The beginning of winter quarter is usually a time for sleeping in, ski trips and easing back into classes. But a handful of sophomores and juniors are working as hard as they ever have. Proposals for declaring their majors are due during the fourth week of the quarter, and this is no check-the-box routine. These students are designing their own majors and hoping for approval from the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S).
The individually designed major (IDM) program began 30 years ago in recognition that traditional majors couldn’t meet the “truest intellectual interests” of some students, says Sally Mentzer, who works with IDM students at the Undergraduate Advising Center. Although about 30 percent of bachelor’s degrees are granted from interdisciplinary programs, and enough students have pursued Jewish studies and medieval studies that those have become “established” IDMs, there are still a few undergraduates each year who have something completely different in mind. Last year, four students graduated with an H&S IDM. (The School of Engineering graduated 10 from a similar program.)
Although Carly Schuster considered feminist studies, political science or even a double major, she didn’t think those options would provide a coherent examination of her chosen field, which she describes as “the sociopolitical and economic effects of international development on women.” She consulted history professor Mark Mancall, who suggested an IDM.
Schuster, ’05, then began a search for two more advisers, since the H&S program requires three, from different departments representing the student’s major fields of study. “It was really scary knocking on professors’ doors and saying, ‘Okay, I have this weird project,’” says Schuster.
Each student’s proposal contains an intellectual justification for the major. The student also details a course list containing at least 75 units of upper-division courses. Senior T.J. Berrings, who is majoring in human thought (biology meets philosophy meets psychology), will end up taking more than twice that. One of the downsides to having passionate interests and advisers in triplicate is that many classes can be deemed applicable to one’s major. But Schuster says that’s also one of the beauties of IDMs. “There aren’t very many programs that give you a chance to work that closely with three specialists in your area.”
The H&S IDM program is not for the academically faint of heart. Students must have a 3.5 GPA when they apply and must complete an honors thesis or senior project. And then there are the skeptical “You’re majoring in what?” questions they sometimes field. Take Dan Newark, who called his major humanities, organizations and society. “I still haven’t been able to do it with a straight face,” he says, “to not only say that I designed my own major but then on top of it I achieved honors in this major.” But the work itself is serious business. “You’re really forced to ask questions about the thematic relationship between the courses you’re taking and how it all fits,” says Newark, ’03. “I think it helps you appreciate your time here and makes it more valuable.”
Those who design their own majors seem no more concerned about job prospects than their counterparts majoring in history or economics. Berrings says most of his career interests don’t require a specific degree: “No major I chose would have been more right for any job I’m about to get.” Others, like Schuster, have specific plans. After returning to Argentina this summer to continue her research with women’s artisan cooperatives, she plans to apply to PhD programs, probably in development studies. She’ll be able to narrow her focus for graduate work, she says, because she’ll already have been exposed to sociological, feminist and economic perspectives on development.
The few rushing to finish their proposals—whether they be in astrobiology, ocean sciences, or ritual and performance in aesthetic education—are about to join an “intellectually alive” group, says Mentzer. Berrings agrees that although IDM students have broad and mostly unrelated interests, there is a sense of shared experience. “I feel like when someone says ‘I have an IDM,’” he says, “I’m like, ‘right on, right on.’ ”
