The Honors Program selection committee looks for students who are motivated to learn and who enjoy taking their academic pursuits to a higher level. High school performance, test scores, essays and letters of recommendation are used as general guidelines for admission, but they are not considered definitive determinants of admission to the Honors Program.

Our Goal

Our goal with Marquette's Honors Program is to help facilitate a community of scholars that can be a partner in and contributor to the learning enterprise of our students. Accordingly, the quality and nature of Honors Program students play as important a role as the curriculum in creating the educational environment of the Honors Program. In selecting students for admission, we consider a variety of factors.

Commitment to Academic Rigor

A student's commitment to academic rigor can be demonstrated in ways ranging from outstanding academic performance to extreme diligence and industry. Sometimes these characteristics emerge from the combination of the applicant's writing sample, extracurricular interests, academic achievements and letters of recommendation. However, we also consider a student's initiative, creativity, motivation and interest in taking intellectual risks.

Test Scores

Finally, we also consider standardized test scores, class rank and GPA as indicators of a student's ability to thrive in and contribute to the Honors Program community at Marquette University. The Honors Faculty Advisory Council, which consists of 10 tenured faculty from a variety of colleges and departments across campus, reviews each application.