At College, You Can Have it Your Way

Dr. Silas Pearman, assistant academic dean in Furman University’s Individualized Curriculum Program, said allowing students to create their own major is beneficial in today’s world.

“Given the multi-disciplinary nature of many vocations, these programs can be quite important for preparing students for leadership positions in areas where traditional majors do not exist," Pearman said.

Furman’s ICP has been around since the 1970s. Since then, some of the individualized majors have made their way into the mainstream offerings at the university, such as Asian studies and mathematics-economics.

I think that this major will allow me to pursue a wider range of career and graduate school possibilities. I am less limited because of the interdisciplinary study, but I also feel that I am getting a much more complete and satisfying education."
- Trevor Cutsinger, junior at Furman University

Students who choose to design their own major usually do so because they are not completely satisfied by a school’s offering.

Furman junior Trevor Cutsinger was a declared religion major before he realized he could design his own personal major. Cutsinger’s current major is religion and the environment.

“It is an attempt to combine the theoretical and abstract issues discussed in the religion major with the more practical, everyday aspects of the many environmental concerns we face today," said Cutsinger.

Since his major is interdisciplinary, Cutsinger is taking classes from many different departments. His classes include religion, sociology, earth and environmental science and political science.