There are several options for undergraduates interested in pursuing interdisciplinary majors. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is developing coherent interdisciplinary majors – including American Studies and Gender Studies. These programs are designed to promote the ability to recognize connections between different areas and kinds of knowledge, to discover previously unsuspected relationships, and to negotiate confidently among differing approaches to understanding ourselves and our world. Common features of these programs are a concentration area within a larger field of inquiry (e.g. in American Studies, the American urban experience, the American frontier, the arts in America, the Civil War era) and both integrative introductory courses and senior seminars, often taught by two faculty members drawn from participating departments. Moreover, within the Department of Environment and Earth Science interdisciplinary concentrations are offered in Earth System Science and Environmental Science. Students who wish to formulate a different interdisciplinary major may do so through the IDS program.

All IDS students must complete the University's core requirements. Beyond this, all IDS students must write a clearly stated rationale for choosing Interdisciplinary Studies and a list of proposed courses, which must be approved by the IDS Faculty Committee before matriculation is granted. The student's rationale must explain why an IDS major allows the student to accomplish a set of academic and personal goals that double-majoring in two subject areas does not.

Information is available by calling the Office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at 516-299-2233.