A nationally recognized, award-winning advising program, Explorations celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary in 2007. It continues to offer entering students advising, learning, and a sense of community within the context of credit-bearing seminars designed and led by upper-level undergraduates. The undergraduate teaching team is supported by a faculty person who acts as academic adviser to the students in the group and who attends weekly class meetings. Thus, incoming students receive immediate and sustained contact with a group of their peers, with their upper-level student-teachers, and with their faculty adviser.

The initial Exploration experiment began with nine seminars during the fall of 1972. Response was, and continues to be, very favorable. Among the Explorations offered in previous years include Adolescent Fiction, Beyond BeBop: Miles and Coltrane, The Vietnam War in Film, Bioethics, The Psychology of Personality, Legal and Social Aspects of Domestic Violence, and The Politics of Conservatism. The advising component of Explorations begins during Orientation when each group's faculty member works with the students in selecting courses and areas of interest. During this time and throughout the life of the seminar, every effort is made by the adviser and upper-level student-teachers to help first-year students understand all the options the university offers and to make intelligent choices in their undergraduate careers.

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For more information about this program and the application process, please visit our page on Frequently Asked Questions.