The major you decide to apply as matters when colleges review your application, as we have covered several times before. This makes sense, and leads students to spending some time getting to know majors at their top choice colleges. Most of these are pretty straightforward; what you see is what you get with a major like math or chemistry or East Asian Studies. But some colleges have majors that can best be described as unique. These have non-descriptive names, and often seem more aspirational than truly structured. This can be confusing or offputting to some students; what is the point of these majors, and what will you really learn if you engage in them. In this article, we’re first going to go through a number of these odd and unique majors, and then explain how they can help your college application strategy. Let’s jump right in!
UChicago’s Fundamentals Major
We aren’t going to manage to cover every offbeat and unique major here, there are far too many colleges offering far too many programs of study for us to cover them all. Instead, we’re going to look at some notable examples, ones we think are representative of the collective.
The first of these is the Fundamentals major at UChicago. This major is dedicated to letting students study fundamental texts, and is fairly loose with what they mean by that. This is not the case of getting to design your own major, but you do have a great deal of flexibility in terms of what you study and how you go about doing so.
The program sees itself as the pinnacle of liberal arts education, giving students a command of how to think and synthesize information. While it is not officially pre-professional in any regard, graduates often go on to graduate programs or professional degrees, including law and medical school.
UChicago’s Big Problems Program
While not a major, the Big Problems Program is worth mentioning while we’re here. This is an interdisciplinary capstone program, designed for students to take a series of courses in their third and fourth years, and develop skills in thinking about and working to solve the major issues of our time using a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach. This is an interesting capstone to add onto any number of majors, but is not a major in and of itself.
Brown Contemplative Studies
Now Brown doesn’t officially have majors, but they do have concentrations, which function quite similarly. While these are completely optional, they can still shape your course of studies at Brown, and can be a very good thing to mention wanting to explore when you apply to the school.
This is an interdisciplinary major meant to allow students to understand the contemplative approach in different disciplines when analyzed through the lens of both science and the humanities. This concentration also includes a number of first-person experiences, where students are encouraged to dive deep into contemplation for themselves through various means.
This concentration only requires six courses, and can easily be paired with another. The point of this course of study is to give students further insight into the nature of humanity and human experience, as well as a broad base to base further research upon, especially in an interdisciplinary context, understanding both theory and practice.
Vanderbilt’s Culture, Advocacy, and Leadership Major
Hosted in the College of Arts & Sciences, this is an interdisciplinary major which focuses on preparing students for careers focused on advocacy, and those who want to change the world. This consists of core courses on communications and advocacy, and area focus coursework which allows you to focus your studies in on an area where you want to affect change.
As part of this major, all students must complete a practicum requirement. This requires students do something hands on, be that an internship, apprenticeship, independent project, or something else that will give them real and tangible experience in advocacy and their chosen area of focus. What this actually ends up being is quite open; students have a lot of flexibility to design their own experience to meet this requirement.
This major is done well in combination with something else, or as preparation for an advanced degree, particularly something like law school. Many careers require advocating for change you believe in, and this major is entirely devoted to that.
Emory Interdisciplinary Studies Major
This major is specifically designed on the philosophy that sometimes students need to combine two or more areas of focus to achieve their educational goals, in a way more focused and directed than is possible by double majoring. This major allows students to design their own course of study, but does require a high degree of independence and willingness to take the initiative on the part of students.
Unlike some other design your own major options, Emory has a set framework for this; all students take the same framing courses, a mixture of writing coursework and capstone research. Beyond this, students must select advanced coursework in two or more disciplines to complete the requirements of the major. You must be able to defend your choices, and explain the coherent whole you are creating through the coursework you take.
All IDS majors are required to complete a senior research thesis. The point of this is to culminate your course of study, and create a final synthesis of everything you have learned. This major is great due to the flexibility it provides, while still having slightly more structure than some other colleges’ design your own major options.
Georgetown American Studies Major
This is an interdisciplinary major in Georgetown’s College of Arts and Sciences. It allows students to study any aspect of American culture, history, or society, and emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach, allowing students to combine fields across the humanities and social sciences. This is one of the most flexible majors in Georgetown, but requires 6 full semesters to complete, due to how it is structured.
There are a set of core courses in the major, a mix of American history and cultural studies. Students are then able to select other courses as they wish, to explore the specific fields they are interested in. Students are encouraged to pick a central theme and design their major around that, choosing electives accordingly. All students are required to complete a senior research capstone, summing up what they have learned through their particular course of investigation.
This major is a good choice for students interested in politics or public service in the US, but who may not want to compete at Georgetown’s exceptionally elite political science program. The flexibility and focus on research also makes this a good major for students interested in advanced degrees, including law school and PhD programs.
