Applying to the Honors College

Applying to the IUPUI Honors College

Before you apply to the IUPUI Honors College, you must apply and be admitted to IUPUI. Incoming freshmen interested in applying for the Bepko, Presidential, or Plater Scholarships must apply to IUPUI before November 1.

All students interested in admission to the IUPUI Honors College are encouraged to apply to IUPUI as early in the senior year as possible. Once admitted to IUPUI, students will be able to apply for admission to the Honors College and our scholarships. The Honors College admission and scholarship application for incoming freshmen may be accessed through the IU scholarship application.

The deadline to submit all application materials is November 15 for the Bepko, Presidential, and Plater Scholarships and February 15 for the Chancellor’s Scholarship.

The IU scholarship application

IUPUI uses the IU scholarship application to simplify the process of applying to multiple scholarship programs. This application includes a general, shared application that is used for every scholarship. Upon accessing the IU scholarship application, you'll first be prompted to complete this general application before you begin your Honors College application.

If you haven’t already, you’ll need to create your IUPUI computing account to apply for the Honors College and other competitive scholarships. You’ll need your university ID number, which is found in your letter of admission, to set up your account. Go to One.IU, search for “create my first IU account,” and select that task, then create your username and passphrase, passphrase reset questions, and email address. Be sure that the email address you create is for IUPUI. This account can take up to 24 hours to fully activate. 

Once that is completed, you’re ready to begin your Honors College application by completing the general application on the IU Scholarships portal. Once submitted, you’ll access the Honors College application along with many other scholarships you are eligible to apply for. Log in to One.IU and search for "scholarships" to get started!

For optimal compatibility, sign in using any of the following browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, or Microsoft Edge.

If you have followed the steps outlined above, but do not see the Honors College application in your personal IU Scholarships application portal, and you believe that you are a strong candidate for admission, please contact us at honors.iupui.edu. Note that only students that meet the minimum requirements for admission will be able to access the Honors College application.

The Honors College admission and scholarship application

Admission to the IUPUI Honors College is competitive, but all students selected for admission will be awarded one of our four scholarships. When applying for admission to the IUPUI Honors College, you are also applying for the Chancellor’s Scholarship.

When evaluating students for admission, we consider the high school transcript, the school counselor reference, the scholarship resume, the admission and Chancellor’s Scholarship essay, and a sample of academic work. We'll conduct a holistic review of each applicant.

Offers are dependent on the competitiveness of the applicant pool and admission is not guaranteed regardless of GPA. Successful applicants will likely have completed an honors curriculum as evident in their high school transcript and can demonstrate in their essays how they will contribute to the IUPUI Honors College community.

Indiana residents have the option of also applying for the Bepko, Presidential, or Plater Scholarships. International students have the option of applying for the Bepko or Plater Scholarships. If a student chooses to apply for one or more of these scholarships, they do so in addition to applying for the Chancellor’s Scholarship and admission to the Honors College.

Students applying for the Bepko, Presidential, and Plater Scholarships will be required to provide an additional letter of recommendation, essay, and scholarship resume for each scholarship for which they choose to apply. These materials should showcase the focus of the specific scholarship.

Regarding standardized test scores

The IUPUI Honors College will no longer require the submission of SAT/ACT scores. If you choose to submit your standardized test scores when applying to IUPUI, the Honors College will not factor them into our review of your application. Please note that while the Honors College no longer requires these scores, there may be other schools or programs that require the SAT or ACT scores for scholarship consideration. Please check with your degree-granting school directly for further information.

IUPUI Honors College admission timeline

  • November 1: Deadline to apply to IUPUI if you're planning on applying for the Bepko, Presidential, or Plater Scholarships.
  • November 15: Deadline to apply to the IUPUI Honors College if you're applying for the Bepko, Presidential, or Plater Scholarships. Please note that if you plan to apply for any of these scholarships, you must apply for admission and the Chancellor’s Scholarship at this time as well.
  • Mid-December: Admission, scholarship, and interview decisions for students who applied for the Bepko, Presidential, or Plater Scholarships.
  • January: Interviews take place for the Bepko, Presidential, and Plater Scholarship finalists.
  • Mid-February: Decision notifications for the Bepko, Presidential, and Plater Scholarship finalists go out.
  • February 15: Deadline to apply to the IUPUI Honors College if interested only in the Chancellor’s Scholarship.
  • Mid-March: Final decision notifications for students who applied only for the Chancellor’s Scholarship go out.
  • May 1: Decision deadline for the IUPUI Honors College.

