Create your own major

You can study animals by creating a major in Ethology at the University of Minnesota

You can study animals by creating a major in Ethology at the University of Minnesota

Everyone craves freedom, and all students use phrases like “I want to do what makes me happy.” Majors are no exception. Earlier this blog covered how one might go about choosing a major in the series “A Major Decision.” However, if you feel “boxed in” or limited by the already available majors at universities, you can create your own major. However, creating your own major is no easy task. You need to structure the major in such a way that it provides the necessary instruction for students who choose it, as well as meet university credit requirements for graduation.

Restrictions:

1. You are not allowed to create your own major if an already existing major satisfies your needs. For example, if your new major and an existing major share 90% of classes, it isn’t in the college’s best interest to create an entirely new major just for the remaining 10% of classes.
2. To go along with point 1, if your needs can be satisfied with double majors or minors then you will probably be denied the option to create your own major.
3. Some universities are even more extreme. If the customized course combination you want is available at another university, they will not let you create your own major. This is a necessary restriction because the university wants to make sure you did your research in choosing your college and major.
4. You must get your course list and major approved by an advisor.

American Studies is a popular major in countries outside of America but you can pursue it in the US as well

American Studies is a popular major in countries outside of America but you can pursue it in the US as well

University of California, Berkeley

At UC Berkeley, you can design your own curriculum through the Interdisciplinary Field Studies Major. You are required to take certain courses within the major but most of the courses are up to you. You must create an Area of Concentration (what you want to study) and decide the courses needed to support your idea. As its name suggests, you get to take courses from various disciplines and one of the requirements is that your proposed area of study integrate at least three different fields. Another aspect of this major is that it is very research-oriented. The university assumes that you wish to create a major because you want to research further into that field. Thus, you work with a faculty advisor to design a thesis and do a research project. As you can see, it is definitely hard work to create a major but also quite rewarding if it fits what you want to do. Find out more at http://ugis.ls.berkeley.edu/isf/

Similar types of programs can be found at:

University of Washington: http://depts.washington.edu/istudies/student_designed/

University of Minnesota: http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/news/08_01_03/index.html

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