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Message from the Dean

The world would have us believe the college experience happens a certain way: Find your interest. Find your major. Find what makes you comfortable. That individual focus is the way to accomplish.

But there’s another way to look the college experience: a way that sees that a richer path is through others. At the Honors College, we believe that to find your way in life is to see your place, and value, among disparate thinking, and views, and people. We believe that when the best biologists live alongside the best poets, when promising engineers work in the field with passionate journalists, when talented dancers learn abroad with computer scientists, they all uncover something deeper about each other, and themselves.

Knowing what others know. Valuing what others bring. Doing what is only possible with others.

When this happens, the collective college experience becomes something more. It is more than a focus, but also a widening of thought. It is more than the perfection of a major, but also a mastery of interpersonal skills. It is more than the kind of career you will have, but also the kind of life you will lead.

Explore our website to learn about the strong community and unique educational offerings at the University of Utah’s Honors College.

Sincerely,

Dean Sylvia Torti

Sylvia Torti

What and Why?

The Liberal Arts and Science tradition at the Honors College is a curriculum and community in the truest sense of the word: Liberal has the same root as liberate. Through Intellectual Traditions courses, Praxis Labs, and small learning communities we encourage students to embrace challenges, explore multiple perspectives and venture out to find a place in the world.

The Honors College seeks intellectually curious students who are concerned with the world around them. The Honors Curriculum and Community is designed to engage students in a breadth and depth of study culminating in a thesis in the student’s major.

Students gathered together with Professor Michael Gills. WHY APPLY?

For more than fifty years, the University of Utah has offered Honors programs. The Honors College Curriculum and Community give students unique opportunities to learn to think critically and to develop excellent communication skills and problem-solving skills applicable to any and all fields of study and careers. Special Honors-only opportunities include year-long theory into practice (Praxis) Labs, close work with faculty, and thesis projects grounded in a student's major. Only students in the Honors College have the opportunity to earn an Honors Bachelor degree from the University of Utah, the highest degree conferred on an undergraduate.