I was just looking for some info on individual majors at UC’s (not Berkeley - they have something called interdisciplinary studies I think). Does anyone on here have any experience with getting an individual major made and approved, or at least know someone who’s went through with the process? I’ve always been more independent with my learning, and I like the creativity of an individual major - would you say that an individual major gives you a bit of an edge since you’ve taken the initiative to pursue something unique and off the cuff? Or would you say that individual majors look non-committal, as if you couldn’t pick something “real”? Also, how would you say employers react to individual majors in general? Is it a big turn off to see a major with a nontraditional name? Does it create unnecessary difficulties when it comes to explaining what you studied? Or are employers generally intrigued enough to listen and understand?
I can only tell you about UCSD, since that’s where I am. Each of the six colleges has a slightly different individual major program:
Revelle: individual major: https://revelle.ucsd.edu/academics/tools-resources/individual-major.html I have a Revelle friend majoring in Climate Engineering. He’s the only person I know with an individual major, and seemed pleased enough with it. Requires a 3.0 minimum GPA
Muir: Muir Special Project: http://ucsd.edu/catalog/front/JMuir.html exclusively for BA degrees, requires a 3.25
Marshall: individual studies major: http://ucsd.edu/catalog/front/TMarshal.html requires a 3.25
Warren: individual studies major: pretty much the same as the rest, website doesn’t have details tho
ERC: individual studies major: https://roosevelt.ucsd.edu/academics/majors/individual-studies/index.html#-Graduation requires a 3.0
Sixth: it doesn’t matter, don’t pick sixth
Hopefully this is better than nothing lol. What are you looking to major in? I don’t know that your liking creativity is a strong enough reason for an IS major request to be approved