The College of Liberal Arts encourages qualified majors to participate in its Honors Plan (LBAR). Working with programs in the University’s honors office and several departments, this program offers talented students opportunities to draw on the very best of the humanities, social sciences, and arts at Texas A&M.

Our program begins by building learning and social communities among honors students, including a Cornerstone Learning Community that acquaints students with the variety of options they have as honors students at Texas A&M. As sophomores these students take two interdisciplinary courses taught by a team of our best faculty. The junior year extends these courses with intensive course work that builds these students’ critical, analytical, and research abilities.

And, finally, we strongly encourage every honors student to prepare a senior honors thesis as a capstone experience, bringing together academic studies in their selected area and the research skills acquired as undergraduate honors students.

Three years ago Assistant Dean Don Curtis began the Cornerstone Learning Community as a way to attract well-rounded, high-achieving high school students to the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University. He wanted to provide talented freshmen with opportunities that they otherwise would not experience until their junior or senior year.

High school students are recruited based on a number of factors, including SAT scores, class rank and grade point average (GPA). The program accepts between 18 to 25 students each year, and most prove to be very successful in college, averaging a 3.8 GPA after their first semester.

Cornerstone students participate in a liberal arts course taught by a different professor each week in addition to planning and executing a trip abroad. To date students have visited Amsterdam, Prague and Paris.