Honors Program and Societies

Honors Program

The University of Tulsa Honors Program offers a unique opportunity for graduating high school seniors with exceptional academic records and a spirit of intellectual curiosity. Students can apply for admission to the program as freshmen once admitted. Students in the program will take 18 hours of academic credit over a three-year course of study.

The courses in the Honors Program core are credited to the student’s general curriculum and elective requirements. Honors Program students may choose to major in any academic discipline offered by The University of Tulsa. The Honors Program courses are taken in sequence, rely on primary sources, and promote dialogue with the architects of the modern worldview. Students admitted to the Honors Program receive an academic scholarship.

The Honors Program engages students in a critical examination of the major epochs and ideas of Western thought and culture through careful study of primary texts.

The Honors Program reflects and reinforces the educational values and course requirements of the Tulsa Curriculum. The difference is that Honors Program students complete six integrated courses taken in chronological sequence, from the Ancient through Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment periods. One course is taken each semester, and each course counts toward one of the block course requirements that all University of Tulsa students must fulfill.

Students enrolled in the Honors Program explore the moral and political commitments, scientific achievements, and artistic sensibilities that have shaped the modern world.

Students in the program are not passive recipients of inherited wisdom, and Honors Program professors are not content to leave established beliefs unexamined. Honors courses tend to feature lively discussion and debate about primary texts. Participation in the program thus requires a generous spirit of commitment and courage on the part of both students and faculty. The close working relationships that develop between them are essential to the success of the Honors Program and are among the most rewarding college experiences.

Honors Program students have diverse aspirations and are united by their love of ideas and conversation and by their conviction that the present cannot be understood without confronting the great ideas of the past.

The Honors Program is a good place for students in engineering, the sciences, and business to bring breadth and depth to their education. It enables students in the fine and performing arts to locate their own artistic efforts in historical context. And it offers students in the humanities and the social sciences a chance to integrate their studies, to see how ideas and institutions emerge and influence each other.

Students interested in the Honors Program submit a separate application to the Honors Office. Students who are in the 95th percentile on national exams (ACT or SAT), have a high school grade point average of 3.5, or are in the top 10 percent of their graduating classes are candidates for admission.

The Honors House Residence Hall is also available to students in the program. This option provides the opportunity to live with other students who share the rewards and challenges of the Honors curriculum.

Honor Societies

Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest American honorary society, founded at the College of William and Mary in 1776. The University of Tulsa chapter, Beta of Oklahoma, was chartered in 1989. The chapter annually elects to membership students with exceptionally strong records in the liberal arts and sciences. Election to membership in Phi Beta Kappa is one of the highest academic honors and is almost universally regarded as evidence of superior scholarly attainment.

Candidates for membership must be currently in their junior or senior year and have attended The University of Tulsa for a minimum of three semesters of full-time work, and be enrolled in a fourth. In addition, students must have taken at least 90 hours of liberal arts courses (other than professional and applied courses), demonstrating breadth as well as depth of course study. Other factors influencing selection into membership include a high grade point average, two years of a foreign language and a minimum math requirement of either Math 1103, Basic Calculus, or two courses consisting of Math 1163, Pre-Calculus, and another math or statistics course at an equivalent level of difficulty.

The culmination of the year’s activities is the annual Initiation Ceremony, normally held the evening before May Commencement. During this ceremony, new student members (“Members in Course”) and distinguished Alumni/ae and Honorary Members are inducted in a formal and memorable ceremony that publicly recognizes and honors each inductee. For additional information, please contact Professor Lamont Lindstrom, Department of Anthropology.

Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 as the Lambda Sigma Eta Society at the University of Maine. In 1900, the society added chapters at the Pennsylvania State College (now Pennsylvania
State University) and the University of Tennessee and was renamed Phi Kappa Phi. The University of Tulsa chapter, chartered in 1990, is one of over 250 chapters in the United States.

Phi Kappa Phi elects members from all recognized branches of academic endeavor. Members are selected on the basis of high academic achievement and good character. Inductees may include a maximum of 10 percent of the graduate students in the University, 10 percent of all graduating seniors, and no more than 5 percent of the juniors.