Honors Residential Learning Community

Honors Residential Learning Community

The Honors Residential Learning Community (HRCL) provides an opportunity for Honors freshmen to live together. Academic Village, Honors is a residence hall specifically for those in the HRLC, but Honors students are not required to live in this residence hall to be part of the learning community and/or the Honors Program. For more information about what it is like to live in the Honors Residential Learning Community, watch the videos below!

For more information related to housing, please visit the University Housing website or contact University Housing via email at housing@colostate.edu or via phone at 970-491-4719.

Academic VillageEdwards Hall
Research and Enrichment Opportunities

Research and Enrichment Opportunities

The Honors thesis allows students to work under the guidance of a faculty adviser. It presents the chance to personalize your education by pursuing a topic in an area of interest to you. You can use your thesis experience to enhance your application to graduate school, medical school and other post-baccalaureate programs, or to give you a competitive edge when applying for a job. An Honors thesis serves as the capstone of the Honors experience.

These awards provide monetary assistance for you to study abroad, complete service projects, conduct original research, travel to academic conferences and a variety of other worthy endeavors.

Honors ThesisEnrichment Awards

Enhanced Education

Challenging Classes

Engaging Community

Scholarship Opportunities

Early Registration

Honors Scholar Designation

Application Process

Are you academically motivated?  Are you curious how the world connects?  Apply to Honors!

The Honors Program aims to cultivate curiosity, deep learning, and interdisciplinarity in our students, encouraging them to find connections across disparate fields of study and create innovative approaches to research, creative projects, and technology.  In doing so, Honors hopes to inspire more creativity and innovation as their output, both at CSU and once students graduate and move on to their next challenge.

The University Honors Program emphasizes a diverse and inclusive community.  We have Honors students from all different majors across eight different colleges.  The Honors Program is a university-wide program for high-achieving, academically motivated students at CSU who aspire to explore important questions within local and global society, build healthy and inclusive communities, and who do so within an environment that intentionally develops professional, marketable skills.  The Honors Program offers a cadre of small, discussion-based seminars that require active participation as students enact in our program values.

Incoming first-year students who are admitted to CSU and who have a minimum 3.8 GPA are extended an invitation to apply to Honors.  Yes, it is another applicaiton to complete, but it isn't too taxing--you'll be asked for short responses to three questions.  If you miss the email inviting you to apply, you can access the application through your Future Rams Dashboard on the Opportunities tab.  If you are under the 3.8 GPA, don't worry--you can request to add the application to your Rams Dashboard.  Contact admissions@colostate.edu or honors@colostate.edu to request this.  

Preference for admission to the University Honors Program is given to high school students who have:

  • Rigorous, extensive, and in-depth academic preparation in core subjects.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  • A desire to participate in, and contribute to, this honors community.

Application Overview
The Honors Program application consists of a brief online application form with short-answer essay responses.  The Honors application review committee will also have access to all materials submitted as part of the on-line CSU Admissions application.  The Honors application review committee will consider several factors including Academic Rigor (what coursework was taken), Academic Readiness (performance within coursework), Community Involvement, Understanding of the values/goals of Honors at CSU, and quality written responses.  

Applications are due by February 1
The deadline for submitting an Honors application is February 1.  We welcome early submissions.   

Apply through CSU Admissions!

Honors Program Admissions Decisions 
Decisions are communicated via email as well as noted within the Opportunities tab on your Future Rams Dashboard.   

Incoming transfer students who have been admitted to CSU are invited to apply to the program if they have demonstrated records of high academic achievement at the college level. The minimum college cumulative GPA for consideration in the UHP is 3.50. Students in this category should contact the UHP office to obtain assistance with the application process.

These students must be admitted to the program jointly though the Honors Program and their departments. The recruitment and admissions process is coordinated through the University Honors Program, but the final admission decision is made by the student's academic department.

The criteria for admission into the UHP for currently enrolled students are similar to that for transfer students. To be eligible for admission to the Honors Program, a student will need at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA at CSU. Students who are encouraged to apply to Track 2 by faculty in their department should contact the UHP office to obtain assistance with the application process. The final admission decision into Track 2 for currently enrolled students is made by the Honors Program and the student's academic department.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes there is. Applicants to CSU who have a minimum 3.8 GPA receive an invitation to apply to the program by email, and a link to the Honors application will appear on their RAMweb application status page.

You’ll need your eID to access the Honors Application. Admissions emails students instructions to create their eID within two days after submitting their application for admission. Students must have their 9-digit CSU ID number in order to create their eID. If you need help recalling your CSU ID or creating your eID, contact Admissions at admissions@colostate.edu or 970-491-6909 (information can only be shared with students).

The Honors application is usually open by mid-October for incoming freshmen who plan to attend CSU in the fall of the following year.

The deadline to submit the Honors applicaiton is February 1.  We welcome early submissions, however.  Generally earlier applications receive earlier consideration.  

Reading Honors applications is a thorough process with multiple reviewers carefully reading each application in its entirety, which includes not only the Honors-specific short answers, but also the general application used for CSU admissions.  With multiple readers giving this kind of in-depth discretion, it takes a bit longer than we'd like, but we value thorough evaluation.  Admission decisions are communicated via email from honors@colostate.edu, so be on the lookout for this in your inbox (also check junk/spam folders just in case).      

That said, decision release times depend largely on date of submission. If you’ve been waiting for a long time (longer than 8-10 weeks, for example), check for a decision under the opportunities tab of your future Rams dashboard.  If you submitted closer to the deadline, it is likely you will need to continue being patient longer than if you submit earlier.  To put this into context, we receive close to 1000 applications in the few days leading up to our deadline.  Thank you for your continued patience.    

 

You only need to submit the Honors application itself. The committee will have access to other materials within your CSU application, including transcript(s) and your CSU essay.

Our only formal eligibility requirement is minimum high school GPA of 3.8 (weighted or unweighted, whichever the school provides). However, in reviewing applications, we will consider academic qualifications (GPA, test scores, rank), academic rigor of high school classes (AP/IB/dual enrollment) classes), leadership, community service and other extracurricular activities. Our goal is to attract students with a genuine interest in an honors experience who want to make a significant contribution to the program through interactions with the honors community of scholars and faculty.

The Honors Track 2 program was designed for transfer and continuing students at Colorado State University. It provides a way for students that did not enter the Honors program as incoming first-year students to participate in an Honors experience. Track 2 is an Honors program in your major. Please be aware that not all majors have a Track 2 curriculum. Majors that do not currently have a Track 2 program include Construction Management, Data Science, Ethnic Studies, Family and Consumer Sciences, Geography, Landscape Architecture, Statistics, and Women and Gender Studies.