Every student entering UST is assigned a faculty advisor. Freshmen are placed with highly qualified and dedicated First Year Experience advisors. These advisors are not major specific advisors; rather, they offer their expertise in helping freshmen develop their academic plans for the current and coming years at the University of St. Thomas. Students may declare a major no sooner than the end of their freshman year. At that time each student will be reassigned to a faculty advisor in their chosen major. Incoming transfer students will be assigned an advisor in the department of their chosen major.

The purpose of the Academic Advising Center is to ensure that all students have access to high quality advising and special help with major selection and degree planning. All students have access to the resources of the Academic Advising Center, in addition to the support they receive from their assigned faculty advisor. Students are encouraged to explore their natural gifts, desires, and goals and choose appropriate educational offerings consistent with those goals.

An advising meeting is far more than a scheduling conference. In order to integrate the life of the mind with family, work and community, and synthesize life, career and academic goals, students and their advisors are encouraged to think in terms of the following sequence when developing a strategic plan for achieving excellence:

• Exploration of intellectual, moral and spiritual values
• Exploration of life goals
• Exploration of career goals
• Selection of a major or program of study
• Selection of courses
• Scheduling of courses

With the understanding that exploration is an ongoing activity, students and their advisors are encouraged to remain flexible in the determination of both pathway and destination - within responsible limits - throughout the academic career. Academic Advising is a partnership between students, their faculty advisors and the Academic Advising Center; however, ultimate responsibility for the student's academic program and orderly progress through the University curriculum rests with the student.