OU Honors gives high-achieving students the best of both worlds: a close-knit, interdisciplinary community with personalized support and meaningful challenge, embedded within a flagship public university rich in opportunity, research, and global experiences. At the University of Oklahoma, Honors isn’t about doing more for the sake of it—it’s about doing more with purpose. It’s where your curiosity turns into research and where your ideas become action.
OU Honors is where your education becomes something bigger than yourself.
For students who want more than a credential, OU Honors transforms ambition into impact by combining small classes, close faculty mentorship, dedicated writing and advising support, and distinctive research and global opportunities within one of the nation’s leading public research university environments.
The Honors College reviews applications year-round. Eligible incoming first-year students can apply after they are admitted to OU. We recommend incoming students apply to the Honors College before April of their high-school senior year to have ample time to enroll in Honors courses.
Current OU students who have earned at least 15 credit hours, but no more than 60 with an unweighted GPA of at least 3.4. Admission is based on a combination of demonstrated academic success and the ability to write a well-organized, college-appropriate essay.
Students entering the University of Oklahoma from another university are eligible to apply with at least 15 credit hours, but no more than 60, earned with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.4 and completion of an essay that responds to a prompt on our application.
If you’re ready to go further academically, personally, and creatively, the Honors College is designed for you. However you arrived here, what matters most is what you’re ready to do next.
Being the first in your family to attend college is a huge achievement, but you don't have to figure it out alone. Explore OU's First-Generation Roadmap for a year-by-year guide on what to focus on and the resources available to help you succeed.
OU Honors helps students push further, through close community, deeper learning, and experiences that turn ambition into impact.
Honors courses are smaller, discussion-based, and built around curiosity—not just completion. You’ll engage with ideas, not just memorize them.
Work alongside faculty mentors who challenge and support you. You'll join a community of peers who are just as driven, curious, and motivated as you are.
From undergraduate research to community impact to national fellowships, Honors gives you the tools to turn your education into real outcomes.
From undergraduate research and scholarships to study abroad and signature opportunities like Honors at Oxford, the college gives students distinctive ways to expand their education beyond the classroom and prepare for meaningful careers, graduate study, and lives of impact.
The Honors at Oxford study abroad program, founded in 1998, offers students the opportunity to live and study in Brasenose College at Oxford University. OU professors incorporate local sites and culture into Honors at Oxford classes. The program offers generous scholarship support for students to take classes with professors who incorporate local sites and culture.
The Medical Humanities Scholars Program is a highly selective, sequential BA-MD program that prepares 5-8 incoming high school seniors per year for a career in medicine through an enhanced pre-medical curriculum (MH Minor) that includes extensive coursework in history, literature, fine arts, philosophy, ethics, sociology, anthropology, economics, spirituality, and politics as they relate to health, disease, and the practice of medicine.
A limited number of students (up to 25 per year) will be selected to join the Pre-Law Scholars Program (PLSP) before their enrollment as undergraduates at OU. The Pre-Law Scholars Program will allow these highly motivated Honors College students interested in the practice of law or judicial service to complete both a Bachelor's degree and Juris Doctor at the University of Oklahoma in six years.
Any Honors-eligible (3.4 GPA or higher) student at the University of Oklahoma may minor in the medical humanities by completing 18 credit hours of coursework focused on a specific area within the medical humanities (history of medicine, bioethics, medical anthropology, literature, and medicine; cross cultural perspectives on health and disease, etc.), spoken foreign languages, and non-western cultural traditions.
I think I’ve developed my resumé for that exact reason: growth. Through each class, volunteer activity, and professional experience, I believe I have become a more well-rounded student and person.
Megan Benner,
University of Oklahoma Honors College health care business student and Pre-Law Scholar
At OU Honors, students turn curiosity into action through research opportunities that connect them with faculty mentorship, original inquiry, and real academic impact. Undergraduate Research Day is where that work takes center stage—celebrating the depth, creativity, and achievement of undergraduate researchers from across the university. Find out how to get involved in the Undergraduate Research Day.
Students in OU Honors can get involved in ways that match their interests and goals. The Honors Student Association encourages fellowship, volunteerism, and academic engagement, while the Honors Mentorship Program helps new students connect with upperclass mentors and build community early in their college experience. Students can also join Webster Book Clubs for weekly discussion, attend screenings with the Classic Film Club, or take part in hikes, camping trips, and outdoor training through Outdoor Adventure.
March 10, 2026
The Honors College Living-Learning Community provides a living-learning community on two floors of Dunham College, exclusively for Honors College students with special Honors College RAs, mentors, and programming. Incoming freshmen can sign up through their housing selection form. For more information, email Madison Lowry, Student Life Coordinator, at madisonlowry@ou.edu.
February 23, 2026
The Freshman Trip is an annual backpacking trip in the Pecos Wilderness of New Mexico. Incoming freshman or newly transferred students who have been accepted into the Honors College can sign up. The trip lasts 6 days, including travel days from Norman, and is led by other OU students who have completed their Guide Training. We try to make our trips as accommodating to various skill levels as possible, and OA is a great introduction to backpacking.
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation recently named Arianna Dambold and Aaron Lim as members of its 2026 class of Astronaut Scholars. The prestigious awards are given to junior and senior-year college students pursuing degrees in STEM and aims to support the next generation of explorers and innovators.
University of Oklahoma undergraduate researchers earned two of the highest honors at the 31st annual Research Day at the Capitol, a statewide competition highlighting top undergraduate research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
University of Oklahoma graduate Lucy Coleman has been selected for the National Institutes of Health Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program, an elite international doctoral training program that partners the NIH with the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge to prepare future leaders in biomedical research.
