UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
Admit-a-bull // official admissions blog, five ways to make your honors college application stand out.
By Joni West | Last Updated: Nov 8, 2024
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.
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.”
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!
About Joni West
Joni West, a freelance content producer and USF grad from Tampa Bay, writes to empower students to shape their own college story.
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A Great Pitt Honors College Essay Example
What’s covered:, essay example – changing the world , where to get your pitt essay edited.
The University of Pittsburgh is a large public university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is known for its great academics. The David C. Frederick Honors College at Pitt offers even more opportunities to a select group of talented students. Given the highly selective nature of the Pitt Honors College, you need to have strong essays to help your application stand out and gain admission. In this post, we’ll share a real essay a student submitted to the University of Pittsburgh Honors College, and outline its strengths and areas of improvement. (Names and identifying information have been changed, but all other details are preserved).
Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized.
Read our Pitt essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.
Prompt: If you could change anything in the world, what would it be? Explain why and how you would change it. (No word count given)
While growing up, I was constantly reminded about my health. When I would rant about my trivial problems, my mother would respond with: “the most important thing is you are healthy.” As a young and naive child, this response irritated me. I never understood the blessing of good health until I was diagnosed with migraines. Every month I was met with throbbing headaches that made me lose all sensation and control of my body.
On one New Year’s Eve, I went to visit family friends with my father and sister. The flashing lights on the television and little sleep triggered a migraine attack. Without my mother present, everyone was unfamiliar with my frightening symptoms. Out of panic, they decided to call an ambulance. That one simple call and visit resulted in a one-year battle with our insurance company. For months on end, my mother argued against the unfair and hurtful statements the insurance listed as reasons for their refusal of payment. These endless calls brought about extreme stress and frustration, but we did not have the means to pay. There was no other option but to keep on fighting.
This was my first memorable experience with healthcare and its failures. From that day forward, I associated care with payment. I became worried about affording medical treatment at an early age. And so, if I had the power to change the world, I would make healthcare more affordable. Every individual deserves to be treated without the worry of a costly bill.
While I realize that affordable healthcare is a point of debate in our nation, I maintain my stance that it is a human right. I also understand that it will take years to put into place, but this does not discourage me. I can help start the change. With Pitt Honors, I will be exposed to interactive research, a matched mentor, and personalized co-curricular activities. I will be able to become a skilled nurse with critical thinking abilities. With the development of leadership skills, I plan to make a difference. Whether it be taking a high position role at a no-cost clinic or shaping healthcare reforms, I know Pitt Honors College will help me achieve my dream. Whether it be taking a high position role at a no-cost clinic or shaping healthcare reforms, I plan to make a difference.
What the Essay Did Well
Something that makes this essay strong is how it takes time to tell a story and build an understanding for the author before we even learn what they would change about the world. The essay begins by introducing the idea of health, but because we aren’t told what they want to change yet, we are compelled to keep reading. Then, the anecdote helps us appreciate the personal connection this student has to affordable healthcare. They take the time to fully flesh out the context needed to answer the why aspect of the prompt, while at the same time building suspense for the what .
Additionally, this student went above and beyond the prompt by connecting it back to Pitt. They weren’t explicitly asked to discuss how an education from the Pitt Honors Program would help them change the world, but by including this paragraph it demonstrates genuine interest in the school. If an essay can prove that you can only accomplish your goals — especially such impressive ones like changing the world — by taking advantage of unique opportunities at that specific school, then admissions officers might feel they are denying you the chance to reach your full potential by not accepting you.
What Could Be Improved
The area that could use the most improvement in this essay is the last paragraph dedicated to Pitt. Although it’s great that this student took the extra step to include how attending the Honors College will allow them to achieve their goals, the paragraph is a bit vague. To improve it, there should be more specific details, about classes, programs, professors, etc, to show that they have done their research and think taking advantage of these offerings are the only way to change the world.
For example, the essay says, “With the development of leadership skills, I plan to make a difference.” This sentence would be far stronger if the student mentioned a specific club or volunteer program they want to be a part of and how emerging as a leader in that experience would help them become a leader in the medical field. Or, they mention the Honors College will expose them to research and match them with a mentor, but they don’t elaborate on this.
The entire paragraph could have just been dedicated to one specific professor whose research aligns with affordable healthcare and what this student hopes to learn from them. Having a more focused and detailed approach to why you want to attend a college will always make for a stronger essay than briefly touching on general opportunities offered at most schools.
Do you want feedback on your Pitt essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.
If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!
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