We allow students to declare a major up until the end of their sophomore year, up until the end of the second year, so that they have some time to look around. And they may be taking a course in a subject area that they've never had before, like environmental studies, something very different from high school, and they decide, oh, this is the one for me. I thought I was going to come in and maybe study this. But turns out, I'm really interested in this new thing that I've discovered. And that's going to be my major.
One of the real strengths of Alfred University, is that we try to maximize opportunities for students to major in more than one discipline, to have a major multiple minors, and to help guide them in terms of figuring out what pathway they want to take.
There's enough flexibility in the programs at Alfred University that you can combine different majors and minors. I had a student in class who wanted to do a pre medical field, and it turns out that he had a real talent for creative writing. And as he pursued creative writing, he also took courses in music, and he wound up in the music industry, not something he would have guessed when he started at Alfred University.
In terms of the commitment to the student transformational experience to realizing your promise, the single biggest asset is our faculty staff, their commitment to changing your life for the better. Part of what college is about is uncovering your passions, and then nurturing that passion and having that catalytic space with faculty to care about your experience with staff allows you to take those important steps.
So the Honors Program at Alfred University is very different from what you might find at some other schools. Our Honors seminars are interdisciplinary, they're creative, they're challenging. So we're putting together approaches that may combine art and mathematics or science and psychology. And some of them are very hands on experiential, where students are going out on field trips, or they're creating things. They are a bit challenging, they're creative, and they encourage students to get outside their comfort zone a little bit. So rather than focusing just on their major, they're exploring different areas and thinking about subjects that maybe they've never thought about before.
