<p>Can students design their own majors at Dartmouth?</p>
<p>I'm interested in architecture, but Dartmouth does not have a specific architecture major. However, there are classes about worldly architecture throughout history in Art History, architectural drawing classes in Studio Art, and classes like Philosophy of Art in Philosophy. Would Dartmouth let me combine those classes and form my own major?</p>
<p>44 views and no response?</p>
<p>I don’t know exactly but I do know there’s a lot of modification that can occur with majors. Many students major in X modified by Y. My S is majoring in Engineering modified by Studio Art with a concentration in Architecture.</p>
<p>Your best bet would be to email Dartmouth and ask the question.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Yeah I did a modified History major. I did this because I the selection of history courses offered for the particular time period in which I was interested were okay, but there were classes in a lot of other departments, including Religion and Art History that fit really well with what I wanted to study (they were essentially history classes being taught by historians who were just for whatever reason members of those departments). It was really easy to do, just a matter of consulting with a prof and filling out another major card. I hadn’t even really planned on doing it this way, I just took classes that I thought were interesting and then at some point realized that I could integrate them into my major.</p>
<p>I haven’t officially checked this anywhere, but my gut tells me that you won’t be able to just create your own unique major like you can at a few other places, but you will find that most majors have the kind of flexibility that I described above. I suspect there will be at least a few departments that will let you integrate the classes you want to take into a major through that department. But again, this is just my instinct and you should definitely follow up with some more thorough research if this significantly affects your decision on where to matriculate.</p>
<p>I think you can create your own major. But, it needs to be approved (that’s the easy part), and I believe you are then required to write a senior thesis. The thesis should combine the two areas which you majored.</p>
<p>While it’s theoretically possible to apply for a “special major,” it is frowned upon by the administration and infrequently approved. (I looked into this myself, in the social sciences, and found it too much of a procedural hassle to bother going any further.) There’s an architecture concentration within the studio art major.</p>
<p>You may find this useful: [The</a> Nitty-Gritty Details: Excerpts from the ORC](<a href=“http://www.dartmouth.edu/~upperde/academic/planning/orc.html]The”>http://www.dartmouth.edu/~upperde/academic/planning/orc.html)</p>
<p>Thanks! That was really helpful!</p>