The Honors Designation

Honors Requirements (Fall 2026 and later)

  1. “Graduate, UTA First-Year Honors Program”
    • Only Available to FTIC Students
    • All of the following requirements must be completed by the end of the student’s 2nd semester at UTA
    • 3 Gateways
    • Any combination of 3 Honors Courses or Experiences
    • 3.3 or higher Cumulative GPA at Graduation
  2. “Honors Graduate” Requirements
    • 3 Gateways1 in first year
    • 3 Honors Courses
    • 2 Experiences
    • Any combination of 4 additional Honors Courses or Experiences
    • 3.2 or higher Cumulative GPA at Graduation
  3. “High Honors” Requirements
    • 3 Gateways in first year
    • 3 Honors Courses
    • 2 Experiences
    • 1 Honors Capstone or Signature Experience
    • Any combination of 4 additional Honors Courses or Experiences
    • 3.2 or higher Cumulative GPA at Graduation
  4. “Highest Honors” Requirements
    • 3 Gateways in first year
    • 3 Honors Courses
    • 2 Experiences
    • 1 Signature Experience
    • 1 Honors Capstone
    • Any combination of 2 additional Honors Courses or Experiences
    • 3.5 or higher Cumulative GPA at Graduation
  1. Gateways

    Gateways are essentially short events intended to engage students in part of our campus culture. They can be academic, service, social, or informational in nature. Honors announces Gateways throughout the semester.

  2. Courses

    For purposes of the program, all honors courses, regardless of credits, are the equivalent of an honors course except for Honors UNIV (counts as Gateway), Honors Capstone (counts as Signature Experience), and Honors Enrichment (main course counts as Honors Course) sections. These include courses in which Honors credit is earned by contract.

  3. Experiences

    Experiences are high-impact learning opportunities that happen beyond the traditional classroom. Generally, they fall into one of the following categories (though there is often overlap):

    • Cultural engagement
    • Research informed analysis
    • Individual accomplishment
    • Service and civic leadership
    • Professional development

    Honors will provide many experiences. For example, our Honors Advocates is an experience in professional development; an Honors study abroad would be an experience in cultural engagement. We also have a list of pre-approved experiences (see Appendix A) and encourage students to design their own experiences.

  4. Signature Experiences

    Honors has pre-designated several experiences as “signature.” These are experiences that far exceed the depth of learning and experiential outcomes of regular experiences.

    Signature experiences are worth the equivalent of at 2 experiences (in the Honors Experience or Elective category) if they are not used to complete the Signature Experience requirement.

  1. Gateway Completion: Students must complete 3 Gateways by the end of their second semester in the College. Completion entails both attending and signing in/out of the Gateway. Students not completing 3 Gateways by the end of their second semester will be removed from the College.
  2. Gateways and RSVPs: Some Gateways will require RSVPs. Students who RSVP and do not attend will be taken off good standing and lose associated privileges until they regain good standing. Students missing an RSVP for a second time will be removed from the program.
  3. Experience Credit: To get credit for an experience, a student must fill out the experience completion form. (Note: a link to the form will be available here when the signup period begins.)
  4. Upon its approval, students will receive credit for completing the experience. For Honors-offered and pre-approved experiences, the process is fairly simple: Submit the form, Honors verifies participation, experience complete.
  5. Self-Designed Experiences: For self-designed experiences there are some specific minimum requirements. Because of this, it is highly advised that students meet with an Honors Advisor prior to engaging on a self-designed experience.

    The minimum (but not sufficient) conditions for something to count as an experience are as follows:

    • 45-hours time-on-task
    • Have supervision, mentorship, or sponsorship
    • Be resume/interview worthy
    • Have explicit or implicit learning outcomes that the student can, through reflection, identify as having attained (see Appendix B)

  6. Illegal Self-Designed Experiences: Any experience that violates a legal or administrative statute will be rejected. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that they follow all requisite rules, laws, and regulations in the completion of their experiences.
  7. Excessive Signature Experiences: Students seeking High or Highest Honors must complete one or more Signature Experiences. Should the student complete more Signature Experiences than required, additional Signature Experiences will be counted as Experiences or Electives. Students will get credit for 2 Experiences for each overflow Signature.
  8. Signature Experiences and Boutique Programs: Boutique Programs often have many experiences built into them. All Boutique Programs and their first 2 classes/experiences count toward completion of the Signature Experience. Any additional coursework/experiences completed beyond these first 2 will count as Honors Courses or Electives as appropriate. For example, in Mavs in the Metro, students get credit for 1 Internship Experience, 1 Service Experience, and an Honors Course. The internship and service would complete the Signature Experience, and the additional course would fulfill an Honors Course requirement.
  9. Self-designed signature experiences generally should meet most of the following criteria:
    • Over 150 hours time-on-task
    • Learning outcomes in more than one CRISP area
    • Deep mentorship
    • Sustained engagement with the activity (e.g., multiple semesters in a lab or on a team)
    • A major/defining series of outcomes worthy of being highlighted in a resume/cover letter/interview
  10. Approval of Self-Designed Experiences/Signature Experiences: The Honors Advising Team is responsible for accepting/rejecting all self-designed experiences. Students are responsible for giving a complete account of their experience on the experience form. Students may appeal rejected experiences. These will be reviewed by a team of Honors Faculty Fellows. Their decision is final.
  11. Dishonesty/Misrepresentation of Experiences: Any student who misrepresents their experience or any of the information used in approving an experience will be turned over to Student Affairs for an academic integrity investigation. Students found guilty of academic misconduct will be immediately removed from the College.
  12. Request to Change a Previously Recorded Experience to a Signature Experience: In many cases, a regular experience can evolve into a Signature Experience. For example, a student may be in a lab one semester and have received Honors Experience credit. Then, they choose to stay in the same lab and earn a publication. They can fill out an Experience Form to request to change the previous Experience to a Signature Experience, given this deeper engagement with the initial experience.
  13. 30-Hour Rule: Students entering the program with 30 or more college credits earned toward graduation receive credit for one Honors Class and one Honors Experience. Students must petition for this credit by filling out the 30-Hour Rule Substitution Form.
  14. Students cannot receive Honors Experience credit for any experience required by their major. For example, major X requires all students in the major to complete an internship. That internship cannot count for a student of that major, though the same internship could count for a student of another major. If the experience counts toward the major but is not required, then it may count for the student’s Honors curriculum. For example, English allows an independent study to count toward the major, but it is not required. That could count toward both Honors and English requirements.

Honors Requirements (pre-Fall 2026)

  • Be a member of the Honors College in good standing.
  • Complete of University core and disciplinary degree requirements.
  • Maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.200. Note: Some scholarship recipients may be required to uphold a higher cumulative GPA to retain scholarship funding.
  • Complete at least the minimum Honors Points required by the college of the student’s academic major.
  • Attend the required initial, sophomore, and junior Honors College advising appointments.
  • Complete a Capstone Project as approved by the Honors College and as directed by the college of the student’s academic major.
  • Present the Capstone Project research at the fall or spring Honors Research Symposium.