How to Apply to Honors

Click on "Application" below to complete the online application. We'll be asking you to upload a resume. To see an example of an Honors application resume, click here. To find more info on how to write a resume, check out this link: http://www.aie.org/finding_a_career/.

Incoming Students:

Application

Currently Enrolled USU Students or Transfer Students:

 Download the application, as a .doc

 

In general, we want to know about your educational achievements, your extra-curricular involvement, including any leadership, and your service or volunteer experience. Your resume should be only 1-2 pages max, and we don't need an "objective," as we assume your objective is to be admitted to Honors! Be sure to list your service and not just lump it into something like "numerous offices held." Since you only have 1-2 pages, you'll have to be selective in what you include. We don't need any middle school information, unless you won a state or national award.

We also require an essay. The essay prompts are:

1. You return to your room in the residence hall next fall, and on the floor just outside the door, you find a cutthroat trout, a copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, and one additional object. In addition to revealing the identity of third object, explain how the cabbage, the book, and third object got there and their significance.

2. What is the big question you like to think about or the most important issue you would like to engage while you are at USU? Why do you think this issue is important, and why should you study it? What kinds of knowledge and skills do you think you will need to further and deepen your study of this big question? This is not so much about an academic field or discipline, nor is it about your long-range plans; rather, we want to know about what intrigues you most deeply.

Some tips about the essay:

Focus it on college, not high school. We want you to look forward to your time at USU. For example, most college students do not engage in the elaborate dance invitations that are common in area high schools, so try to combine your trout, book, and third object in some original way.

We want the essay to teach us something about you. Are you creative? Do you love theatre, or sports? Can you incorporate these loves into your essay? An essay in which you destroy the book or express that you do not like learning or Shakespeare will not work in your favor. 

If you choose the second question, try to focus your answer on something you can actually study at college and at Utah State University. Answers that combine more than one field or major shows that you have looked at what majors we offer. We want to see here that you're interested in the big ideas behind academics; if you're a physics major, maybe you're interested in how the universe works. If you're a history major, maybe you want to know why we continue to make the same errors over and over again. 

Check your essay for spelling and grammar errors.

Read your essay out loud, to see how it sounds, and feel free to have someone else read it (always a good idea!), but we expect that the work is your own.