Honors College Program Attracts Top-Tier Students
Each year, hundreds of high-achieving students apply for the chance to be named a Getterman Scholar. Along with the prestige of selection comes an annually renewable scholarship that covers full tuition, fees, room, and board, along with summer study abroad, research internships, and mission/service trips.
For media inquiries, please contact Emily Clark, BA ’14 | (254) 710-8486.
Since its inception in 2017, the Getterman Scholars Program has awarded 15 scholarships to exceptional students from around the country and has grown into one of the University’s most successful recruitment programs for high-ability students.
“The program’s core aim is to attract undergraduates of the highest caliber to Baylor University, with equal emphases upon academic ability, Christian vision, and aptitude for future leadership,” Honors College Dean Douglas Henry said. “Just like all Honors College initiatives, we serve the whole University through the Getterman Scholars Program.”
The Getterman Scholars Program is open to high-achieving students across the academic disciplines, especially students interested in an integrated undergraduate liberal arts education that encourages connections between the various disciplines of study, the local and the global, the past and present, and the love of learning and service of God and neighbor.
“Recipients of the scholarship—the single-largest undergraduate scholarship offered at Baylor—have pursued majors in such varied areas as Business Fellows, mechanical engineering, music education, neuroscience, political science, statistics, and University Scholars,” Henry said. “These gifted students bring inspiration and talent to classrooms across campus, not only in the Honors College, but in Hankamer School of Business, the School of Engineering and Computer Science, the School of Music, and the College of Arts & Sciences. In addition, many finalists and semi-finalists of the program end up coming to Baylor despite not receiving the big scholarship. Having gotten to know who we are and what we can offer them, they choose to attend Baylor over other very highly ranked universities.”
The program was born out of a few conversations Honors College Advisory Council Member Victor Boutros, BA ’98 had with friends who experienced formational scholarship programs at other universities.
“The idea came about as I spent time with friends who ended up choosing between an ivy league school and a non-ivy league school that had a really special scholarship program,” Boutros said. “Many of my friends ended up choosing the universities with these experiential scholarship programs, which got me thinking about how we could create something similar at Baylor. From there, I mentioned the idea to Dean Hibbs never expecting it to grow into the flourishing program it is today.”
What started as a simple idea has now garnered 2,000 applications from the top one percent of college-bound students and helped land nearly 1 in 4 of those applicants as Baylor students.
“The exceptional opportunities offered to students by the Getterman Scholars Program have given prospective students a gateway into the heart of the Honors College,” Associate Director of Enrollment Management Erin Stamile, MS Ed ’12 said. “This flagship program has opened the door for students to see not just what Getterman Scholars offers, but what’s waiting for them in the Honors College and at Baylor.”
For current Getterman Scholars, the program has provided them with previously unimaginable opportunities.
“This program has given me the chance to grow as a student and as a leader,” junior Anna Coulter said. “By removing the financial limitations, I’ve been able to spend a semester in D.C. through Baylor in Washington, seek out unpaid internships, and grow academically through the rigorous coursework the Honors College provides. I’ve also found a rich community within the Honors Residential College and the other Getterman Scholars. It has been such a unique experience that has shaped me in tremendous ways.”
The program was established through the generous support of the Ted and Sue Getterman Endowed Scholarship Fund. The examples of Sue Getterman, class of ’51, and the late Ted, class of ’50, continue to inspire students through their lives of Christian conviction, civic engagement, leadership, and service.
“The Gettermans have changed my life in ways they will never see,” sophomore Caleb Skinner said. “I look at the community and the opportunities that I’ve had here versus what I would have had at a different school, and it has changed who I am. I could never thank them enough.”
If you are interested in supporting the Getterman Scholars program, please contact David Cortes, BBA ’04 , assistant vice president of development. Or if you would like to learn more about the program, please click here.
For media inquiries, please contact Emily Clark, BA ’14 | (254) 710-8486.
ABOUT THE HONORS COLLEGE AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
The Honors College at Baylor University unites four innovative interdisciplinary programs – the Honors Program, University Scholars, Baylor Interdisciplinary Core and Great Texts – with a shared commitment to providing undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue questions that often fall between the cracks of the specialized disciplines by investigating the writings of scientists along with the writings of poets, historians and philosophers. For more information, visit baylor.edu/honorscollege.