<p>Is a prospective student at a disadvantage for admissions if they are undecided about a major? With Rochester's open curriculum model is there academic advising which helps a student to explore a variety of interests while also guiding a student's focus for future study?</p>
<p>All incoming freshmen meet with an academic advisor during freshman orientation to help them plan/refine their schedules. Students again meet with their advisors during the fall term around the time of second semester registration for more course planning. </p>
<p>Additional counseling for interest and aptitude inventories and career planning is available at the Career Center at any time during a student’s undergraduate career. </p>
<p>Students will continue to meet with a general academic advisor at least once each semester until they declare a major during their sophomore year. At that time, a student chooses an advisor from their major department who will provide advice about course planning to meet major requirements for graduation. </p>
<p>Incoming undeclared major students are not at a disadvantage because of the latitude in choices offered by the Rochester curriculum. There are no gen ed requirements to fulfill. </p>
<p>The one exception to this would be if a student later decides to major in an engineering field. Engineering has more required classes than any other major, has a fairly strict course sequence and many classes have pre-requisites that need to be taken first before advancing to the required major coursework.</p>
<p>There is lots of advising. The quality of it depends on your advisor and you, on how well you communicate, how much you want to be advised and stuff like that. But the largest resource at any school is the other students, both your class and above, because they know the scoop about classes, departments and majors.</p>