Declaring a major is a process that requires a bit of questioning, experimentation, and a few pitfalls along the way. As much as some students wish they could remain “undeclared” a while longer, there is a turning point where one is expected to magically realize their purpose in life — at the end of sophomore year, to be exact, when students turn in their declaration forms. When we shove our ambitions into a box labeled “major,” we breathe a sigh of relief and scramble to fit the required courses in before graduation.
However, some students prefer to think outside these neatly labeled boxes in order to meet their needs. These students choose to take advantage of one of Scripps’ most unique opportunities: designing their own major.
Self-designed majors have a very practical purpose in terms of meeting the requirements of specific graduate schools or careers. In fact, the requirements for some common graduate schools are not all addressed by any one major at Scripps. Kari Oki ’09 worked with Professor John Milton in the Joint Science Department to design her Motion Sciences major, which addresses all the requirements needed for physical therapy schools while still giving Oki a strong foundation in the sciences. “[Dr. Milton] was open to whatever I wanted to do within reason and was challenging,” Oki explained. The flexibility of her major also allowed Oki to complete required courses not available at the Claremont Colleges while she was abroad at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Beyond purely career-oriented goals, self-designed majors feed a more personal hunger for self-knowledge. Amanda Shorthall ’07 created her Chinese-American Studies major after completing all the required courses for her Media Studies major and a semester abroad in China. She decided to create her second major in order to address her own heritage. “It was a great process for me to go through. It was a chance to explore myself,” said Shortall. “At some point you see the light at the end of the tunnel. College is about what you want to do.”
Currently Shorthall is working as a retail coordinator for Vogue Magazine in New York City. When asked how her self-designed major helped her after Scripps, Shorthall said that it gave her an edge: “It didn’t prepare me for this job, but it helped me showcase my abilities.” Answering questions about the uniqueness of her major showed her employers how she managed to create something that was all her own. On a personal level, Shorthall was happy to see how much her major meant to her family, especially her mother, who was a very active member of the Chinese American community.
Choosing a major asks students to declare not just what they want to become, but also who they are. Creating a self-designed major is a way of defining oneself.