An honor society (or 'honour society') is an organization that recognizes students who have excelled academically, or as leaders among their peers, often within a specific academic discipline. Most honor societies invite students to become members based on the grade point averages of those students, either overall, or for classes taken within the discipline for which the honor society provides recognition.

Honor societies exist at the high school, collegiate, and postgraduate levels, although collegiate honor societies are by far the most prevalent. The majority of national and international collegiate honor societies are affiliated with the Association of College Honor Societies.[1]

Important national and international honor societies include:

High School

• Eta Sigma Alpha (National Home School Honor Society)

• Mu Alpha Theta (Mathematics)

College

• Alpha Beta Gamma (Business at Two-Year Colleges)
• Alpha Chi (All Academic Fields)
• Alpha Delta Mu (Social Work)
• Alpha Epsilon (Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering)
• Alpha Epsilon Delta (Premedicine)
• Alpha Kappa Delta (Sociology)
• Alpha Kappa Mu (All academic fields)
• Alpha Lambda Delta (Freshman scholarship)
• Alpha Phi Sigma (Criminal Justice)
• Alpha Pi Mu (Industrial Engineering)
• Alpha Sigma Mu (Metallurgy and Materials Engineering)
• Alpha Sigma Nu (General scholarship at Jesuit institutions of higher education)
• Beta Gamma Sigma (Business)
• Beta Kappa Chi (Natural Sciences and Mathematics)
• Beta Phi Mu (Library & Information Studies and Information Technology)
• Chi Epsilon (Civil Engineering)
• Chi Sigma Iota (Professional Counseling)
• Delta Epsilon Sigma (General Scholarship in Colleges and Universities with a Catholic Tradition)
• Delta Mu Delta (Business Administration)
• Delta Sigma Rho - Tau Kappa Alpha (Forensics)
• Delta Tau Alpha (Agriculture)
• Eta Kappa Nu (Computer & electrical engineering)
• Gamma Theta Upsilon (Geography)
• Golden Key International Honour Society (academics)
• Kappa Delta Pi (Education)
• Kappa Mu Epsilon (Mathematics)
• Kappa Omicron Nu (Human Sciences )
• Kappa Tau Alpha (Journalism and Mass Communication)
• Lambda Iota Tau (Literature)
• Lambda Pi Eta (Communication)
• Lambda Sigma (Student Leadership, Scholarship and Service)
• Mortar Board (Leadership)
• Mu Kappa Tau (Marketing)
• National Society of Collegiate Scholars (Scholarship, Leadership & Service)
• Omega Chi Epsilon (Chemical Engineering)
• Omega Rho (Operations Research & Management Science)
• Omicron Delta Epsilon (Economics)
• Omicron Delta Kappa (Scholarship, Leadership and Service)
• Phi Alpha Theta (History)
• Phi Beta Kappa (undergraduate arts and sciences)
• Phi Eta Sigma (Freshman Scholarship)
• Phi Kappa Phi (All Academic Fields)
• Phi Sigma (Biological Sciences, All Pure and Applied Fields)
• Phi Sigma Iota (Foreign Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, ESL, & Cultures)
• Phi Sigma Tau (Philosophy)
• Phi Upsilon Omicron (Family and Consumer Sciences)
• Pi Alpha Alpha (Public Affairs and Administration)
• Pi Delta Phi (French)
• Pi Gamma Mu (Social Sciences)
• Pi Kappa Lambda (Music)
• Pi Omega Pi (Business Education)
• Pi Sigma Alpha (Political Science)
• Pi Tau Sigma (Mechanical Engineering)
• Pi Theta Epsilon (Occupational Therapy)
• Psi Beta (Psychology at Two-Year Colleges)
• Psi Chi (Psychology)
• Rho Chi (Pharmacy)
• Sigma Beta Delta (Business, Management, and Administration)
• Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish)
• Sigma Lambda Alpha (Landscape Architecture)
• Sigma Lambda Chi (Construction Management Technology)
• Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics)
• Sigma Tau Delta (English)
• Sigma Theta Tau (Nursing)
• Tau Alpha Pi (Engineering Technology)
• Tau Beta Pi (Engineering)
• Tau Sigma Delta (Architecture)
• Theta Alpha Kappa (Religious Studies/Philosophy)
• Upsilon Pi Epsilon (Computing Sciences)

Post-graduate

• Alpha Omega Alpha (Medicine)
• Order of the Coif (Law)

Independent

Some universities have their own independent honor societies, which are not affiliated with any national or international organization. Such organizations typically recognize students who have succeeded academically irrespective of their field of study. These include:

• Cap and Skull at Rutgers University
• Iron Arrow Honor Society at the University of Miami