The University of Tulsa Honors College

Learn through questioning

We believe that education is the cultivation of human potential into human excellence. The Honors College offers an integrated, holistic, and transformative liberal arts education, which allows you to pursue a more specialized program of study within any major offered at utulsa. By studying classic texts within a community that seeks wisdom, virtue, and friendship as common ends, you will confront the most profound and enduring questions of human existence, as explored by some of the most influential thinkers within our inherited intellectual tradition.

Honors Curriculum

Learn through reading

The Classic Texts Core is the heart of the Honors College. These courses are designed to immerse and engage you in the “great conversation” of our inherited tradition, encompassing philosophy, history, literature, religious studies, and the foundations of the modern social, political, and natural sciences.

McFarlin Library

Learn through seeing

The Department of Special Collections and University Archives at McFarlin Library hosts worldclass collections of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, artwork, and other objects. They also offer an important array of research materials for scholars worldwide as well as utulsa faculty and students.

Special Collections

Learn with faculty

Faculty at the Honors College are accomplished writers, researchers, and international scholars. Led by Dean Jennifer Frey and Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs Matthew Post, our faculty are dedicated to the mission of the Honors College at The University of Tulsa: to offer an excellent and accelerated education, focused on the study of classical texts in the liberal arts tradition, in a vibrant intellectual community that fosters friendship, growth in excellent habits of mind and character, and service to the common good.

Honors College Faculty & Academic Advisory Board

Grow through opportunity

Honors students seek to grow in virtue through their service to the community at large. The Honors College is committed to helping you grow in knowledge, virtue, and friendship. Through special academic programs, student leadership opportunities, and civic service requirements, the Honors College will enable you to find your purpose in the world.

Grow through travels

The Honors College is committed to offering unique study abroad opportunities that integrate place and culture into the study of Classic Texts. Studying abroad allows Honors students to deepen their appreciation for various cultures, histories, and perspectives on what it means to be human.

Center for Global Engagement

Grow through research

The Honors College partners with the Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge (TURC) to provide extraordinary research opportunities for Honors Students. TURC aims to create leaders in scholarship, research, and public life through an emphasis on undergraduate research and community involvement.

Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge

Grow through service

True Blue Neighbors develops and formalizes partnerships with organizations in our community and beyond. These relationships allow Honors College students to deepen their understanding of social issues and contribute to organizations that serve community needs. With over 100 partnerships in the Tulsa area, True Blue Neighbors helps to bridge the gap in education, food security, youth mentorship, and other areas of need. Volunteer, special project, and service learning opportunities through True Blue Neighbors all satisfy Honors College civic service requirements.

Civic Engagement

Belong through community

At the Honors College, friendship is a vital component to a holistic learning experience. The Honors College is an intellectual community that shares a common goal: the search for wisdom. At utulsa, you will have the opportunity to make lifelong friendships with peers, professors, and mentors. All Honors College faculty are specially chosen for their exceptional teaching style, commitment to the vision of the College, and personal investment in the success of their students. In seeking to learn and grow together, we strive to create a community of faculty and students that can be called a collegium in the fullest sense of the word.

Belong in Hardesty Hall

The Honors College experience extends far beyond the walls of the classroom. Honors Suites are situated in utulsa’s newest luxury residence, and are reserved for Honors students to learn, grow, and belong together during their time in the Honors College. With easy access to classrooms, dining facilities, and other campus amenities, Hardesty Hall provides a wonderful space to live and make lifelong friends.

Honors Housing

Belong among friends

In the Honors College, you will join a vibrant intellectual community of students and professors. Being a part of the Honors College community includes participating in a variety of intellectual, cultural, and social experiences: from symphonies and ballets, to tailgating and movie nights, to field trips, banquets, and symposia. These opportunities allow you to make new connections with friends and faculty, and explore and cultivate new passions outside of the classroom.