Apply to the University Honors Program
The University Honors Program looks for students who aspire to expertise and interdisciplinarity, respond creatively to pressing questions, and feel called to build healthy, inclusive communities.
Application materials
Through your application, we want to get to know you and understand your hopes for your college education. You will primarily do this with the inclusion of two components beyond those generally required by KU: an essay and short response to three questions.
Essays should be intellectually curious, thoughtful, well-organized, proofread, and limited to 500 words. We will evaluate the quality of your writing and your ability to provide an expansive yet focused response to one of these three prompts:
- Option 1: Physicist Albert Einstein said: “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” Drawing from your formal and informal educational experiences, assess the truth of Einstein’s statement, then discuss how you plan to nurture your curiosity at KU and in the honors program.
- Option 2: KU graduate and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara shared that seeing the planet from the International Space Station gave her “a sense of urgency to come back down to Earth and play a part in making it better.” What plans for college and beyond do you have for making our planet or society better? How have your experiences and background helped to ignite these aspirations?
- Option 3: The University Honors Program highly values interdisciplinarity. Tell us about two of your contrasting academic interests or passions and the ways they interact. How do you plan to continue exploring and interweaving them at KU as a member of the honors program?
Please upload your responses to all three questions as a single Word or PDF document and limit your total word count to 1,200 words combined. Convey the factors that shaped you and demonstrate skills of clarity and brevity when you answer each of these three questions:
- Question 1: List no more than five items — clubs and organizations, employment, community service, awards and recognition, extra-curricular interests, personal or family obligations — in descending order of significance, with the most significant item first. For each, explain your role, time commitment, length of involvement, and responsibilities.
- Question 2: How have your experiences affected your sense of who you are and what you hope to accomplish in college? There are no wrong answers.
- Question 3: Honors students make the most of available opportunities. Based on course availability at your school, how did you select the classes you took? Is there anything you want the admissions committee to know about your transcript?
Fall application deadlines
Application review
We evaluate applications across four main criteria:
- Challenge
- Depth
- Breadth
- Leadership potential
We seek applicants who took full advantage of the courses and opportunities available to them at their high school, in addition to demonstrating academic excellence, an interest in interdisciplinary connections, and a commitment to community.
Our individual and holistic review process considers responses to essay and short answer prompts, along with GPA, high school transcripts, and any ACT or SAT scores provided. No minimum GPA or test score is required for admission. Submitted test scores will be considered, but applicants will not be penalized for a lack of scores.
Incoming first-year students should allow up to eight weeks for a decision.
International applicants
Students from outside the U.S. applying to KU as incoming first-year students should complete the general KU application along with their honors application by March 1 for fall admission. Students must also demonstrate English proficiency as defined by KU International Admissions. Students who are not yet proficient in English are invited to apply to the University Honors Program after successfully completing their Level 5 coursework in the Applied English Center. (Current international KU students: Please refer to the section above for current KU students.)