Choose Your Own Major: Interdepartmental Major Option

When choosing Dominican, new students often select the one or two single majors they feel best serve their needs or desires for the construction of a successful and fulfilling career post-graduation.

However, one particular course of study most incoming students ignore is the interdepartmental option.

Page 18 of the 2006-2008 Undergraduate Bulletin for the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences lists the interdepartmental option, which essentially gives students the freedom to create their own major.

The process begins with a student submitting a plan of study for review. This plan, according to Dean of Rosary College of Arts and Sciences Jeffrey Carlson, should consist of a title for the major, a rationale, and a list of courses, complete with an outline of how the courses will fit together to create the customized major.

Upon completion of a plan of study, the plan is then submitted for review first to the Dean of the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences. The Dean consults the draft, deciding which courses would work and which courses would not, then points the student in the right direction on revising and completing a draft of the plan.

Faculty members who teach the majority of the classes from which the plan is composed then review the draft and decide individually and informally amongst themselves whether or not the program would feasibly work. Individual decisions help to shape the final rationale and list of courses and requirements before faculty members eventually sign off on a final product the student can then call his or her own.

Students pursuing this option are typically advised by faculty members within the selected discipline or those faculty members who instruct the majority of the student’s courses while pursuing the custom major.

With seemingly carte-blanche access to classes and options when building one’s own major, it’s surprising how little, if anything, Dominican students know about the interdepartmental option.

Senior Alina Markova had never heard of the plan.

”I didn’t know about it,” she said of the option. “But I think it’s awesome, and I would do it if I weren’t trying to graduate this year.”

”If I had known about [the interdepartmental option], I would have combined things. I think majors are too general; plus, most of my classes I feel relate to each other anyway, so it would be a good decision for me,” she said.

An idea this unknown and revolutionary would have to be new, right?

”The interdepartmental option goes back at least 20 years,” says Carlson. “In my six years at Dominican, fewer than five students have done this. In most cases, it’s not the student’s only major; it’s often added as a second major or minor.”

”We’ve been trying to promote it more, and as a result, we’d had more interest [recently]. The idea of creating your own major is introduced to every freshman and transfer student.”

Peter Taylor, chair of the history department at Dominican, believed the option was a good idea, but also saw some flaws to the idea.

"One problem that I have seen with such majors as students propose them is that they turn out to be collections of classes, often too many," said Taylor.

"An academic concentration needs to have a rationale, a plan, and some kind of course which can function as an integrating experience for the courses in the major. There is always the danger that students do not appreciate the importance of the methods courses many majors offer and use this option to avoid them since they really are difficult."

Senior Eric Florance thought that while the program sounded interesting, it has its limitations.

”I think it's definitely suited towards certain majors. I’m a biology-chemistry major, and personally, I think it would be very difficult for a science major to make good use of the interdepartmental option, since Dominican might not offer some necessary courses I would need to create a major that would suit my own needs,” he said.

Florance suggested offering the option as a sort of partnership plan between a faculty member advisor to a student creating his or her own major.

”I think as a student it would be hard to program everything needed for a major by yourself,” said Florance.

So why do very few students style their own major using the option?

”I think on the one hand students just don’t know about it,” says Carlson. “They’re apprehensive about the idea. They ask: will it count? Will I be marketable?”

”Some people might be afraid to do it; afraid it won’t be acknowledged.”

Florance also agrees with the question of marketability, saying it is the only factor that would have held him back from making the decision to create his own major three years ago.

In the end, Carlson believes that while it may not be a popular option among Dominican students, the interdepartmental option represents the spirit of education.

”We have it as a symbolic statement that says: ‘take charge of your own education’,” said Carlson. “This is a statement about finding your own authentic voice.”

”If I had it my way, I’d abolish every course, so everyone would be forced to do this option. It’s a fragile, slender placeholder of hope that students will think for themselves; it stands for students’ capacity to be self-directing and take charge of their education.”

Links:
Office of the Registrar
Rosary College of Arts and Sciences Majors Page