Honors Scholars Information

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Application Deadline

The final application deadline is March 1, but Honors Scholars begins receiving applications in October for the November 1, December 1, and February 1 early deadlines.

Competitive Acceptance

The selection process is very competitive, and only a limited number of scholarships are available: only 63 percent were accepted in 2016. It is wise to take the SAT and ACT multiple times to increase your scores and apply early (between October and March).

SAT/ACT Scores

Not everyone does extremely well on standardized testing, but if you work hard and make good grades your first semester of college (12 hours completed with grades), then you could qualify for Honors Scholars as a transfer or LU student if you have a cumulative GPA of 3.50. However, for the last several years, Honors Scholars has only accepted LU students with nearly a 4.0 GPA and fewer than 60 hours.

National Merit Scholarships

The designation of National Merit Finalist, Semifinalist, or Commended is based on high PSAT scores taken your junior year in high school. National Merit Finalists represent the top half of the top one percent of all high school seniors. Commended students represent the top three percent. Honors Scholars awards a limited number (50) of these scholarships per year. Historically, we have never turned away a finalist. Commended students should apply early for best results. A photocopy of a letter or certificate from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation must accompany the application to be eligible for consideration of this award. For more information on the National Merit Program, visit their website for further details: www.nationalmerit.org.

International Students

International students must have a 3.50 GPA, and they are encouraged but not required to take the SAT. In addition, for international students only, we will accept Honors applications by email or fax: emailed to honorsprogram@liberty.edu or faxed to (434) 582-2728. In total, Honors Scholars has 26 international students from 13 countries: the Bahamas, Canada, China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Paraguay, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Expected Workload

With the exception of the Senior Honors Thesis (HONR 495), Honors Scholars students do not need to take any additional courses. The Honors Scholars seminars (100-200 level) are classes that you would normally take anyway, but the Honors Scholars sections have a much smaller student-professor enrollment (15:1) and are discussion-driven rather than straight lecture. The classes do provide a moderate challenge, but most gifted students welcome the opportunity for growth and enrichment in their classes. Full-time students take between 12-18 hours of college credits, but for the first semester in Honors Scholars, we recommend taking only 12-15 hours.

Extracurricular Activities

We currently have 21 Honors Scholars students who are also varsity athletes in a variety of men’s and women’s intercollegiate sports: football, basketball, track, tennis, cross country, softball, swimming, lacrosse, soccer, golf, field hockey, and cheerleading. 43 Honors Scholars students are involved in club sports: hockey, equestrian, wrestling, crew, snowboarding, disc golf, gymnastics, figure skating, archery, cycling, frisbee, beach volleyball, racquetball, triathlon, rock climbing, and Taekwondo.

Many of our Honors Scholars students are also highly involved in campus activities and organizations and still graduate in four years from Honors Scholars.

Honors Scholars alumni include a 5-time Jeopardy champion, an NFL football player, an MLB-drafted Academic All-American, the first female student government president, several Champion newspaper editors, the Big South Player of the Year in women’s soccer, and nationally-ranked Debaters and Quiz Bowl players.

CLEP Credit

Honors Scholars students who enter the program as freshmen will need to take 8 Honors Scholars seminars their first two years of college. Sophomores entering the program will need four Honors Scholars seminars. Juniors will need two Honors Scholars seminars. As long as you have enough general education courses left to take to meet those requirements, your CLEP credits should not hinder you from doing well in Honors Scholars.

Homeschooled Students

Many of our best Honors Scholars students come from homeschool backgrounds. Like public and private school students, though, you still need to have a 1330 SAT or 28 ACT and a 3.50 GPA in high school. However, relatives (including parents) cannot write letters of recommendation. Your letters must be from non-relatives who know you in some sort of educational capacity, such as:

pastors, assistant pastors, youth pastors, or Sunday school teachers
scouting leaders, coaches, tutors, or music instructors
employers or leaders in charitable organizations

Transfer and LU Students

Honors Scholars welcomes many students from community colleges, state universities, sister Christian colleges, and current LU students, as long as you have a minimum of 12 hours of college credits (with grades) and at least four semesters of college remaining with a cumulative college GPA of 3.50. However, if you have earned over 60 hours of college credit, it is too late to apply to our Honors Scholars.

Petition for Honors Credit

Once students complete their lower-division Honors Scholars seminars, they take three upper-division Honors Scholars petition courses in their major, beginning their junior year. A petition course is an opportunity for an Honors Scholars student to study more deeply via an independent-study, learning contract that is agreed upon between the student and the professor. Well-crafted petition projects should promote independence, freedom, and moderate challenge for the Honors Scholars student and involve an advanced level of creativity, problem-solving, and/or critical thinking. Ideally, petition projects should contribute toward the research needed for the Senior Honors Scholars Thesis.

Senior Honors Thesis

The Senior Honors Scholars Thesis is the capstone project that seniors complete after two to three years of advanced study. The purpose of this course (HONR 495) is to give Honors Scholars students an opportunity to research a topic of their choice, under the guidance of a committee of two senior faculty members and the Honors Scholars director.

Completion of the senior Honors Scholars thesis enables Honors Scholars students to have a well-researched writing sample in their interest area and major field of study that can be submitted when making application to graduate schools, law and medical schools, and seminaries.