CV advice on a "cum laude" degree

But that wouldn't help clarify the matter since the concept of a percentile isn't used here in any educational context.

So saying that you had better grades than 90% of your classmates (or whatever the number is) would be meaningless? It seems pretty clear to me.

I have to admit I am completely baffled by the British educational system.

It wouldn't mean anything because the relative hierarchy of US universities is obscure to those in the UK (and vice-versa) so the context is unclear. 90% better than a community college, 90% better than UC Berkeley?

Perhaps instead of the percentile, you can quote the GPA.  For example:  BSc cum laude (3.5 out of a possible 4.0 cumulative grade point average).

Whether or not it (cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude) is commonly used here, I think employers realize it's a mark of academic excellence. On your resume (I refuse to use the term CV--curriculum vitae--unless you have a Ph.D., the only time Americans refer to that piece of paper as such).

For anyone wondering what it all means, "cum laude" means you graduated "with distinction," grade-wise. "Magna cum laude" means you graduated with great distinction. "Summa cum laude" means "with highest distinction." In practical terms, if you graduate cum laude, you were in the top 20 percent of your class (major/course of study) when you graduated. Magna cum laude indicates you were in the top 10 percent of your graduating class. Summa cum laude, the highest honor, indicates you were in the top 5 percent of your class.
 
So, for resume purposes here, I'd suggest including that, but in a low-key way:

B.S. in Engineering (summa cum laude), University of Michigan, 1998

As a simple example, say you were one of 100 people who received a business degree from such-and-such uni in 2004. If you graduated cum laude, that means you and 19 other people--20 percent of all people graduating with a business degree that year--had the highest overall grades out of the total 100 graduates. If you graduated magna cum laude, you and nine other people had the highest overall grades out of the 100 graduates. If you graduated summa cum laude, you and four other people had the highest overall grades out of the 100 graduates. American universities work on a grade-point-average (GPA) scale, the details of which I won't bore you with here.     

Perhaps instead of the percentile, you can quote the GPA.  For example:  BSc cum laude (3.5 out of a possible 4.0 cumulative grade point average).

Again the problem is that GPAs aren't used here so the concept doesn't make sense. What we're looking for is a simple UK equivalent so that the British reader doesn't even have to really look at the US award but can just see the British equivalent. The last thing we want to do on a vita is to make the reader spend time trying to decipher it. Remember the point of a resume is that it should be easily scanned.

Unless you are a recent graduate, is it going to make much difference to an employer? It shows you are an achiever academically but it's your work history that will be more relevant. 

It'll make a difference in some fields... scientific consultation for example, and obviously academic jobs.

Hopefully in those fields they would be familiar with international qualifications.  I have an overseas Honours degree, which is different to the Honours system in the UK, I usually attach a copy of my academic transcript  to my CV, that way if the employer (or whoever it is) wants more detail, they can have a look at that.

Yes, hopefully they would be familiar with international qualifications... but as people are working in different fields in different countries more and more, it's useful to try to make the terminology understood.

For example. when and if the DH and I go back to the US, he might work in academia and they'll know the score, but he's equally likely to work for a local consultancy or conservation organization who won't. He has an MSc with distinction and will need to find some way to indicate the 'specialness' of that to future employers in the US. A copy of his transcript is only useful to a certain degree in his case, because what got him the distinction was his research and thesis.

I guess my whole thing with this topic is that NARIC seems to have got things a bit wrong regarding American honors degrees.

Yes their interpretation does seem odd - I wonder if it is worth contacting them and asking for clarification?

Are you talking about the interpretation they gave me, which was not to mention it at all (if you can call that an interpretation)?

In my case, it doesn't matter, because I don't have an academic career, and I do have a very extensive work history, so saying that I graduated "with highest honours" is just a little extra statement to make me look a bit better. But I understand how it would be important to clarify if someone were a recent graduate, or had a career where academic qualifications were very important.

I don't know if this helps or not but I've just seen a CV of a medical expert and he's put that he's summa cum laude on without any explanation of what it is.

Personally, I'd just put that I was cum laude and leave it at that.

Well, I don't think it would hurt. And if you got the interview, the interviewer might ask you what it meant, and it could lead to a conversation about your education.