Honors Program

Program Admission Criteria:

• Overall GPA: 3.3; Major GPA: 3.5
• Completed 24 hours of coursework before beginning program
• Written approval from an NTR Research Faculty Mentor
• Only Nutrition majors are accepted
• No applications for Honors accepted after spring of Sophomore year**
• **Exceptions may be made for NTR undergraduate students already volunteering or working in labs. Meet with your lab PI or the NTR Honors Program Advisor for more information.

Program Requirements:

• Maintain Overall GPA 3.3; Major GPA 3.5
• Required Courses
  • At least 3 hours of NTR 355H (Honors Research Course)
  • 3 hours of NTR 379H (Honors Tutorial Course)
  • 3 hours of NTR 338H (Thesis Writing Course)
• Written Thesis
• Oral Thesis Presentation

Program Application

• Student Name, EID, UT Email
• Statement of Purpose (500 word maximum) –
  • Why do you want to be an Honors student?
  • How will you apply this research experience in your future?
• Short letter of commitment from NTR Research Faculty mentor.
• Academic Summary

Application Timeline:

• Applications open in the spring and close April 15.
• Students will be notified of their acceptance by May 1.
• Admitted students will begin honors program the following fall semester.
• No applications for Honors accepted after spring of Sophomore year**

**Exceptions may be made for NTR undergraduate students already volunteering or working in labs. Meet with your lab PI or the  NTR Honors Program Advisor or more information.

Identify a NTR Faculty Mentor

• View the NTR Research Faculty.
• Identify labs for potential volunteer opportunities.
• Send an email or visit office hours to set up a meeting with the faculty member.
• NOTE: You may be asked to spend a semester in the faculty mentor’s lab before they agree to support you as an honors student applicant.

Apply

• Once you have received a written confirmation from an NTR Faculty Mentor, you can apply to the program.
• Freshman and Sophomores will apply in the spring semester by April 15.
• Once the application has been submitted, students will be notified by May 1 of their official acceptance into the program.

Complete Program Requirements

• Maintain Overall GPA 3.3; Major GPA 3.5
• Required Courses
  • At least 3 hours of NTR 355H (Honors Research Course)
  • 3 hours of NTR 379H (Honors Tutorial Course)
  • 3 hours of NTR 338H (Thesis Writing Course)
• Written Thesis
• Oral Thesis Presentation

1. Confirm with your Research Faculty Mentor before and after registering for honors courses (including 355H, 379H and 338H)

2. A confirmation email from the research faculty mentor must be sent to the NTR Academic Advisors, either by the supervisor or forwarded from the student.  It is ideal that we receive this before the 4th class day of the semester the student hopes to enroll in the course. 

• Email to Jill Lawler (copy or forward): jill.lawler@austin.utexas.edu
• Subject Line: Class (ex. NTR 355H) - Name & EID - Supervisor Name
• Semester: Must include semester (ex. fall 2027) somewhere in the email to be able to confirm that you are approved for that particular semester.

3.  The advising center gives the student registration access to add themselves to the course.  Please allow 24-48 business hours to process.

4.  The advising center emails the student notifying them that they have been given access to register themselves for the course.  Expect this reply from our Administrative Associate, Paige Hawkins.

• If your confirmation is provided before or during registration: you can register during the initial semester registration time slot.  If confirmation is provided after registration, you can add the class during add/drops before the semester starts.
• If confirmation is provided between the 4th and 12th class day of the spring semester: the advising center will manually add the student to the course and email the student confirming that they have been added.  

Going over 17 hours? If you need to request to go over 17 hours in order to add this course, please fill out the Over Maximum Hours Request survey and review the approval timeline on the SoHE Advising Center website.

*It is up the student to check their schedule online before the 12th class day of the semester to verify that they are in the right classes.  The student must notify their assigned academic advisor if they have any concerns. 

Use this template: Honors Thesis Template

Final Digital Copy: One digital pdf copy required.

Include your signed signature page – you can insert a scanned copy of the signatures.

• Suggested number of copies:
  • one for NTR (required) – see email directions below
  • one for your mentor (digital pdf copy)
  • one for your 2nd reader (digital pdf copy)

Email your signed, final digital pdf to the Honors Program Advisor by April 15^th of the spring semester prior to graduation. 

• Filename:  Year_NTR_LastnameFirstname_HonorsThesis

____________________________________________________________________________________

***A PRINTED COPY IS NOT REQUIRED. If you would like to bind a copy, see below.

(OPTIONAL)

UT Print and Copy Services: http://documentsolutions.utexas.edu/copycenters

 Jenn’s Copies: https://jennscopies.com/home/copy-and-binding-services/

Texas ScholarWorks Digital Repository

OPTIONAL: Submit your Thesis to the Digital Repository

Review with your faculty mentor to determine if you will submit your thesis to the repository.

Texas ScholarWorks (TSW) is an online archive designed to provide open, online access to the scholarly and research works of UT Austin, and to preserve those works for future generations. The UT Libraries manage TSW and offer it as a free service to all UT students, faculty and staff. Benefits to individuals and departments who contribute work to TSW include:

• Enhanced discoverability of their work through search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo
• Persistent URLs for each item which make citing work easier and more reliable
• Statistics for each item including number of downloads and where those downloads occur
• The Library commits to the long-term preservation of all deposited work