Five Ways to Make Your Honors College Application Stand Out

College admissions are more competitive than ever, and that goes double for Honors colleges. Honors colleges and Honors programs offer a school’s most exceptional students exclusive resources and opportunities that facilitate academic growth and equip them for success after graduation.

Honors colleges are highly selective about who can access the limited spots in their program. After all, they want to ensure that the dedicated resources they provide their Honors students are used wisely. If you’re going to make it in, your application needs to stand out and show that you are the right kind of student.

Experts from USF’s Judy Genshaft Honors College gave us five tips to help you submit the ultimate Honors application. Are you ready to take your application to the next level?

Prelude: How Does an Honors College Application Differ from the General Application?

Joey Sousa, admissions coordinator at the Judy Genshaft Honors College, explained that the main difference between a college application and an Honors application comes down to criteria. While your GPA and test scores are going to be the primary focus of the admissions counselor reviewing your college application, Sousa informed us that he uses a different approach to review Honors applications. “We do factor academic performance into our review process, but it is not the only component. Our review is intended to be a little bit more holistic.”

To achieve this holistic analysis, Sousa looks at each applicant’s response to an essay prompt, and then their extracurricular involvement. “We score an application based on those first, and then we look at the academic profile.”

The result is that the students admitted to Honors are not necessarily the top academic students, but often the most engaged. Sousa said he’s seen students with higher grades and test scores — but a weaker essay and extracurricular profile — waitlisted or even denied in favor of students who made a better case for their inclusion.

It’s important to note that we’re only using USF’s process as one example. Each of the 900+ Honors institutions across the United States has its own unique process that may be a little bit different, but most have the same priority: admit students who show they are worthy of special Honors resources and who are likely to shine as scholarly examples.

Tip 1: Plan Ahead

Given the unique Honors application models at each school, this tip is critical. The best way to construct a stand-out Honors essay is to do your research so you can provide a thoughtful response.

Way ahead of your deadline, make time to learn more about the Honors college you will be applying to. Read its mission, examine its resources, and explore its courses. All that information will give you important context that will improve your response.

Similarly, take time to think through the prompt and plan out your essay. Try exercises like:

• Brainstorming and exploring the topic from different angles and perspectives.
• Creating an outline.
• Sharing your thoughts on the topic with someone whose opinion you value.

Throughout your K-12 career, you probably learned strategies like this and maybe a few others you can try. If you’re having trouble, a friendly English teacher may be able to refresh your memory and give you some tips for planning your essay.

Tip 2: Answer the Prompt

You may have many essays to complete, but you should avoid taking shortcuts. The content of one response probably won’t quite fit the expectations of another school.

Instead of recycling your work, tailor each response to the prompt at hand. “I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with reusing something you created in the past, re-editing or reformatting it,” Sousa clarified. “Just make sure that what you're putting together for this application is for this application.”

More Honors colleges are writing prompts that require a response that is specific and often personal. Carefully consider the prompt and apply your research to the topic. Using what you know, try to view your response from the perspective of the admissions staff. That will help you determine if you’re on the right track.

Let’s look at one example: the current Judy Genshaft Honors College application essay prompt. First, the Judy Genshaft Honors College website explains that its “small, discussion-based interdisciplinary classes combine knowledge and methods from several fields of study to create unique solutions to real-world ideas and problems.” This is valuable background information! If you did your homework, you’ll probably be familiar with this aspect of the Judy Genshaft Honors College, but this prelude gives helpful insight into the admissions team’s expectations.

Based on that information, the essay prompt asks, “If you were to teach a course as part of the Honors curriculum, what would you name it, what topics would be covered, and how would the class be taught?” Familiarity with the Judy Genshaft Honors College curriculum is valuable when responding, but this prompt is really probing into your interests and values. A quality response will draw from those aspects of yourself.

Don’t feel like you must conform to a certain tone. Take your response seriously, but don’t be afraid to add a dash of thoughtful humor if that’s consistent with who you are.

Tip 3: Be True to Yourself

Who you are is what this is all about. Being admitted to Honors reflects your ability and character, not your parents or Chat GPT. Honors decisionmakers are eager to hear your thoughts and ideas, even if they’re outside the norm — especially if they’re outside the norm!

Honors courses will encourage you to bravely express your ideas and remain open to varied perspectives. You can show that you can confidently state your point of view starting right here, right now, in this essay. Take a chance and get creative! Write a response that’s insightful and fun to read.

According to the Princeton Review, your Honors application essay “doesn’t have to be a grand treatise filled with urbane vocabulary and singular accounts of adolescent life. What it has to be is authentic. It has to sound like you and tell a story — lofty or mundane — about your life, your values, your perspectives, and your personal growth. It has to be an essay that only you could have written.”

Sousa, who has read thousands of Honors admissions essays for USF, confirmed, “This is your opportunity to introduce yourself to us as a college. What we want to know is who you are. What do you want to show us about yourself so we can understand how you would fit into what we’re offering?”

We asked some of the Judy Genshaft Honors College administrative team what made a student likely to succeed in Honors. If you can show, through your writing, that you have some of these traits, you’ll stand a better chance of being admitted.

