Honors College
The Honors College at the University of North Carolina Wilmington attracts and retains academically-talented students, offering a powerful learning experience by encouraging curiosity, critical thinking, and independent work skills, and by developing a community of honors scholars on campus. The Honors College is committed to offering opportunities to students as they pursue their academic passions in college. The vision of the program is to encourage and support life-long learning, including a global perspective.
The Honors College welcomes students seeking admission to the program to coordinate a visit to the program's offices and/or to shadow an honors class during their visit to UNCW. Please see the program homepage for more information!
Students may choose to complete a traditional four-year "University Honors" track of study, or complete a research project within their major and graduate with "Departmental Honors". Additional benefits of the four-year program include, but are not limited to:
- Ablity to reside in Honors House
- Co-curricular activities and special events
- Honors First-Year Seminar
- Honors sections of Basic Studies Courses
- Honors Experiential Learning Seminars
- Honors Interdisciplinary Seminars
- Honors Research Projects
- Merit Scholarships
- Priority Registration
- Small class sizes (less than 20)
Each year, the Honors College receives approximately 400-500 applications, however, the number of students admitted to the program varies. Typically, about five percent of the freshman class of approximately 2,000 students is selected to join the Honors College. While admission criteria is not concrete, students admitted last year presented:
- Average SAT score of 1300 (Math & Critical Reading sub-sections only)
- Average ACT with Writing score of 29
- Average cumulative, weighted GPA of a 3.9 (on a 4.0 scale)
- Top 20% in their graduating class
- Several AP/IB, honors, and/or dual-enrolled classes while in high school
- Evidence of leadership and service
Please keep in mind that these are averages -- students are admitted to the program with scores lower than the averages posted. Additionally, an Honors faculty-student team reviews applications, and considers the applicant as “more than the sum of the numbers”. While GPA and SAT are important, the Honors College will also review the applicant’s essay, resume and letter of recommendation from a teacher (please have a letter from a teacher, not employer, friend, etc).
- Apply for admission to UNCW.
- Complete the separate application to the Honors College. Note: Transfer students seeking to apply to the program may apply using the same application as first-year students.
- Anyone may apply. Students do not have to be invited to apply to Honors; however, we will send invitations to apply based on high SAT scores and GPAs.
- Decisions are made on a rolling basis, but Honors applications are not reviewed until an admission decision has been made by the university. Students are encouraged to submit Honors College applications by April 15 (students who want to be considered for merit scholarships should apply by April 1 - the application for Honors merit scholarships is included on the Honors application).
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