Requirements for Consideration

The Getterman Scholars Program is designed for students committed to scholarship, leadership, and service of the highest merit.

Historically, recipients of the Getterman Scholars Award have scored 1500 or above on the SAT (math and critical reading), a 34 or above on the ACT, and/or a 103 on the CLT.

Requirements for Consideration

1. Submit a completed admission file to Baylor University. Your goBAYLOR account will show you what is needed to complete your application file. You must complete your file by the Admission File deadline to be considered for the Getterman Scholars Program.
2. Submit a completed application for one or more Baylor Honors College programs or majors (Baylor Interdisciplinary Core, Honors Program, Great Texts major, or University Scholars major). Note: The Getterman Scholars application requires the email contact information for two references. If the selection committee reaches a point at which it would like additional information about an applicant, the committee will reach out to references for responses to focused questions.
3. Submit the Getterman Scholars Program application through your goBAYLOR account. The application requires completing an online application, and uploading a three-minute video-recorded essay that responds to one of the following prompts:

   W.E.B. DuBois, in The Souls of Black Folk, decries Mammonism, the crass abandoning “of Goodness and Beauty and Truth” for “a dusty quest of gold.” He praises education that ponders the riddle of existence “that was laid before the Pharaohs, that was taught in the groves by Plato, that formed the trivium and quadrivium, and is to-day laid before the freedmen’s sons by Atlanta University. . . . [T]he true college will ever have one goal,--not to earn meat, but to know the end and aim of that life which meat nourishes.” Why are DuBois’s concerns relevant today? In what ways does Baylor’s Honors College—its vision, faculty, curriculum, and students—embody the one goal DuBois attributes to any true college? Is it easy or difficult for a Christian college to live up to DuBois’s ideals?

   OR

   In one of his poems, G.M. Hopkins laments, “And Thou art silent, whilst Thy world / Contends about its many creeds / And hosts confront with flags unfurled / And zeal is flushed and pity bleeds / And truth is heard, with tears impearled, A moaning voice among the reeds.” What is the predicament that Hopkins decries? What contending creeds in our world today capture your attention? What features of a Baylor Honors College education (including its vision, faculty, curriculum, and students) would prepare you to recognize truth in the way Hopkins’ poem suggests, and with what results for your life beyond college?

4. If selected as a Getterman finalist, you will be required to attend the January Invitation to Excellence program with the Honors College.

2022 Selection Schedule

Once students have submitted their video applications, a committee of representatives from the Baylor Honors College will select finalists for the program. If selected to interview, you will be asked to register for the Honors College Invitation to Excellence program and the Getterman Scholars Program event in January. 

Getterman Scholars selection will begin with an opening session. Finalists and selection committee members will be welcomed, and an overview of the program will be given. Candidates will then have one-on-one interviews with the faculty selection committee and attend programming available throughout the day. After the Getterman Scholars selection events, all finalists will attend the Invitation to Excellence program with the Honors College.