Dr. Lindy Davidson, associate dean of academic affairs at the Judy Genshaft Honors College, said, “I believe the key to success for Honors students is a willingness to show up, listen to new ideas and opportunities, and find ways to connect beyond the prescribed path for a particular major or career.”

Echoing her, Dr. Catherine Wilkens, the associate dean of the Judy Genshaft Honors College on USF’s St. Petersburg campus, emphasized intellectual curiosity. “It’s not just being open to new ideas and information but being intrinsically motivated to seek it out.”

Dr. Cayla Lanier, assistant dean of the Judy Genshaft Honors College on USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus, shared a slightly different perspective. “For me, vulnerability is the key to success. An important part of learning is being open to getting it wrong and asking questions when we do.”

Above all, your response should be about yourself — not the college. Sousa reported that too much flattery for the Honors College itself is a common mistake. Essays like that fail to provide vital insight into the applicant’s personality and perspective. “I don’t need to know why our college is good. It’s not that you can’t put that in there, but make sure you bring it full circle and express how it relates to your personal values and goals.”

Tip 4: Check for Proper Style and Grammar

While Honors colleges encourage you to take risks with your ideas, they also appreciate — and expect — legible, professional formatting. Start a new paragraph when you begin exploring a new idea, double-check your essay for typos and run-on sentences, and invite your friend, counselor, or parent to be another set of eyes.

“I always encourage students to put their best foot forward on that essay,” Sousa said. “Proofread and check it again and again. Make sure it's as concise as possible and as well-put-together as possible because those are the first things we look for.”

Spelling and grammar blunders could cost you, but ignoring obvious style details surely will. “I've definitely seen a lot of essays that have kind of been Frankenstein monsters,” Sousa laughed. “They jammed together pieces of different essays. Their topics and concepts were disjointed. Some had whole paragraphs that had a completely different font and spacing.”

Honors coursework demands substantial writing, and it’s held to a higher standard of quality. If you don’t pay attention to detail on your application essay, it sends a bad signal that you’re not prepared to take on Honors coursework and you’ll likely be denied.

Tip 5: Submit on Time — or Early!

Many Honors College application deadlines are hard deadlines, so the time you submit matters down to the minute. Late applications are not accepted. Hold yourself accountable and devise ways to ensure that a date mix-up doesn’t make you miss out on an amazing Honors opportunity.

If you do the following, you should be fine:

• Check your deadlines: As soon as an Honors college piques your interest, look up their admissions deadlines. They will often be on a different schedule than the general admissions deadlines, so make sure you’re looking at the right page.
• Add them to a calendar: Either add these deadlines to a dedicated college admissions calendar or put them on your primary calendar. Either way, make sure it’s a calendar you check frequently. Consider scheduling reminders for yourself, too.
• Build in buffer time: Do not procrastinate! Plan to submit a few days early (and mark those earlier dates on your calendar) so that an unexpected life event, Wi-Fi outage, or server issue doesn’t prevent you from submitting on time. Sousa recommended getting everything done before Thanksgiving break.

Submitting early isn’t just about avoiding automatic disqualifications, though. It frequently has a positive benefit, improving your chances of acceptance.

“I always recommend that students get their applications in early because it helps them get admitted,” Sousa explained. “In the earlier application pools, there may be more shifting and changing and spots opening up. In the later pools, many of our seats are already confirmed and we have to be a little bit more precise at that point."

If you submit your application early, you can sit back and wait, confident that the work is done and good news is on the way!

Waiting for the Response

Well, some of us can sit back and relax. Others may deal with application anxiety, nervously awaiting a response and fearing the worst.

Sousa offered a bit of advice to help the more disquieted among us find their peace. He encouraged applicants to reach out and introduce themselves to Honors college admissions staff, demonstrating their interest and engagement and providing an extra reference point for the people reviewing their application. He said that if a student is on the cusp of being admitted or waitlisted, speaking to them sometimes helps him make a more confident decision. He cautioned against too much contact, though: Play it cool.

He also made a point to remind students that the Honors college admissions staff are humans who sometimes make mistakes. Admissions is a numbers game; there are limited spots available, and negative decisions aren’t personal. “I’m not a judge! I'm making a determination based off the information I have. It’s not a reflection of your value as a person.”

He stressed that qualified applicants sometimes get denied in competitive applicant pools. Students should be proud of their accomplishments even if they don’t get the answer they’re looking for. 

In the end, it’s clear that Honors college applications are landing on the desks of open-minded professionals who are curious about who you are, what you care about, and why. Put in effort to write the best essay you can and confidently be yourself. You’ll do just fine.

The Judy Genshaft Honors College at USF is the jewel of our university, offering exceptional resources, eminently qualified instructors, and a diverse community of the best and brightest scholars. Learn more about Honors at USF and apply today!

To help you get started, we’ve created special downloadable templates for both the essay and extracurriculars portion of the JGHC application. The goal of these templates is to help you organize your thoughts. Use them as a foundation, then add your own flair to build a stand-out Honors application!