Currently enrolled UNC students may apply for admission to the Honors program during the second semester of their first year or during the first semester of their second year. Sophomore transfer students may apply upon entry in the fall semester.
First-year students may apply for admission to the Honors Program in January 2010. Online applications will be accessible here beginning Monday, January 4, 2010 and will be due no later than Friday, January 22, 2010.
Students starting their second year of study in the Fall 2009 semester (this includes Fall 2009 sophomore transfer students) were able to apply for admission to the Honors Program beginning in late August. Applications are now being reviewed and students will be notified of their status by Thursday, October 1.
Applicants are required to complete an online application form, which includes a brief personal statement (100-250 words). You must also request a letter of reference from a UNC faculty member with whom you have studied. The faculty member should submit this letter online through the "Faculty" section of our website during the application period.
Transfer students may request a letter of reference from a faculty member at your previous place of study. Such requests must be submitted on official university letterhead and made in time for the letter (and a transfer student's official transcript) to arrive in the Honors Office, CB# 3510, 225 Graham Memorial, by the application deadline. Transfer students should also provide the Honors Office with an official transcript from your previous place of study.
We know that in each entering class there are literally hundreds of well-qualified students whom we are unable to accommodate in first-semester Honors courses. (It says something about Carolina that dozens of these students were invited into Honors programs at other universities but still chose to come to Chapel Hill instead.) We also realize that students mature intellectually at different rates. For these reasons, there are opportunities during the first two years of college for a student to apply to join the Honors Program. We can look then at what you have done since coming to Carolina--courses taken and performance in them--as well as your reasons for wanting to join the program.
Dipping Into the Honors Curriculum. Although students in the Honors Program receive priority in registering for Honors courses, our entire curriculum is open on a space-available basis to undergraduates with a B average or better. Some 200 to 300 students sample Honors courses in this way each year.
Senior Honors. The opportunity to do a senior Honors thesis (and thereby to be graduated with honors from the university) is open to students who have achieved a 3.2 overall grade point average by the end of their junior year. Unlike some other universities' Honors programs, the chance to engage in Honors thesis research at Carolina does not depend upon your having taken Honors courses as a first- or second-year student.
In short, when you are ready for Honors, we are ready for you.
