UT-Austin Honors Programs Essay Prompts and Application Tips
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FALL 2024 update: BHP, LAH, and Plan II have changed their essay topics. I’ve updated this post accordingly.
Many universities have an "Honors College" that houses their best students regardless of their major. UT-Austin instead has ten "honors programs" for students majoring in Liberal Arts, the McCombs Business, the Cockrell School of Engineering, the Moody College of Communication, or the College of Natural Sciences.
In this post, I cover the logistics of how to apply to honors, how the admissions process works, tips and strategies for each program, and a discussion of alternative pathways to honors programs.
Check out my new book Surviving the College Admissions Madness and Youtube Channel
How to apply to University of Texas at Austin Honors Programs
Applying to an honors program at UT doesn't require much extra effort. All programs, however, are highly competitive comparable with admission to most selective universities nationwide. My general rule of thumb is ranking in at least the top 5% of your class scoring a 1450 as a minimum to be competitive. Even then, most admits have nearly perfect academics in addition to outstanding essays and resumes.
You must first complete your Apply Texas application for regular admission and check the box "I am interested in applying for Honors Programs." A few days after submitting Apply Texas, you will receive an e-mail allowing you to access the Honors Application on your My Status portal.
One reason UT still has the first and second choice major selection system is to allow students to apply to multiple honors programs. What you select for your majors determine which honors programs you may be eligible.
All honors programs will consider heavily your regular admissions application, resume, and essays to help inform their decision. Because there isn't one Honors College but many different programs, the requirements for each differ some which you can view here.
Most programs require that you submit an expanded resume, some require a recommendation letter, and all except Engineering Honors requires one or more short answer responses.
Applying to an honors program in no way influences your regular admissions chances. Regular admissions decisions are made by the Office of Admissions while staff in each Honors Program reviews and determines who they accept.
Pick up your copy of the Definitive Guide to UT-Austin Admissions "Your Ticket to the Forty Acres"
Honors Writing Prompts Overview
The Honors Programs decide what prompts students must submit. You can visit this link to receive the most updated information on the writing requirements.
You can submit your essays directly into Common App/Apply Texas or after submitting your application and uploading onto your MY Status page.
In this section, I cover the prompts most applicants must submit. I cover program-specific prompts and advice under their headings.
For any Honors writing prompts, your submission should add new information to your application. Do not repeat content already discussed in your regular admissions essays.
Since reviewers will have access to your Apply Texas submissions, you don't want to repeat anything you've written in Essay A or the Short Answers.
Many prospective Honors students hire me to help. Interested in building your best application and maximizing your Honors admissions chances? Complete my questionnaire for a free consultation.
Canfield McCombs School of Business Honors Program (BHP)
I cover regular and honors admissions extensively in this post with both statistics and shining light on the process. For fall 2020, BHP received 1,828 applicants and admitted 244 students for an admissions rate of 13%. Approximately 500 applicants received phone interviews. These admissions numbers are mostly stable from year to year.
Here are my BHP client outcomes since 2017. 21 have received interviews and 6 have gained admission and 18 were denied without being interviewed. As you can see, to be competitive, it’s necessary to be in the upper left quadrant.
Applicants interested in applying to Business Honors should prepare their application early because the application requires both the expanded resume and one recommendation letter.
Reviewers are seeking students who demonstrate not only that they will be a leader in their program. They also want to know why you are choosing BHP. What makes it different from other top programs nationwide like Penn Wharton, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, or Berkeley Haas?
It's especially important in your Honors essay to identify resources, student organizations, career counseling, and professors/courses/study abroad that will help you achieve your long-term academic and professional goals.
Canfield Business Honors Writing Prompt
All prospective BHP applicants must answer in 250 words or less the following:
Canfield Business Honors is more than a major and program at the university, it is a community. During the last four years of high school what community have you had the most impact in and how did you achieve that impact?”