Application checklist for admission and the Chancellor's Scholarship

Complete the application listed above.

Since you’ve already applied and submitted your high school transcript to IUPUI, we'll work with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to get it. 

The IUPUI Honors College review committee will look carefully at your transcript to assess course selection and performance in each individual course.

Your transcript should include:

  • Senior academic schedule: List the courses you took—or will take—during your senior year of high school.
  • Classes designated as an honors course.
  • Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate credit: List the AP and IB course names and dates attended.
  • College or university credit: List the names of any institutions where you’ve received college or university credit. Also, include the dates of attendance, courses taken, and grades received. If applicable, this information must be provided. You do not need to provide your official transcript from the college or university.

In completing your IU scholarship application, you'll be asked to list all activities, involvement, and awards. This is part of the general application, and we'll have access to this information when you apply for admission to the Honors College.

All applicants must provide a sample of academic work. Our review committee is looking for evidence of your potential for success in an honors curriculum.

Your submission may be from any discipline, regardless of your intended major, as long as it is your original, individual academic work. A research paper from an AP English course would be an example of an appropriate choice, though we anticipate many students will wish to submit an academic artifact that is not a traditional writing sample. Examples may include, but are not limited to, a science project or lab report; an electronic portfolio; a class, forensics, or science fair presentation; and a capstone, research, or seminar project.

Applicants are encouraged to select an artifact that best represents their academic ability. If the submission includes a grade, the review committee will not factor that grade into their decision. For that reason, we recommend that you select a sample of your work that has been edited and revised over time. Examples of unacceptable submissions would be a quiz, test, or group project; we want to see something that is your individual work that took some time and effort outside of a single class period to produce.

You'll also submit a paragraph explaining why your chosen artifact is a strong example of your academic ability and potential for success in the IUPUI Honors College. In conducting our review of your application, this paragraph is crucial to help us understand the learning represented in your academic artifact. In this paragraph, be sure to reflect on the artifact and the learning process you went through to create it—what did you accomplish in your chosen artifact and what did you learn about the subject, yourself, your educational growth, and your potential for success as an Honors College student?

Finally you will be asked to provide a name and email address of a teacher or other academic professional who can verify that the artifact is your original work.

When applying for admission to the Honors College, you'll be required to submit one reference form from your school counselor.* We'll ask you to provide their name and email address, and we'll contact them with the required form. Please make sure that you give them adequate notice so that we can receive their response by the application deadline.

*If you are a home-schooled student and do not have a traditional school counselor, an appropriate substitute would be the coordinator of your home school program. Please note that we cannot accept recommendations from a family member.

Please respond to the following prompt, which will be used for selection for both admission to the Honors College and the Chancellor’s Scholarship. You must type or copy and paste your essay directly into the online application.

The IUPUI Honors College is committed to developing an inclusive and welcoming community of scholars that upholds the values of diversity, civic engagement, academic excellence, and engaged learning. In a 400- to 600-word essay, please describe how you demonstrate these values in your own life. Why do you believe you are a strong candidate for our inclusive community?

Bepko, Presidential, and Plater Scholarships

Learn more about applying for these scholarships

Regarding scholarships and financial aid

Scholarships, financial aid, and cost of attendance

If you're receiving aid from multiple programs, institutional scholarships may be reduced to equal your official cost of attendance (COA) for the year. Only financial aid in the form of external scholarships or the Pell Grant may be awarded to exceed the COA.

Occasionally, due to the timing of additional scholarships being awarded, the scholarship may not be paid out in the form of cash funds (e.g., as money paid into your bursar account), but instead, may reduce already released aid, such as your student/parent loan burden or other federal, state, or institutional aid, by the amount awarded.