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Applying as a Current UNCW Student

We encourage students who are currently at UNCW to apply to the Honors College.

Click to apply as a current UNCW student

(Please note: You must be logged into your UNCW Outlook account in the browser you use to access the form. If you are having issues viewing the form, try logging into mail.uncw.edu and then re-opening the link). 

The online application must be completed once it is started. You cannot save and return to the application.

Prepare Your Short-Answers

  1. Please describe your engagement and involvement as a college student thus far. You may include jobs, internships, study abroad experiences, student organizations, community service, research, or anything else you deem relevant.
  2. Five years from now, you're looking back at your college career. What do you hope to have accomplished? What story will you write about yourself in the semesters to come?
  3. What else should we know about you? (Feel free to be creative.)

Frequently Asked Questions

Apply as a continuing student by December 31st for Spring or June 30 for Fall. Students can only begin during main terms. 

Applicants can expect decisions in August for Fall admission or January for Spring admission.

No, you will stay in your current housing if selected. All other opportunities from Honors will be opened upon admission. 

Honors class sizes have 20 students or less. This helps you develop close interactions with the faculty from your very first semester.

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

Click here for more about Honors classes

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, only 5-8 of these credit hours will be truly "extra" (in bold) as the other courses count towards university or requirements. 

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.

  • GPA of at least 3.3 by 27 credit hours of work or 3.5 by 58 credit hours of work.
  • At least 2-3 University Studies course requirements (6-9 credits) left to complete.
    • If you have completed more than 40 credit hours before applying, or have fewer than 2 University Studies courses left to complete, note in your application how you plan to account for that obstacle in your completion of honors requirements.
  • If 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.
    • If you have a GPA of at least 3.2, consider a 6-credit-hour Departmental Honors project (counts towards electives in many majors) to graduate with Departmental Honors. 

You must establish a GPA before we can make a decision about your application, so if you are a first-semester first-year student, we cannot act on your application until grades are posted in December.

You may apply earlier, but we cannot respond to your application before then. A paper application is available in cases where a student may not have reliable Internet access or prefers the paper copy due to disability or other reasons. Please contact us or call 910.962.3408 if you need a paper application.

Contact Us

Office of the Honors College

Phone: (910) 962-3408

honors@uncw.edu

Honors College
601 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403-5958

We are located in Randall Library on the second floor, Suite 2007

Locate Us
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