After maintaining the same “Discuss a piece of business news and how a BHP education can give you helpful tools” topic for many years, BHP has changed its essay requirement. The previous topic wasn’t broken, yet BHP has fixed it anyway.
I’m not a fan of this new topic, not because it’s necessarily an ineffective question but because it overlaps considerably with the three regular UT-Austin essay supplements. Particularly with the Leadership and Change the World supplements, most applicants will have almost certainly written about a relevant extracurricular, community that they belong, a significant commitment, volunteering, a notable group project, or advocacy for an issue of importance, among others.
Like many instances in UT admissions, bureaucracies don’t seem to communicate with one another. I can’t imagine why BHP staff felt this a helpful topic for their review processes, given the overlap with the other essays. Inevitably, many students will regurgitate in their honors essay with what they have already shared in the regular admission essays.
Nevertheless, this topic is similar to Dean’s Scholars and Health Science Scholars that asks students to discuss community. It’s also similar to Michigan Ann Arbor’s Community question.
One challenge with these topics is how can you discuss contributing to a future community when you haven’t yet experienced it?
Your response should be largely you-specific and less about BHP opportunities, although including a few specific business organizations or BHP communities may be helpful to tie your recent experiences into potential future ones.
I expect BHP will receive many inferior responses to this question, so being a little bit better than average will give you an advantage.
Check out my new book Surviving the College Admissions Madness and Youtube Channel
Turing Scholars and CSB Honors
Similar to BHP, competitive applicants for Turing Scholars rank at the very top of their class and score nearly perfect on the SAT/ACT. Turing denies 85% of valedictorian applicants. The combined BHP/Turing honors program CSB is basically the cream of the crop from both the BHP and Turing applicant pools. That means it's especially important that you demonstrate a breadth and depth of commitment in computer-related activities.
Turing requires you to submit a 500 word response on the following.
Describe your significant activities, employment, and achievements, particularly those relevant to the study of computer science. Also describe your educational and career goals.
Since UT regular admissions now requires students to both discuss why they’re applying for their first choice major and to share how their identity and talents will contribute to classroom discussions and campus life, I have a feeling many students will be challenged to find 500 more words to discuss their competencies and experiences in CS.
If you have a lot of experiences you haven’t already had the chance to share in your other essays, great! Elaborate and develop as much as possible to support your arguments that you’re deserving of a space in the highly selective Turing Scholars Program.
If you’ve already thoroughly discussed your academic and extracurricular CS interests in your regular essays, you could consider sharing a story from one of those experiences. It will be important regardless to identify specific and clear reasons why UTCS and Turing is your best fit.
Plan II Honors
There are two honors programs within the College of Liberal Arts: Plan II and Liberal Arts Honors. Each program has similarities but also crucial differences. There is a lot of useful information on each of their websites that will help you determine which program is the right fit for you. I entered into UT-Austin as a Liberal Arts Honors student.
You can apply and gain admission to both programs, but you can only participate in one. Many students in each pursue studies outside of Liberal Arts like Business, Communications, and Engineering. Indeed, these programs attract students from every academic discipline.
Unlike other honors programs, you do not need to select Liberal Arts as your first choice. Plan II even recommends putting Liberal Arts as your second choice, so you can have consideration for your first-choice major if it is something outside of Liberal Arts. Like Business Honors, each program recommends that you apply early since admissions decisions are rendered on a rolling basis.
Plan II Honors Program Five Sentences Prompt
Before, all Honors applicants needed to respond to this prompt, but now, only Plan II requires it.
"Help us get to know you better. Please write five sentences (numbered 1 – 5) that give us some insight into you, your life, your interests and your experiences. There are no right answers—feel free to be creative and think outside the box."
A lot of students overthink this one. Reviewers are giving you the opportunity to have fun and share something unique or interesting that doesn't fit elsewhere in your application. The number one piece of advice here is don't be boring.
There are a lot of ways to approach this - five totally unrelated sentences, a poem, a few quotations important to you, "favorites" like food or hobbies, a unique or quirky talent, etc.
