Frequently Asked Questions
Admission review for first-year applicants right out of high school is based on a holistic approach including their unweighted high school GPA, one high school writing sample and two short essay responses to Honors Program writing prompts. Applicants must first apply to and be admitted to the University of Idaho before they apply online to the Honors Program through the web portal.
Transfer and current students must have an institutional GPA of 3.5 and must meet for a pre-review academic advising session with Honors Program staff to determine if they have sufficient university credit hours left to be able to complete the program.
For more information (including specific instructions for first-year, current, transfer and international applicants), see our Admission page.
Students who were admitted to the program for fall semester 2021 or after must complete a minimum of 21 Honors credits before graduating from the university. Students may use a maximum of two Honors Program Course Contracts towards the Honors credit hour requirement. Students must also complete one engaged learning experience from the approved list and maintain a UI cumulative 3.3 GPA. For more information see our Honors Program Curriculum page.
Honors Program coursework counts towards students’ degrees. Students are not required to take any additional courses. The courses are discussion-based, offered by hand-selected faculty, and usually even smaller than regular courses.
For a listing of current and past offerings, see our Courses page.
The University Honors Program curriculum satisfies many general education requirements, and thus students can pursue any area of study. There are students in the program from every academic college.
All first-year student applicants are automatically considered for Honors Program scholarships. Applicants do not need to apply again for scholarships. The scholarships renew up to three times as long as students meet the program GPA and other requirements.
For more information, see our Scholarships page.
Honors students may apply to live on campus in McCoy Hall or the Scholars Living Learning Community.
For more information, see our Honors Student Life page.
It does not cost more to be a student in the Honors Program.
The benefits are numerous and include studying in small discussion-based Honors classes, priority registration for classes regardless of major and year, academic advising, additional funding opportunities for undergraduate research, Honors housing and numerous academic and cultural engagement opportunities.