The Registrar's Office will soon be swarming with students filing major cards to solidify their status as majors in the government or economics departments, but each year a small group of students select majors that have never before been completed by students at the College. These students choose to pursue "a special major" in fields of study that fall outside of the College's 57 defined majors.
Associate Dean of International and Interdisciplinary Studies Lindsay Whaley said the special major is defined as "a major which, in its general form, reflects aspects of currently existing majors at Dartmouth" but is not officially offered by the College.
Although Whaley estimates that only five to 10 students attempt to create their own course of study each year, Zak Kaufman '08 said that a larger number of students have recently been asking him about his major, Health and Society in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Kaufman, who described his major as "sixteen classes about the health, social science, culture, literature, politics and society in Latin America," said that he originally came to Dartmouth with the intention to pursue a pre-medical track but changed his mind after spending time in Nicaragua on the Cross-Cultural Education Service Program during his sophomore winter.
"For me, my experience in Nicaragua was instrumental in driving my interest for Latin America," he said. "I took away a real passion for public health, and I realized that I wanted to make more of a difference at a population level than at an individual level."
However, obtaining permission to pursue a special major can be difficult, Kaufman said, adding that he originally wondered whether his special major would be approved.
Students interested in designing their own major must consult faculty members and submit a proposal that includes the objective of the potential major and a plan of 10 interrelated courses, Whaley said. A Divisional Council then judges proposals based on the breadth, depth and interdisciplinary nature of the courses selected and on the inclusion of a culminating experience.
There is no limit or constraint on the area of choice for special majors, Whaley noted, as long as the proposed plan is intellectually cohesive.
"If you have an idea for anything that we don't currently offer, it's perfect for a special major," Whaley said.
Special majors currently being pursued by Dartmouth students range from a natural and artificial intelligences major to an urban studies and architecture major. Other "special major" examples include digital arts, legal studies and therapeutic options for women in the Latin American context, Whaley said.
Pursuing a non-traditional major can pose some problems for students if employers are not familiar with their course of study.
"When I went to interview for the Rhodes Scholarship, people would kind of chuckle when they heard my major, because it required so much explanation," Kaufman said.
Whaley also noted these difficulties, adding that the special majors option "doesn't have the institutional background" of standard majors.
Students, however, should not put too much emphasis on their future careers when choosing their major, Career Services director Skip Sturman '70 said. Employers tend to consider ability more than undergraduate curriculum when considering potential personnel, he added.
"In general, employers are looking for the best examples of skills that are needed in their work environment, so they'll look to rsums for examples, whether they're from a major, a previous internship or volunteer work," he said. "As an employer, I'm always going to come back to a documented example of skill sets, not particularly a major, especially at a liberal arts institution."
Kaufman said that his individualized major provided him with several advantages, including increased course flexibility and interdisciplinary focus, as he had finished most of the coursework for his major by the end of his junior year.
"This senior year it has allowed me to take classes I'm just interested in, classes that don't fall into my major but that I'm still really passionate about," Kaufman said. "It's really allowed me to synthesize work in the classroom with work outside of class."
Kaufman, who work for Grassroots Soccer after graduating from Dartmouth, said his major will help him in his future job.
"My work, field work, and service at Dartmouth and abroad has all been about the Caribbean, and it will be an advantage to bring all that field work to a job," he said.
Kaufman added that, overall, special majors can be a valuable experience for students who, like him, are "not one to be stuck in a box."
"It's a pretty streamlined process with a lot of flexibility," Whaley agreed. "It's different, it's individual, it's unique, it's special. The student with the initiative and the idea simply needs to pursue it."