Here's an example:
1. Painting my nails with intricate designs releases senior year stress.2. Classmates and teachers always ask me, “Lauren, when can we get more of your Cowboy cookies??”
3. Stevie Nicks on vinyl > Spotify.
4. Cardinals remind me of my grandmother.
5. On trips to Austin, we detour to Roundtop, Texas for its antique shops and eclectic knick-knacks.
Fall 2024 Plan II Honors Essay
All prospective Plan II students must answer in 250 words or less the following:
If you could add one required course—on any topic—to your high school’s curriculum, what would it be and why? What would you have liked to learn that wasn’t available to you?
Plan II changes their essay topic each year, but this question is similar to one asked at many other universities.
A straightforward way to address this question is to identify and expand upon an issue of importance: education policy, societal inequality, climate change, social justice, history, media literacy, cybersecurity, music appreciation, Japanese literature, etc. You could also emphasize a specific skill: writing and communication, conducting experiments, poetry, pottery, manufacturing, personal finance, gardening, etc. The wording of the question implies that the course needs to be something new or unique. I like that they frame the question as “a course in high school” rather than a course in college that you haven’t yet attended.
I don’t think you need to tie your response into explicit reasons for applying to Why Plan II, although it can help to look at Plan II’s curriculum and special electives to say “that course would have been cool to take in high school.”
Regardless of the topics you choose, I suggest examining Plan II’s curriculum closely. Identify a few courses or professors that you feel could help shine light on your issue of concern. Share your reasons for applying to Plan II directly and clearly.
Plan II Admitted Applicant Profile:
According to the 2016 incoming class profile accessed on Plan II’s website, they received 1473 applications with 484 admissions offers yielding a 32.9 percent admissions rate. Two-thirds of applicants are female, and 195 students enrolled.
Fifty-one percent of admits come from the top 5 percent of their class and 11 percent are valedictorian. The average applicant has 1386 on the SAT and the typical admitted student scores 1466. The middle 50 percent SAT score range for admits is 1410–1550. The ACT equivalent is a 32–35 for admitted students.
Plan II takes a radical approach to their admissions process. Successful applicants are superior academically; however, the program also heavily weights a student’s essay submissions.
From the Plan II website:
What is less cut-and-dried and will be evaluated on a more subjective level is the degree of sophistication and maturity we see in the essays of successful applicants. We also see a depth and richness in their non-academic activities and leadership experiences that combine to give an applicant an intangible ‘sparkle.’ Great essays and those intangible qualities are what set the successful applicants apart from the unsuccessful applicants who may have similar, perhaps even higher, grades, ranks and test scores.
Forty percent of Plan II admissions criteria are the essays, 20 percent examines the program fit through “Plan II-ness,” 20 percent is the Academic Index, and 20 percent is Personal Achievement and the resume.
They are looking for mature, quirky students with varied interests and dedication to learning for its own sake. Academically stellar students often do not gain admission while exceptionally talented students outside of the top 10 percent can find success.
Liberal Arts Honors (LAH)
Liberal Arts Honors (LAH) has a similar admissions process to Plan II with an emphasis on writing and leadership. LAH has recently released a helpful PDF sharing their admissions states, viewed here.
Approximately half of their admitted Texans come from the top 6% scoring an average of a 1390 on the SAT and 31 on the ACT.
An email from former LAH Director Dr. Larry Carver in November 2016 to alumni presents their student profile.
The LAH Class of 2020—155 students chosen from 1143 applications (our largest applicant pool ever!)—has just three more weeks in their first semester as Longhorns. Fourteen come from out of state, 111 are female, 44 male, and 8 are Valedictorians, 4 are Salutatorians. We have one set of twins and two siblings of current LAHers. Forty-five hail from non-ranking schools, 14 from private schools, and 95 from schools greater than 200 (Allen High School remains the largest High School with a graduating class of 1533). Fifteen are from schools smaller than 200. The average ACT is 31; the average SAT, 1355. Stacey, Linda, and I are delighted by their enthusiasm, energy, talent, and the many ways they are already participating in the LAH community.
