The University Honors designations recognize the top 20% of the graduating class. Honors designations are determined by GPA cutoffs established according to General Information:
- No more than 20% of the May graduating class may receive honors, high honors, and highest honors.
- No more than 10% of the May graduating class may receive high honors and highest honors.
- No more than 4% of the May graduating class may receive highest honors.
- The minimum in residence gpa to receive honors is 3.30. The minimum in residence gpa to receive high honors is 3.667. The minimum in residence gpa to receive highest honors is 3.867.
The College of Natural Sciences awards Highest Honors to the top 4% of the graduating class. The following 6% of the graduating class receives High Honors. The following 10% of the graduating class receives Honors. Due to the strong academic performance of graduates from the College of Natural Sciences, the honors cutoffs are typically much higher than the minimum in residence gpa listed for each designation.
Honors are recalculated for the spring graduating class each May. The gpa cutoffs calculated for the May graduating class is used for the subsequent summer and fall graduating classes.
The honors gpa cutoffs for the May 2022 graduating class are listed below. These cutoffs will be used to award university honors to August and December 2022 graduates and to announce potential university honors designations during the May 2023 graduation ceremonies.
May 2022 honors gpa cutoffs are:
- Highest Honors: 4.0000 - 4.0000
- High Honors: 3.9675 - 3.9999
- Honors: 3.9205 - 3.9674
Newly calculated honors gpa cutoffs will be determined for the May 2023 graduating class based on the students certified for graduation. Certification occurs during the week following the May ceremony.
To be eligible to graduate with honors, an undergraduate must have completed at least sixty semester hours in residence at The University of Texas at Austin. Courses taken pass/fail are counted in the sixty-hour minimum, but only letter grades are used to determine the grade point average.
Official honors designations are determined and added to transcripts after all grades are submitted at the end of the graduating semester. This process takes place after the graduation ceremonies.
The honors designations used for the May 2023 ceremony are estimates based on the gpa cutoffs from the previous Spring semester. The designations used at the ceremony will change once certification of graduates has concluded.