for information about how the law school calculates rank in class, and the number of graded credits a student must earn to be ranked in a particular class.

• Students who rank in the top 30 percent (cum laude), 15 percent (magna cum laude) and 5 percent (summa cum laude) of the graduating class based on rank after five semesters will be listed provisionally as honors recipients in the commencement program at Spring commencement. However, final awarding of honors is based on rank in the graduating class after six semesters, determined after Spring commencement.

• Final honors will appear on the diploma and transcript. Provisional honors will not appear on the transcript or diploma and students who are recognized for provisional honors but do not earn final honors should not represent that their degree was earned with academic honor.

Woolsack Honor Society

The Woolsack Honor Society was founded in 1920 for the purpose of recognizing academic excellence. It was reestablished in 1981. Membership in the Society is extended to: 1) Students who rank in the top fifteen percent of the graduating class after 5 semesters; and 2) Students who do not qualify for membership after 5 semesters but who rank in the top 15 percent of the graduating class after six semesters.

• Students who qualify for membership in Woolsack Honor Society based on class rank after five semesters are notified by the Dean in February before Spring commencement. Students who qualify after six semesters are notified after Spring commencement.

• The notation “Woolsack Honor Society” will appear on the transcript for all students who qualify for membership.

• Fall members' names are listed in the commencement program and are recognized during the spring commencement ceremony.

• Once inducted, membership is permanent.

Honors and Woolsack - Transfer Students

Academic Honors eligibility applies to students that have completed Penn State’s first year J.D. curriculum. Woolsack honors require at least 5 semesters of enrollment at Penn State and a cumulative rank in class. Transfer students will not receive a cumulative rank in class as grades from their prior law school cannot be calculated toward a Penn State Law class rank. Therefore, students transferring into Penn State Law will not be eligible for Academic Honors or Woolsack.

CALI Awards

The “CALI award” is given to the J.D. student with the highest grade in a class, as determined by the Penn State Law professor. Awardees receive a printed certificate, which includes a permanent URL VirtualAward that the student can link to from their online resumés or biographies.  The Penn State Law Registrar places the CALI Award certificates in the Katz Building student mail folders approximately one month after final grading is completed each semester. In the spring semester, CALI Award certificates for graduating 3L students are mailed to their diploma mailing address, or permanent address if there is no diploma mailing address listed in the student's Student Services Center in LionPath.

*Prior to February, 2020, the academic honors policy was:

Any graduate of Penn State Law prior to February 2020 was subject to this policy, and not the current honors policy explained one above.