Keep in mind that the 155 chosen students represent the enrolling freshman class. LAH admits about 400 students each year yielding roughly a 33 percent admissions rate. Admission to LAH is slightly less competitive than Plan II, but average LAH admitted student is substantially more credentialed than the typical admitted student to the College of Liberal Arts.
Keep in mind that LAH and Plan II are friendly rivals of sorts. It's possible to craft your Honors essay to fit both programs. Here, it is okay to leave open the question of which program is your best fit.
For me, when I was applying, LAH appealed more because it was less structured and had fewer rigid requirements. Since Plan II is a major, there are required courses each year. I knew I only wanted to pursue studies in the Liberal Arts, so Plan II's multidisciplinary emphasis on both the arts and the sciences wasn't a good fit.
New Liberal Arts Honors Essay Prompt
All prospective LAH applicants must answer in 250 words or less the following:
At the University of Texas at Austin, we say that what starts here changes the world. The Liberal Arts Honors Program seeks change agents, students who are going to draw upon a liberal art education to make lifelong contributions to society that will make life better for their fellow citizens in the 21st century. Please tell us succinctly and imaginatively how a liberal arts education will help you become such a change agent and what contributions you expect to make.
The new LAH question is a head-scratcher for two reasons. At first glance, there is significant overlap with the regular admissions supplement “Change the World,” which will cause confusion and misunderstanding. It frustrates me how the Cult of Branding filters down even to departments where “changing the world” may not be the key guiding criteria for pursuing the liberal arts.
The second concern is philosophical. When I was an LAH and Humanities Honors student fifteen years ago, their approach to the liberal arts concerned the nature of inquiry, living the good life, developing critical thinking and communication skills, and acquiring knowledge for its own sake. Baked into the new question is an emphasis on advocacy, i.e., “lifelong contributions to society” or “become such a change agent.”
Perhaps the topic change reflects our shifting political and cultural landscape. Maybe it’s to encourage students to consider the role of a liberal arts education in a society that celebrates science, engineering, and business. Even reflecting on the question’s message in my personal life, I don’t see myself as a change agent or contributing to society even if I can reasonably claim that my blog and free content presence clarifies misconceptions and alleviates student and family stress.
Frankly, I’ve accepted and feel content with my cosmic insignificance. I’m a good friend, partner, professional, and community member who enjoys reading, writing, and connecting with others. “Change agent” doesn’t factor into the equation, even if my pursuit of the good life has some socially desirable consequences. A problematic, implied assumption asserts a “social desirability bias” where studying the classics, history, linguistics, literature, and so on must have a consequentialist end goal. My humanities thesis was almost purely motivated by curiosity and not some social end, even if my genocide research and fieldwork had humanitarian implications. I assume many of my classmates had similar intrinsic, inward-focused motivations.
Setting aside the loaded and complex set of unwritten assumptions and unresolved questions, the danger with this prompt is to discuss an issue or experience abstractly, theoretically, or philosophically. Don’t be vague. Your audience is Liberal Arts Honors staff well versed in literature, philosophy, and history. It’s okay and potentially strategic to discuss and reflect on a favorite book, author, film, philosopher, and so on.
You should provide new information not mentioned elsewhere in your application. Do not repeat your submission from Change the World. I recommend exploring the contours of a Liberal Arts education (this article may help). Identifying and developing a particular issue of importance can help make this abstract question more concrete. Consider sharing a challenging discussion in class, a nuanced topic from speech and debate competitions, a time you held and then changed your belief, or a moment of realization.
Cockrell School of Engineering Honors
There is little information available publicly about how Engineering Honors admits their students or their admitted student profile. Competitive applicants to Engineering programs tend to come from the top 5% of their class scoring around 1500 on the SAT.