Tufts Interdisciplinary Studies
Overseen by the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences, this major allows students to design their own course of study, which must draw from at least three distinct fields. This major does not have required courses; instead students work with a faculty mentor from the center to design a course of study related to their chosen areas of interest, and to pick a central theme or idea for their studies.
All students in this major are required to complete a senior thesis; this may be either an honors or non-honors thesis. Honors theses are expected to be longer and have a greater depth of analysis. In both cases, students enroll in a thesis seminar in their senior year, to help guide their work on the thesis.
This major is intended for students who want to combine multiple fields in a way that goes beyond what is possible through a double major or a major and minor. This will not be a good fit for every student, but can be an excellent choice for those with a core idea they want to pursue.
Duke IDEAS Major
The Interdisciplinary Engineering and Applied Science Major (IDEAS) is offered through Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Note that while this is technically an engineering major, it is not accredited by ABET (though it does satisfy the national general engineering accreditation criteria). This is because this major does not focus on any one field of engineering, but instead allows students to build out their own course of study combining engineering with the sciences.
Note that this is a somewhat rare major, and that all courses of study must be approved by the Dean. This is to ensure that your course seems feasible, and that you are set to graduate on time. This program is challenging, as all engineering programs are, but is not meant to be prohibitively so, instead seeking to offer an additional challenge for students who want to do something in particular.
Most of the students who pursue this route do so to add additional biology and chemistry work to a study of biochemical engineering, though this is not universal. Unlike some of the other majors we’ve mentioned, this one gives you far more freedom to design a curriculum. If you are interested in engineering generally, or interdisciplinary approaches within it, this is an interesting option for you.
Carnegie Mellon BxA Majors
These are a series of interdisciplinary majors offered by Carnegie Mellon University, which allow students to simultaneously major in the arts and in another field. Applicants for these majors apply directly to the College of Fine Arts; their application is then reviewed by their second intended college if they are admitted. Note that many of the programs at CFA require additional application components, such as portfolios or auditions.
These majors allow you to combine your study of an art with the study of science and technology, pursuing both while also examining the intersections between the two. This allows students to continue their passion for art, while also gaining the academic experience top tech companies love to see.
These majors can be quite competitive, and do require you to already have interdisciplinary interests. If you are an artist who loves tech, or a techie who loves art however, this is a wonderful opportunity for you to pursue.
A Note on Building Your Own Major
A great many colleges also allow you to build your own major, but we will not be going into those here. These majors universally require you to already be a student at the school to apply to them, since they always require significantly more work and effort than standard majors at a university. When building your own major, it is you who must decide what courses to take to meet what requirements, and design a course of study with a real goal in mind.
These contrast with the majors above, which are interdisciplinary and niche, but established within the school already, and are something students can apply for when they apply to the school. This is an important distinction, because it is this ability to apply for a major that makes it interesting for application strategy.
Unique Majors and Application Strategy
So what does any of this have to do with application strategy? We work with a lot of students who have displayed excellent traits in high school; leadership, a devotion to their communities, initiative. These students have not, however, specialized in an academic field in a way that really set them up for a particular major. Their accomplishments are good and varied, but not focused.
When colleges look at students applying to a CS program, they want to see that you’ve done coding projects or hackathons, written apps or volunteered to teach code to others. For most majors, especially the most competitive, colleges want to see evidence for your passion for these subjects.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of great activities you can do in high school that do not directly apply to a particular major. Student government, volunteering with local charities, working a real job; these are quite impressive, and admissions officers love to see them. They do not, however, support the narrative that you are a perfect fit for the major you are applying to though.
When you apply to one of these interdisciplinary majors though, your background in leadership and service makes you an excellent candidate. These majors require a bit more input from students, and so they look for those who have really shown a love for seizing the initiative, with a strong record of leadership and responsibility. Once you are at the school, then you can either turn the major to subjects you prefer, or transfer to a major that better suits your eventual career goals.
This will not make college admissions easy; top colleges are always going to be competitive. It does, however, make it far easier to apply for certain programs of study obliquely, especially competitive ones you don’t have a good background for.
Final Thoughts
Colleges offer a lot of majors; many of which will be of new interest to you. It can still be worth it, however, to go through the lists of what’s available. You might see something remarkable which catches your eye, or the kind of major which seems perfectly tailored to match your exact background and experiences. There is no way of knowing what’s out there until you go and look for it.
Of course, doing all that looking can be a good bit of work, and college websites are often not the best designed or most functional. That’s where Ivy Scholars can help. Our mentors have an in-depth knowledge of colleges and their offerings, and our strategy experts help you find the right colleges and majors to match your exact background, helping you maximize your chances of admission. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about how we can help you achieve your educational dreams.
