An act of the Arizona Board of Regents created the Honors College at ASU on July 16, 1988. ASU and the Regents thus signaled that providing outstanding undergraduates exceptional educational opportunities is one of their highest priorities.

Among the first honors colleges in the U.S., ASU's Honors College quickly rose to a position of preeminence. Only six years after its creation, Money Magazine named it one of the top eight honors programs in the United States. The same year the Fiske Guide cited the Honors College as a principal reason for awarding ASU four stars for its academics and fourteen out of a possible fifteen stars overall.

There are approximately 2700 Barrett students majoring in all disciplines throughout the university. The typical entering freshman is in the top six percent of his or her high school class, has SAT scores of 1340 or above, ACT scores of 30 or above, and has a high school grade point average of 3.8. Honors College graduates receive acceptance, normally with financial support, to the nation's most distinguished graduate and professional schools.

In 2000, Intel CEO Craig Barrett and his wife Barbara, an ASU alumna, endowed the honors college with a $10 million gift for special programs. Barrett, The Honors College was named in recognition of the gift, which, at the time, was the largest personal gift ever given to ASU.

The founding dean of the college, Ted Humphrey, is a member of the faculty as the first Barrett Professor. He has been at Arizona State University for 35 years and has been a professor and chair in the Philosophy Department. The current dean, Mark Jacobs, joined the honors college in August 2003 from Swarthmore College, where he had been Professor of Biology, Chair of the Biology Department, and Associate Provost of the College.