Dd wants to major in Russian, French, econ, and possibly IR. She has contacted the Russian professor and he is willing to do independent studies with her bc she will be entering in at advanced level. She is waiting to hear back from the French professor since she is significantly advanced in French.
I am trying to understand just how much freedom students have to design their own major. Could she use a yr abroad in Russia and a yr abroad in France through affiliate programs toward her degree? (She contacted the NC directly, but the response didn’t really answer her specific questions.)
Also, how about employment for NC degrees? Since UA doesn’t have a Russian degree, I doubt their is much recruitment from gov’t programs. How are the degrees listed on their diploma? How marketable are NC students?
Just trying to sort out if this is an option even worth considering or if there are too many unknowns for her to seriously pursue.
TIA!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I am a friend of your son and I spent a few weeks this summer investigating the options available through New College. In the end, because I’m entering my 5th semester, I decided not to pursue the diploma because it would require cramming the NC seminar courses into too few semesters. However I thought the advising through the program was phenomenal and if I was starting again as a freshman I would have done it without a doubt.
There is a lot of flexibility with the courses you can count towards your New College “depth study,” and while I don’t know about study abroad in particular, I would imagine that because those opportunities are so crucial for her chosen career path her NC advisors would make it work. She might also be able to do NC Independent Study hours if the courses don’t directly translate. The main requirements for the depth study are that the courses are spread through several departments and that the student’s advisors approve the plan. Beyond that, I imagine the main difficulty would be fitting the NC seminars and capstone project into her on-campus course schedules.
Students choose a name for their degree with their advisor which will be listed on the diploma.
As far as marketability, I think that is more an issue with engineering majors who might need things like ABET accredidation. In the social sciences, I think her unique experiences and coursework would be a benefit rather than a hindrance. However, I am in STEM myself so there are others more qualified than I to speak to that. I will PM you with more details.
Is she considering CBH as well? It sounds like we would be lucky to have her.
Then she should absolutely contact them again!
As @springy179 noted above, the New College is known for its excellent advising, so there’s absolutely no reason for your daughter to make do with an inadequate reply to her questions. She should look at the staff & faculty directory for the New College, and then reach out to the person she thinks would be best able to answer her questions.
Older son looked into NC years ago, and he was told he could get some/many of the NC req’t classes waived because he already had AP credits.
@dodgersmom I’ll suggest that she try contacting someone else.
One of the main questions she has is about using non-Alabama study abroad programs and how the credits transfer back. From other university meetings she has learned that if they are direct study abroad programs through that university, the credits will transfer back easily, but with affiliate programs, they may or may not. That is a huge concern bc she wants to study abroad for a full yr.
Though based on a recent email with a dept, it may not work anyway bc the independent study may be too limited for her goals.