With individualized majors, a few students chart their own course

College senior and former Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer Eric Karlan came to Penn knowing that he wanted to study nonfiction and creative writing. And when he found out that the University does not offer a specific writing major, Karlan decided to create his own.

With nearly 60 departments to choose from, it is hard to imagine that the College of Arts and Sciences doesn't offer a major for everyone.

But some students - about three every year - choose to look outside the realm of Penn's established departments and create individualized majors.

The road to an individualized major is a tough and time-consuming process, designed to ensure that only students who are self-discplined and driven embark on the path.

Rather than let students take a sampling of classes from different departments, the individualized major is a way for students with a "burning question" to take courses across disciplines that will ultimately help them complete a senior thesis, said Alice Kelley, Individualized Major Committee Chair and Associate Director of Academic Advising.

It is designed for students with "intellectual imagination and curiosity, who are able to work independently and think in an inter-disciplinary way," Kelley said.

In order to propose a major, students must have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5, find two faculty members to serve as major advisors, and plan out a tentative 14-credit course of study.

Furthermore, students must declare and take up to six courses in a standard major by the end of their sophomore year.

"For every student who starts the process, there are seven who come in and ultimately find a major that fits what they want to do," Kelley said.

College sophomore Elisheva Goldberg, for example, considered doing an individualized major that would combine Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Jewish Studies, Philosophy and Political Science, but decided that the process was too "time-consuming" and "bureaucratic," she said.

It is a good idea for students to have a "back up major," Kelley said, adding that some students' majors have "fallen apart when they try to write the thesis," and one student was unable to graduate on time.

Karlan's major, called "Journalism, History and Culture," incorporates writing courses, history, sociology and urban studies, among other disciplines.

"Since the University does not have a journalism major, the only way I could come close to that is an English major with a concentration," Karlan said, adding that he was not interested in "spending hours in a British 16th century literature course."

Karlan is currently working on his senior thesis, which is a literary journalistic paper about the Philadelphia Sphas, an all-Jewish professional basketball team during the first half of the 20th century.

College sophomore Ben Epstein is also interested in pursuing an inter-disciplinary writing major. Though he is still in the early stages of planning his course of study, Epstein said he envisions that his major will focus on a different kind of writing, like playwriting or journalism, every semester.

Students have also proposed individualized majors in areas as diverse as evolutionary psychology, Asian-American studies and international development. In some cases, the University has even turned individualized majors into standard majors, Kelley said.

Biological Basis of Behavior, for example, began with a number of students doing individualized majors that combined psychology, biology, chemistry, and neuroscience.

Similarly, student requests for independent majors in cinema studies were "important precursors that encouraged faculty to set up the major," Kelley said.

Because of the nature of the program, it is important for people with individualized majors to be "self-disciplined and focused because they don't have a cohort of fellow students doing what they are doing."

But a built-in support system of students is not necessary because "good major advisors are an incredible support staff," Karlan said.

*This article was updated at 3 a.m. on 3/26/09 to include the fact that Eric Karlan is a former Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer.

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