Applying as a First-Semester Rising Sophomore

Decisions will be made at the end of each semester within two weeks of the final grading deadline.

Applicants can expect decisions in:

• Late May if the application is sent during the spring semester
• Early January if sent during the fall semester
• Darly August if the application is sent during the summer

You will stay in your current housing if selected. You will just receive access to honors courses, programs, registration, etc.

Honors class sizes are relatively small. In 2018-2019, the average size of HON classes was 17 students. Classes ranging from 5 to 20 students. This helps you develop close interactions with the faculty from your very first semester.

Many are also interdisciplinary, giving students the opportunity to approach a topic from several different angles.

Students who enter the Honors College after their first semester must take:

• (2) Honors University Studies courses (e.g. Honors ENG 103)
• (2) HON 120 courses (1-credit-hour interdisciplinary seminar)
• (1) HON 210 course (3-credit-hour interdisciplinary seminar)
• 3 credit hours of honors electives
• 6 credit hours of 499 in the major (e.g. BIO 499, SOC 499, EEL 499)

This is a total of 20 credit hours. However, 6 of those credit hours will overlap with your University Studies requirements—meaning they are classes you would have had to take anyway. Additionally, the 499 class may count as an upper-level elective in your major, further increasing the overlap.

See this worksheet for course requirements for transfer students and students who enter Honors after arriving at UNCW.

Best Practices for Applying to Honors as a Current Student

We want to set you up for success and it is unlikely for us to accept students outside this criteria.

• Honors students must have a GPA of at least 3.3 when they have completed 27 credit hours at UNCW.
• After completing 58 credit hours, that GPA must be at least 3.5. Please consider your GPA when making the decision to apply to Honors.
• Applying to the Honors College is only advisable for first-year freshman, sophomores and students with at least 2-3 University Studies requirements left to complete. Honors requires 23 hours of coursework, including several University Studies courses.
• If you are not a first-year or rising sophomore, completed more than 40 credit hours before applying, or have fewer than 2 University Studies courses left to complete, please mention in your application how you plan to account for that obstacle in your completion of honors requirements.
• If you are a rising junior or senior, or you have completed all of your University Studies requirements, you may not have time to complete all of the requirements to graduate with full University Honors. However, if you have a GPA of at least 3.2, you may consider completing a 6-credit-hour independent Departmental Honors project during your senior year to graduate with honors in your major.