Being able to customize her major at New York University‘s Gallatin School of Individualized Study motivated Kiara Soobrayan to choose the school for her undergraduate degree.
At NYU, Soobrayan, who was born and raised in South Africa, combined her love for math and desire to effect social change. Soobrayan, now a senior, designed a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Economics for International Development.
“I had a vision of where I wanted to end up — working in development — and customized my degree to provide me with the knowledge that I believed would best help me get there,” Soobrayan says.
About 954 public and private nonprofit four-year colleges and universities allow students to create their own majors, according to data from the College Board, a New York-based nonprofit organization. Schools may describe the option as “customized,” “individualized,” “interdisciplinary” or “design your own major.”
[Read: What Does ‘Fit’ Mean for International Students Searching for a U.S. College?]
Here are some things for prospective international students interested in studying in the U.S. to consider.
Customizable majors at U.S. campuses. Most global universities offer majors and minors, with some allowing double majors or joint degrees. At U.S. universities, students also often have the option of customizable majors to meet their diverse interests.
Examples of schools that offer the option include the University of Washington, which has an individualized studies program, and the University of California–San Diego‘s Eleanor Roosevelt College, which similarly provides an individual studies major.
International students should choose to design their own major if they are independent-minded, eager for a challenge and want to take control of their own education, says Susanne Wofford, dean of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
She says students should have several interests that include academic and professional goals and be prepared to imagine new ways to link those interests. Gallatin students take a set of core liberal arts courses to understand the nature of interdisciplinary study, administrators say.
At James Madison University in Virginia, students can design a Bachelor of Science or Arts through the school’s Independent Scholars Program. The program, started three years ago, welcomes international students, says Matthew Chamberlin, program director and associate professor of Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies.
“I would love to see international students who perhaps come to JMU with those more formal interests but who discover new interests here, who are willing to also include the more free-ranging and research-oriented approach we make space for,” Chamberlin says. Examples of majors U.S. students have created include sustainability and entrepreneurship as well as social justice photography, he says.
[Read: How to Choose, Declare a U.S. College Major.]
Time to customize a major. In contrast to U.K. universities that require students to choose a major when they apply, U.S. university students have the luxury of more time to figure out what fields of study to pursue, which experts say may be an advantage when designing a major.
Chamberlin says James Madison students typically choose the independent scholars major after at least a year on campus, a time frame that he says provides a good introductory period to the different opportunities and disciplines at the university.
Soobrayan says she originally wanted to study engineering and politics as an NYU student at Gallatin. However, after speaking to professors and reading books on African development, she decided to shift the focus of her studies at the end of her first year.
“I chose mathematics and economics because I wanted to continue to exercise the analytical side of my brain,” Soobrayan says.
Requirements for customized majors vary at universities, but typically start with a proposal.
For example, at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, where students can create a Bachelor of Individualized Studies or an individually designed interdepartmental major, both require meeting with an adviser to draft a proposal and course plan.
At Sarah Lawrence College in New York, there are no majors. Kanwal Singh, dean of the college, says each student constructs a curricular concentration by working in close collaboration with a faculty adviser who guides the student through the entire four years of school.
She says some students follow more traditional paths that would be considered majors at other colleges, while other students “take interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary trajectories that weave together multiple courses of study into a coherent whole.”
[Read: Consider a Dual Major at a U.S. College.]
Boost future careers. By customizing a major, which can include an internship and semester abroad, international students may set themselves apart from the competition.
Wofford says customized majors allow students to prepare themselves for diverse and emerging professional jobs and careers. For example, Myka Alexis Cue, from the Philippines, is a 2018 graduate of NYU’s Gallatin School with a degree in Multimedia Storytelling: Production and Performance, which she says focuses on producing and acting for theater, film and digital media.
Chinese national Chen Hua, whose interest is in gerontology, or the study of the aging process, is pursuing a self-designed Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies with a concentration in holistic psychology through the Center for the Adult Learner at Lesley University in Massachusetts.
Hua has taken classes like cross-cultural psychology and comparative and alternative medicine, knowledge he hopes to apply back home. “China is one of the most rapidly aging nations in the world. Going back to China and serving the aging population there would be one of my priorities,” Hua says.
Though internships and semester-abroad studies are optional but encouraged at Gallatin, Soobrayan says, she took advantage of both to maximize her experience and make her more competitive. She interned for Ideation Worldwide, a nonprofit that seeks innovative solutions to international development problems, and at NYU’s Office of Global Programs.
This summer, Soobrayan will intern back home in South Africa at the Jesuit Refugee Service of Southern Africa, using funding from the Gallatin Global Fellowship in Human Rights.
Gallatin students can also travel abroad to NYU’s global sites. Soobrayan, who added a minor in French, spent a semester at NYU Paris and will attend NYU Abu Dhabi this fall.
Her goal is to work at a big development organization focusing on forced migration and asylum seeking, which she feels she has a foundation in, thanks to her customized degree.
“I’m hoping to one day end up at the U.N. or the World Bank,” Soobrayan says.
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How International Students Can Create U.S. College Majors originally appeared on usnews.com
