INDIVIDUAL MAJORS

The Individual Major at Hobart and William Smith Colleges is designed for the mature, self-motivated student capable of developing a coherent, synthesized program to meet specific intellectual needs. The Individual Major is as rigorous as the regular department majors. It consists of 11 or 12 courses selected by the student in consultation with a faculty adviser and approved by the Committee on Individual Majors. Before developing an Individual Major, a student should make a realistic determination of whether the program is compatible with the liberal arts tradition of the Colleges and the resources currently available in the Colleges' community. The most successful students in the program have been those who have planned their courses of study early and have executed them with imagination and intellectual vitality.

Individual Majors may be constructed around relatively personalized topics (e.g., Psychological Aspects of Early Education; Processes of Perception; Contemporary Folk Cultures) or around recognized fields of study not offered under a formal organizational structure at the Colleges (e.g., Ethnomusicology; Movement Science).

A student interested in pursuing an Individual Major should pick up the necessary forms at the Office of the Registrar and speak with a faculty adviser and/or the Chairperson of the Individual Majors Committee about the feasibility of the program being contemplated.

Guidelines Used by the Individual Majors Committee

  1. Deadline: The Committee on Individual Majors normally does not consider proposals later than the spring term of the sophomore year. To be considered at one of the Committee's semi-monthly meetings, proposals must be received in the Registrar's Office at least one week in advance.
  2. Course requirements: An Individual Major requires 11 or 12 courses, of which at least 6 must be unique to the major. In the proposal, in addition to these 11-12 courses the student must list three potential alternates. Only one of the 11-12 courses chosen may be an introductory course. Several of the courses must be at the 300- or 400-level. In some cases, the Committee will require that a student take a particular course. An Individual Major may include a course equivalent, courses from study abroad, Honors, and/or independent study (but note restrictions below).
  3. Course restrictions: The Committee on Individual Majors cannot ever count a first-year seminar or a course with a grade below C-. Normally the Committee will also not count:
    • more than one introductory course (although you may have to take additional introductory courses as prerequisites for upper-level courses you wish to include),
    • more than two courses at the 450, 455 or 495 level,
    • more than three courses taken at another institution, introductory-level language courses,
    • more than three courses from any program or department offering its own major.
  4. Double Majors: A second full major has 11-12 courses. Each major must have at least 6 courses that are unique to it.
  5. Adviser: The student should select an adviser whose area of expertise is associated with the course work in the Individual Major. Each interdisciplinary program has a coordinator who should be consulted in setting up an Individual Major in that program. The program coordinator is responsible for reviewing and approving the course of study before it is forwarded to the Individual Majors Committee for certification. The course catalogue provides the name of the current coordinator of the Writing and Rhetoric Program.

Changes

When the Committee approves a major, it is approving a specific list of courses. Any changes must therefore be approved by the Committee. Forms are available in the Registrar's Office. Be sure to get Committee approval for changes before including those changes on your senior-year degree audit worksheet in the spring of your junior year.

You may obtain the a set of instructions and the required forms for the declaration of an individual major in the Registrar's Office.

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