Some programs are more competitive than others, however, so what you select as your first choice will influence your regular admissions decision. I provide Engineering applicant and admitted student admissions data in this video.
Regardless of which program you wish to enroll, Engineering Honors admits students from all Engineering departments. I've been told, but I don't have any links to support this observation, that their admissions process is largely driven by a student's class rank and test score.
This chart shared recently from an Open Records Request on Reddit’s UT Austin Subreddit provides additional data that their process is driven largely by academics and the Personal Achievement Index score assigned by regular admissions. It is speculated a score of 21 or higher is a minimum requirement for admission.
They do not require an expanded resume or a recommendation letter. Unlike other honors programs that begin their review process as they receive their applicants, I'm informed that Engineering Honors waits until the Office of Admissions makes their decisions. Then, they select their honors students from the pool of admitted students.
In practice, admitted Engineering Honors students rank at the very top of their class scoring nearly perfect on the SAT/ACT especially on the math section. It also seems that, of the admitted Engineering honors students, the top third or quarter will also receive scholarships.
Unlike Plan II and Business Honors which are majors, Engineering Honors does not have many course requirements. Honors provides resources to supplement the Cockrell School's already extensive support services.
Moody College of Communication Honors
Communication Honors is the newest program. They admitted their first class of students with Fall 2018. There is little information about how they admit their students. Similar to Plan II/Liberal Arts Honors, they are looking for diverse students who bring more than just strong academic credentials.
A high level of scholastic aptitude is beneficial, but far from the only trait that defines a Moody Honors student. We look for applicants who are capable of critical and independent thinking, with intellectual curiosity, creativity, and a variety of experiences and backgrounds. Preference is given to freshmen applicants who select Moody College as their first choice in their admissions application.
Even though it is a new program and Communications is a little less competitive than other colleges and schools, Moody Honors is highly competitive admitting less than 10% of their applicants. It's a small program so there are few spaces available.
Moody Honors requires students to take 15 hours of honors coursework, so it is more permissive than majors like Plan II or BHP. Honors students are required to have a Communications major like Public Relations or Corporate Communications, so honors supplements your main area of study, There is a capstone project requirement for graduation.
Moody Honors Communication Essay Prompt
Moody Honors requires a short answer submission on the following topic in addition to the Why Honors short answer prompt. This prompt is the same from Fall 2019.
"It’s been said that knowledge is power, but it could also be said that communication is power. Discuss an example from history, current events, a book or film, or from your own life that supports this perspective. Please limit your response to no more than 250 words."
This is undoubtedly a tricky prompt, and it's clear that the admissions committee put a lot of time and thought to crafting their question. It's critical that you submit a thoughtful response. Considering their cohort is so small and space is limited, this essay will play a role in your decision.
One way to approach this essay is to discuss an instance where you were involved in a conflict with a friend or group and how you resolved the issue through open and honest discussion. If there is a film, movie, or novel that you feel could answer the question, consider sharing.
Consider this example as one possible approach:
A plane dips from above the clouds and glides above a sandstone Gothic city where goose-stepping soldiers pack the streets. Adoring women and children greet a smiling Adolf Hitler, who is filmed from below. The chancellor’s descent from the heavens and arrival into Nuremberg reflect the Nazi narrative that through the Third Reich. Hitler was destined to restore Germany as a global power.
Triumph of the Will, while cinematically crude, demonstrates how a film can influence mass opinion and collective behavior. Director Leni Riefenstahl considered herself a documentarian, but her works are now more widely considered propaganda because of the rehearsal and staging of scenes to create a reality that conformed to the Nazi ideology. The filmmaker, along with many others who participated in Joseph Goebbels’s propaganda machine, are complicit in the genocide of six million European Jews.
As an aspiring filmmaker and grandson of Holocaust survivors, I’ve seen the abuse of visual storytelling in Riefenstahl’s work. Goebbels’s propaganda helps form the backdrop for my favorite movie, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, a kind of Jewish revenge fantasy. In a play within a play, a fictional Nazi soldier turned film star recreates a bloodbath from a sniper’s perch. Tarantino’s use of corny close-ups and unnecessary dutch angles to expose the absurdity of the period’s motion picture enterprise by presenting the serial slaughter of 250 Allied soldiers as entertainment.
