Welcome, Admitted Exploratory Students

Yes, students will have their major requirements and honors requirements to fulfill, the same as any other major at ASU. 

Each campus has housing designated for students in the Exploratory major and strive to keep each cohort together. On the Tempe campus, Exploratory students are primarily housed in Sonora Center. On the Downtown Phoenix campus, students are often housed in Gordon Commons. On the Polytechnic campus, students are often housed in Century Hall.

Students who are also part of Barrett, the Honors College will have the option to live in the Honors College Complex. 

Students may change their major at any point in time as long as they are ready and have met admission criteria for their major of choice. 

The Exploratory major serves first-year students until they have earned 60 ASU college credits. This does not include AP/IB/dual enrollment credits in that calculation. Transfer students can be in the Exploratory major until they have earned 60 college credits, including credits from other accredited institutions.  

Any credits earned while in the Exploratory major will follow you to your next major of choice. Please speak with your advisor to understand how your credits during your time as an Exploratory major will apply to your new degree requirements. 

You will take ASU 101-UC if you are a first-year freshman and ASU 230: Life by Design, which counts towards a Social and Behavioral Sciences general studies requirement. Explore also offers UNI 250: Designing your ASU Experience and UNI 270: Work by Design: Preparing for a Career. UNI 250 and UNI 270 count towards general electives. In addition to the Explore specific courses, students will be taking general studies requirement courses and other classes they are interested in exploring as they work towards graduation.

No student at ASU is ever considered “undeclared.” The Exploratory major was designed to provide students who are beginning their college journey with a structured process for exploring their interests and academic options before deciding which degree they want to pursue for graduation.

Students in the Exploratory major receive the same university services, benefits, resources, housing opportunities, and financial aid available to students in any other major. In addition, the Exploratory major provides enhanced support and guided direction to help students navigate the university, explore academic and career pathways, and develop the skills needed to make informed decisions aligned with their long-term goals.

Rather than being “undecided,” Exploratory students are actively engaged in a process of discovery and decision-making, with the support, resources, and guidance they need to confidently identify the path that is right for them.

We have a team of advisors to serve you in Explore. Our goal is to get you the support you need as quickly as possible. As such, you don’t have an assigned advisor, but are open to see any advisor on the Explore team. We have an array of ways for you to meet with an advisor including 30-minute appointments, express advising, same-day advising appointments, and virtual help desk.  

On average, the Exploratory major includes 800-1000 students at any given time, inclusive of on-campus and online student populations. 

The Exploratory major is designed to support students in graduating within four years while providing dedicated time at the beginning of their college journey to explore academic interests, strengths, and potential career paths. This intentional exploration helps students gain greater clarity about their direction and goals, potentially minimizing the additional time to graduation that may result from changing majors later in their college career if they did not spend time exploring in the beginning.

As with any academic program, time to graduation may vary depending on several factors, including the student’s eventual major and its prerequisite requirements, the timing of a major change, completion of required coursework, and satisfactory academic progress.