Barrett Overview
WHAT IS BARRETT?
Welcome! Thank you for your interest in the community of scholars at Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University. Barrett is a selective, residential college that educates academically outstanding undergraduates from across the nation. Students enrolled in Barrett are part of both the honors college community and an ASU disciplinary college of their choice. They may major in any field offered at any one of ASU’s four campuses. Honors courses are taught by honors faculty within the college and within a variety of departments and programs. The honors complex at the Tempe campus serves as the center of academic and co-curricular activities for all honors students, but Barrett faculty, classes, and other special events occur on all ASU campuses. In 2000, Intel CEO Craig Barrett and his wife Barbara, an ASU alumna, endowed the honors college with a $10 million gift for honors student scholarships and honors special programs. At the time, it was the largest personal gift ever granted to ASU. It allows a set of research, travel and thesis support activities for Barrett students that are not available at other honors colleges.
WHO ARE THE STUDENTS AT BARRETT?
There are close to 2700 students in Barrett. The average SAT for the freshman class of 2006 was 1340 (math and verbal sections only), ACT was 29 and unweighted GPA was 3.81. One hundred eighty-eight National Merit Finalists enrolled in fall 2006, making ASU the eighth of all universities in the nation for attracting National Merit finalists and the third-ranked public university; 89 National Hispanic Scholars also enrolled at ASU, doubling the number of National Hispanic Scholars enrolled in Barrett from the previous year.
"Throughout my college experience, I have found the Barrett Honors College to be a gateway for my involvement at ASU."
Josh Ybarra
Business, '08
WHY SHOULD I CHOOSE BARRETT?
Students are attracted to Barrett because of the opportunity to engage with a small community of scholars while at the same time being part of a dynamic Pac-10 public university. While in the college, Barrett students enroll in honors seminars that are small in size, no more than 19 students in a class taught by Barrett faculty and no more than 25 in classes taught by ASU faculty, and all honors students enjoy early registration privileges. Barrett offers a broad array of opportunities including research, study abroad and community service, all of which have associated scholarships and other funding available through Barrett. Honors faculty is housed both in the Barrett complex and in all of the colleges at ASU. Over 1,000 honors faculty teach and mentor Barrett’s 2,700 students. The college also prepares its students for post-graduate plans as Barrett grads are admitted and go on to attend the best graduate and professional schools given the outstanding relationships they form with faculty, often national experts, in their discipline. Barrett has an outstanding record of helping students secure and win nationally-competed fellowships like the Truman, Rhodes, Marshall, Udall, Goldwater, NSEP and Fulbright through the Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarship Advisement (ONSA).
HOW DO HONORS CLASSES AND NON-HONORS CLASSES FIT INTO MY ACADEMIC PLAN?
Barrett students take both honors and non-honors courses. They must complete 36 hours of honors credit within the usual 120 hours necessary for most bachelor’s degrees. First year students take a two-semester core honors course called The Human Event, a small seminar that emphasizes inquiry, critical analysis and effective communication while examining the issues and ideas that have shaped human history. During the upper division years, each student completes a thesis or creative project that is a useful and empowering preparation for a post-graduate career. The remaining honors courses are woven into major, College, and University requirements. Most Barrett students take one or two honors courses per semester. Students must earn an overall GPA of 3.25 to graduate from Barrett.