This application is for Fall 2024 enrollment. It closes on July 1, 2024. We will review these applications on a rolling basis. We will email you after your application has been reviewed. We review applications on April 30, May 15, June 1, June 15, and June 30, with notifications to applicants following these dates within a week.

Honors Program Mission

The UVU Honors Program enhances the collegiate experience of highly motivated students through specialized academic and enrichment opportunities that cultivate personal, professional, and civic engagement. Please visit www.uvu.edu/honors for additional Honors Program information. 

Please have ready the following:

• a prepared admission essay (see prompts below) and any required images specified in the prompt
• a robust list of your accomplishments, awards, and/or leadership, artistic, athletic, work, or volunteer experiences
• ACT or SAT scores (if applicable, typically only for students coming directly from high school)
• high school transcripts (for students coming directly from high school)
• college transcripts (if applicable)
• for help with this form, please call 801-863-6262

Applicants must prepare one response to a selected prompt. Applicants will be asked to attest that all the work submitted was prepared by them without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT or other machine learning tools.

The required section on notable activities, accomplishments, and awards is crucial to your application. We welcome evidence of your accomplishments in any of the following areas: academics, leadership, athletics, arts (visual and/or performing), community service or involvement, employment, and any other areas you feel display your drive, focus, and capability.

Application Prompt Instructions:

The most impressive applications will be clear and lively, giving us a vivid sense of who you are and what passion, motivation, and innovation you might bring to the UVU Honors Program.

Your essay response will be evaluated on the focus, originality, and creativity of the content, but form (spelling, grammar, and punctuation) matters, too. We are seeking students who display evidence of curiosity, innovative thinking, and potential for intellectual and personal growth.

We adapted some of the prompts below from the University of Chicago's famously unusual admissions essay tradition.

DO:

• Draw on your best qualities as a writer and thinker
• Take some risks and have fun
• Have someone with experience proofread your writing
• Carefully to remove typos, clichéd phrasing, and unclear ideas

DON’T

• Let anyone erase your unique voice
• Share your darkest thoughts, experiences, fears, or desires
• Preach or lecture
• Plagiarize or use generative AI like ChatGPT to prepare your responses

Essay responses are limited to 300 words.

PROMPTS:

Choose ONE

A. Lessons come in many forms inside and outside of a classroom. Reflect on a high school, college, or work assignment or achievement (such as a paper, performance, project, design, coding project, championship, medal, or other tangible accomplishment).

• What did you learn about yourself from completing it or what was the most impactful learning experience you had during it? We welcome you to discuss joyful or difficult learning experiences.
• You must include a PDF image of your graded work, the finished project, a photo or video still of your performance, artistic product, competition, etc. along with your essay.

B. Imagine you’ve struck a deal with the UVU Honors Director. This imaginary scenario goes as follows: you’re guaranteed admission to the UVU Honors Program on a full ride scholarship. This bond demands that you use a blank, 8.5” x 11” piece of paper. You may draw, write, sketch, collage, shade, stencil, paint, etc., anything you want on ONE side of it.

• Now the catch… your submission, for the rest of your life, will always be the first thing anyone you meet for the first time will see. Whether it’s at a job interview, a blind date, arrival at your first graduate class, before you even say, “Hey,” they’ll already have seen your page, and formulated that first impression.
• Attach your page as a PDF. What’s on it, and why? If your piece is largely or exclusively visual, please make sure to share a creator’s accompanying statement of no more than 200 words, which we will happily allow to be on its own, separate page.

C. Tell us about an aspect of your identity or a life experience that has shaped you into who you are today. Be sure to include details so that we can understand your history, heritage, or life path, but we’re not therapists, so please avoid discussing specific personal traumas.

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