Business Honors Program
The Business Honors Program is designed to provide an intellectual challenge for students who have distinguished themselves academically and in leadership roles outside the classroom. The student may choose a general program of study or choose to combine the general program of study with an additional major. Business Honors Program students take fourteen business courses in special sections open only to them. Additional information is available from the Business Honors Program Office.
Admission
Admission to the Business Honors Program is limited to a small number of exceptional students who are chosen on a competitive basis. Admission decisions are made by the Business Honors Program Committee. Most students enter the program as freshmen, but some are admitted as sophomores.
Students entering the University and the McCombs School of Business as freshmen may apply to the Business Honors Program by completing a separate online application available through the UT Office of Admissions. The Business Honors Program Committee considers the student’s SAT Reasoning Test or ACT scores, high school class rank, preparatory courses, extracurricular activities, evidence of leadership ability, and other objective criteria.
Students may also seek admission to the Business Honors Program during the spring semester of their freshman year to begin taking courses as a sophomore. To be considered for admission, the student must have completed in the fall and spring semesters of the freshman year at least twenty-four semester hours of college-level coursework; this coursework must include Economics 304K and 304L, Mathematics 408C or 408K, and Mathematics 408D or 408L. The student must also have fulfilled the foreign language proficiency requirement for the BBA degree. In addition to the criteria listed above for freshman applicants, the Business Honors Program Committee considers the student’s grade point average in courses taken in residence at the University and the number, type, and rigor of the courses the student has taken at the University. Students will also be evaluated based upon evidence of their extracurricular activities and leadership abilities. Students applying to the Business Honors Program are permitted to have received credit for Management Information Systems 301; however, no credit will be accepted for other courses normally taken as part of the honors core.
Application materials and information about deadlines are available at http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/programs/bhp/.
Continuance
A student who enters the Business Honors Program as a freshman must have a grade point average of at least 3.50 on the courses taken in residence during the fall and spring semesters of the first year to continue in the program. The student must complete at least twelve semester hours in residence on the letter-grade basis during each of those two semesters. After the freshman year, each student, whether admitted as a freshman or as a sophomore, is dismissed from the program if his or her overall or business grade point average drops below 3.25. Exceptions are granted only by the Business Honors Program Committee.
Graduation
To graduate under the Business Honors Program, the student must earn a University grade point average of at least 3.25 and a grade point average of at least 3.25 in business courses.
Degree Requirements
Business Honors Program students may choose a general program of study, or choose to combine the general program of study with an additional major. Requirements for the general program of study are
- The Core Curriculum requirements and the BBA Degree Requirements.
- Completion of the following business core courses and other business courses in special Honors Program sections: Accounting 311H, 312H, 324H and 151H, Finance 357H, Legal Environment of Business 323H, Management 336H and 374H, Management Information Systems 301H, Marketing 337H, Operations Management 335H, and Statistics 309H and 371H/375H.
- Nine semester hours of upper-division business electives.
- Additional elective coursework, if necessary, to provide a total of at least 120 semester hours.