Entering Dartmouth and shopping for a major among the 39 departments is like being a kid in a candy store. With such a broad menu of intellectual brain food, inevitably there are students who choose more than one department, tacking on double majors, minors or modified majors.
Yet, each year there are a few Dartmouth students whose interests lie outside of the paved paths. For these students, Dartmouth established a "special major program" in which undergraduates can create their own major.
Assistant Registrar LeRoy Graham helps to oversee the process of creating a special major. He said that only a handful of students even approach the office with a proposal and even fewer follow through.
"If we have a dozen a year, that's a lot," Graham said. This year there are about 10 students who have created their own majors.
The process itself is long and involved, requiring significant research, thought and planning. A student pursuing a special major must write a proposal which, according to the 2002-2003 Organizations, Regulations and Courses, "must provide intellectual coherence and educational merit." The proposal must include the purpose of the major and 10 interrelated courses. The student is required to enlist a faculty member to serve as the adviser for the major and oversee at least one course of independent research
The proposal is then sent before the Divisional Council, which evaluates the proposed major based on the merit of the program, the academic merits of the student, and the relevance of the program to the student's career plans.
For some students, the process itself can be enough of a deterrent. Krista Sande-Kerback '05 began the process of creating her own major, but her plans were met with mixed support.
"I heard that it would be really complicated to do and I'd have to go in front of a committee." While administrators encouraged her to create a special major, many of the professors she approached dissuaded her. She found she could take a variety of classes that interest her through a major and double minor.
Andrea Sea '03 created her public health major based on an established program at Johns Hopkins University. Sea explained that while she has always been interested in public health, the major was not available at Dartmouth. Attempting to secure an internship last winter really secured her resolve to create her own major.
"I started out wanting to do a science major and realized that I wanted to take more advantage of the liberal arts at Dartmouth," Sea said. She tried a modified anthropology major before realizing that a self-created major would be the best fit. Her public health major includes classes from anthropology, biology, engineering, history, and sociology.
For Sea, the process of creating a major was challenging, even though she had the Johns Hopkins program to use as a guideline. She had to develop the idea of the major enough to find a professor who would serve as an adviser.
"I think that going off the Johns Hopkins major definitely helps just because it made it more of the professors I spoke to have more faith in my proposal," said Sea.
"It had already been done and was being done at one of the top public health schools in the country."
"There is no easy process right now," Sea said. "But if you keep trying and find the support you need, it's definitely possible."
