Editing Latin honors (section)

====History====
In 1869, [[Harvard College]] became the first college in the United States to award final honors to its graduates. From 1872 to 1879, ''cum laude'' and ''summa cum laude'' were the two Latin honors awarded to graduates. Beginning in 1880, ''magna cum laude'' was also awarded. In his 1895 history of [[Amherst College]], college historian [[William Seymour Tyler]] traced Amherst's system of Latin honors to 1881, and attributed it to Amherst College president [[Julius Hawley Seelye]]:

{{poemquote|Instead of attempting to fix the rank of every individual student by minute divisions on a scale of a hundred as formerly, five grades of scholarship were established and degrees were conferred upon the graduating classes according to their grades. If a student was found to be in the first or lowest grade, he was not considered as a candidate for a degree, though he might receive a certificate stating the facts in regard to his standing; if he appeared in the second grade the degree of A.B. was conferred upon him ''rite;'' if in the third, ''cum laude''; if in the fourth, ''magna cum laude''; while if he reached the fifth grade he received the degree ''summa cum laude''. The advantages of this course, as stated to the trustees by the president, are that it properly discriminates between those who, though passing over the same course of study, have done it with great differences of merit and of scholarship, and that it furnishes a healthy incentive to the best work without exciting an excessive spirit of emulation.

The new system of administration, of which the above is a part, is so original and peculiar that it is known as the Amherst System.|''A History of Amherst College During the Administrations of Its First Five Presidents, from 1821 to 1891''<ref name=Amherst>{{cite book | chapter-url = http://www3.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/amherst/history/1894tyler-ws/chapter11/menu.html | chapter = 11: The Burning of Walker Hall—The Buildings Erected During the Administration—The 'Amherst System'—Amherst College Reaches Its Highest Prosperity—Resignation of President Seelye | title =A History of Amherst College During the Administrations of Its First Five Presidents, from 1821 to 1891 | first = William S. | last = Tyler | author-link = William Seymour Tyler| location = New York | publisher = Frederick H. Hitchcock | year = 1895 | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofamherst00tyle_0 | access-date = January 12, 2017 }}</ref>}}