Undeclared Liberal Arts

Many students entering UMass Lowell every year begin as Undeclared Liberal Arts (UL) students. It is not a major, but a status before major. UL students fall into one of two categories:
1) Students who genuinely do not know what major is right and need time to make a good choice, and,
2) Students who qualify for UMass Lowell admission but may fall short of the requirements for a particular major that the student, in fact, wants. Both categories of students can make effective use of their time as UL.

All students, regardless of major, are required to take an array of courses called “General Education” classes. They include two semesters of College Writing, a math course, three courses in each of the areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science & Technology. UL students spend the majority of their first year taking these General Education classes and, accordingly, are completing requirements that they will need to do, no matter which major they end up in. Moreover, taking so-called “GenEd” classes often exposes students to subjects that can provoke ideas about what might be a suitable major.

UL students are assigned an advisor who helps choose classes and craft a plan to either get in to the major of their choice, or to make an educated choice of which major is right for them. The Division of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences offers a wide variety of majors, including

• American Studies
• Art
• Music
• English
• History
• Languages
• Philosophy
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Economics
• Criminal Justice
• Political Science

UL students also may, and do, go into majors in other colleges of the University, including Business Administration, Health, Sciences and Engineering.

The Undeclared Liberal Arts advisor is Dr. Frank Talty (Francis_Talty@uml.edu)