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>> University Exploration is a very unique
program because it does allow students to come
to RIT as an undecided or undeclared major.
So you don't have to know what you want
to do at RIT, and you can join our program,
and we will help you figure it out.
So it really allows students to start
at RIT,
learn a little bit about themselves,
learn a little about the programs
that we have here.
We have over 100 undergraduate majors here.
I don't know how any of you
would know what you want to do right
from the get-go, and I have your parents tell
me that all the time.
But if you do know what you want to do,
by all means, do it.
But if you're not sure
and you want to really take some time
to explore, that's what our program is
designed to do.
>> Yeah, I think there's a lot of pressure
on students to know what you want
to do for the rest of your life,
and I think it's a lot of pressure
on 17, 18-year-olds to know everything
that they want to accomplish.
It's okay to be a little undecided about what
you want.
I think the thing is every student
is unique in how they craft that education.
At RIT, we have plenty of options
and plenty of ways
that students can make that experience
their own.
>> Our students are able to explore all majors
on campus.
There's nothing off the table.
They can look at any
of the hundred-plus majors in the nine
colleges at RIT.
>> The program basically helps you look at all
the different options for you
to decide what your major is.
And honestly, I was all over the place.
I had art, business, engineering.
So we went ahead and decided to take
a little bit of everything, which would not
only satisfy my general elective courses,
but allows me to get a feel of what it's
like to be in those departments.
And after careful evaluation,
talking with the advisers,
talking with different deans of engineering
and chemical engineering, arts departments,
asking them questions
allowed me to evaluate my passion, my skills,
and what I could do, essentially,
for a good chunk of my life.
And with that, I was able to decide
with mechanical engineering.
And Miss Marty was very generous to provide me
all kinds of support to decide on that major.
>> We really personalize the advising.
I think if I had to give you one thing that's
really important about us,
it's our academic advising.
We will really get to know you as a person,
and we learn about your interests, your goals,
your personality, all of the things
that make you you to help guide you
toward that major
that you will want to find
at the end of the day.
>> They help you to discover a bit of everything
from different departments.
As long as you tell them what you're
interested in and where your talent is,
they will give you an opportunity to taste it
to see how you will do there.
They want to make sure that you are just
healthy in general,
not only with what you do
in the academic side,
but what happens in your personal life.
Are you hanging out with friends in college?
Because after all, you are going into college,
and you don't want to just be focused
on homework, projects, co-ops, internships.
You want to make sure that you are living
your life as a student.
This experience only happens once
in your life,
and you want to make sure you take
a full opportunity of it.
It's about exploring not only yourself,
your passion, your major--
it's exploring who you are
and where you want to be.
>> In the first semester,
when they come in University Exploration,
they also take a Career Exploration Seminar
class, which is going to let the student
dig deeper into what they're about.
What are their values?
What are their interests?
What is their personality?
And how do they take skills that they have
and apply that to a potential career?
So that class is a lot about self-reflection,
learning more about who you are as a student,
and what major, ultimately, you
want to take those skills
and apply to your future career.
>> It's more or less making you feel that you are
taking your time to realize where
your true passion lies
and where you can show your true sense of who
you are in that field.
>> And we
do include the career-counseling component
and the career-outlook advising,
which also is very unique,
so that the students get a nice combination
of academic advising and career counseling.
So that makes us a little different
than many other programs.
>> We know that students-- when they leave
University Exploration, they have taken time
to do self-reflection, they've taken time
to talk to different people in different
career fields to learn more about what they
do, and to then reflect on, okay, is that
something that I'm really interested in--
because I'm a strong believer that all
of the other stuff that comes
with this time in college is so important.
You learn about yourself,
you learn how to communicate to people.
All of these, as they say, soft skills
or transferable skills are just going to go
a long way.
>> A very common thing students will ask me is,
am I going to get behind?
What's going to happen with my schedule?
But our students are graduating pretty close
to the same on-time rates as everyone else.
And when we build your schedules,
we intentionally build classes that meet
the degree requirements on campus,
along with your interest areas.
So we start our advising relationship with you
very, very early.
As soon as you pay that deposit,
we're going to send you a survey,
we're going to give you a phone call,
and we'll start the communication right away.
>> Those conversations that we have with you
really will help with that being on time
because if you're
interested in a major, like computer science,
we're going to be getting you
into those classes.
That way, if you choose that track, then
you're going to be pretty clearly on the way
to that program, but there's also
transferability within those classes as well.
Each department really wants to work
with students, so I think the longer you
extend your time of being unsure,
that can increase the time to graduation,
and that's why really, we stick
to that goal of having it happen within one
year.
Because we want to make sure that you're
in a place to graduate on time.
Another part of what we have
is the Exploration House, where students can
live on a floor
with other students that are going
through University Exploration.
So it gives you an opportunity
to be around other students that
are a little unsure of what they want to do,
and that's an okay place to be.
And using the resources, between the advising,
the career class, and just
the high-touch environment that we provide,
really gives students a place to figure that
out and feel comfortable where they are.
>> When I was going through all the thoughts
in my head, like, where I want to be,
what I want to become,
what is the right choice for me--
at that time, I realized that I'm probably
not the only one person who is going
through all of this.
There's definitely people who've
been in this situation who
had similar questions as me.
And thankfully, University Exploration
has a program called ambassador program,
where people who've graduated from the program
and who are already in the major
that they like--
you can contact those people
and see what their experience was like.
Why did they decide to be on that?
And knowing that there are other students who
are in a similar boat
as me made me feel less alone,
made me realize that people have gone
through this.
There is an answer in the end.
>> We're going to give you
those additional resources that you need
to figure out and ultimately,
finding a great place at RIT
to get your education,
because the value in all of our programs
is so great, no matter where you land.
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