The abuse of propaganda underscores to me that the most important thing about being a filmmaker today is honesty.
College of Natural Sciences Honors Programs
There is little information about either their admissions process or admitted student data. I recall from my time at UT that some of these programs, especially Health Science and Dean Scholars, have the lowest admissions rates across the university. They are also the smallest honors programs.
Considering that over twelve thousand students applied for the College of Natural Sciences in 2016, you can imagine the selectivity of their process. There are no secrets to success other than being extraordinarily talented and a little bit lucky.
Like Business Honors, Natural Science Honors programs require an expanded resume and a recommendation letter from a math or science teacher. Consider choosing a reference who you've taken multiple courses with or is also an extracurricular activity sponsor.
Natural Sciences Honors Writing Prompt
Applicants to Dean's Scholars, Health Science Honors, and Polymathic Scholars must submit a 350 word response to the following.
How will you benefit from participation in this community? How will you contribute to this community?
What’s interesting about this essay is their explicit desire for you to discuss community. Other prompts like Turing Scholars want you to discuss your skills, experiences and talents. CNS Honors Programs presume access to your extensive resume and essays discussing why you want to study the sciences.
I appreciate their invitation for students to think critically and forecast what it may be like to be in a community of other scientists and scholars. Science doesn’t happen in isolation. Reviewers will be interested in your character and what role you play in teams or group projects. You could also share student organizations that interest you and how you feel you could contribute. Check all of the out here.
Moreover, UT Honors students often spend their first and second years in the Honors Quad residence halls alongside Honors students from all programs. Plan II provides an honest overview of life in the Quad.
For what it’s worth, I spent my first two years at UT in the Quad. It’s where I made my closest friends. I loved meeting talented and fun people from other majors and programs.
Alternatives to Freshman Honors
UT-Austin Honors programs provide academic, social, and financial benefits to their students. Especially since neither of my parents are college-educated and I came from a high school where few of my classmates enrolled at four-year universities, the intimate Honors community provided the support I needed.
I enjoyed taking small courses starting my first semester in philosophy, politics, and history. My favorite part was living in an Honors Residence Hall, Blanton, with students from all of UT's honors programs.
Honors is just one way among many to succeed. Honors also isn't a guarantee of success. UT-Austin is a world class institution where you can receive a great education that opens doors for your future. The effort you put in, your motivation to push your boundaries, and the network you create matter more for your success and well-being than whether you're in honors or not.
If you are not offered admission to a Freshman Honors program, there are many options after you arrive on campus especially when you finish your first year.
Admitted Natural Science students can submit an application for the Freshman Research Initiative.
Depending on your first choice major and application, if you are admitted, you may be invited to apply for or join other programs that offer similar benefits to Honors. These are not things you can select on Apply Texas.
There are dozens of minors and certificate programs that offer small courses with highly talented professors. You can pursue coursework related to your major or something different. Check out this list.
One of my favorite programs, Bridging Disciplines, was instrumental to my success as a student. It's open to any current student. It allowed me to combine interdisciplinary coursework with fieldwork.
All majors allow for research and the writing of a thesis. You can graduate with honors by completing a capstone project. There are also ways to complete Upper-Division Honors departmental coursework. Consider Sociology Honors, for example, open to all Sociology students with high grades interested in research.
There are a number of Honors societies and organizations open to all students, which you can view here.
Depending on how you progress in your studies, you may be able to take Graduate level coursework as a junior or senior.
All students should also consider studying abroad. Completing Business Law coursework in Scotland and Human Rights fieldwork in Bosnia and Rwanda were instrumental in informing my future goals.
As you can see, there are nearly limitless ways to have a productive and fruitful experience on the Forty Acres.