Shall review all Majors, Minors, and Special programs in the College; in particular, shall be responsible for the development and implementation of the CAS Honors Program and shall aid Departments in strengthening their honors programs. Shall supervise all students undertaking individual majors in the College, reviewing and approving individual major applications and monitoring students' adherence to their chosen plans of study.
The members of the Majors, Honors, and Special Programs Committee for AY 2001-02 are:
INDIVIDUAL MAJOR APPLICATION
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
(Revised, FALL 1996)
To the Student
The Individual Major of the College of Arts and Sciences is an option designed to allow you, in close consultation with a CAS Faculty Advisor, to create and complete an interdisciplinary program of study. It should be equivalent in coherence, depth, and breadth to the Major programs within Departments. The Committee on Majors, Honors, and Special Programs of the College of Arts and Sciences reviews each application and decides on its merits for approval.
In order to apply for this option, you must have a Grade Point Average of at least 2.5. In addition, unless special circumstances warrant an exception to this rule, you should plan to submit your application for the Individual Major near the end of the sophomore year (or when you have accumulated approximately 60 credits).
If you are a transfer student, the Committee recognizes that you may need more time in order to investigate the programs at UMB, and to locate an appropriate Faculty Advisor. Therefore, in the case of transfer students, applications will be accepted as late as the first or second semester of the junior year (or at about 75-90 credits).
If you are not a transfer student, but are applying for the Individual Major when you have more than 60 credits, the burden is on you and your Faculty Advisor to show why the usual rule should be waived in~your case. Include in your proposal a request for a waiver of the 60-credit rule. Show why you were unable to apply earlier, and why the Proposal is a thoughtful and worthy one, despite being late. Applications for waivers will be dealt with by the Committee on a case-by-case basis.
Individual Major Proposal forms are distributed by the CAS Office of Academic Support Programs (M/3/421). They are also downloadable from this site (from right here, in fact!).
The application consists of:
When you pick up the form you may make an appointment with Assistant Dean Slover to review the procedures with you. For further orientation to the Program, you may contact the Chairperson of the Committee on Majors, Honors and Special Programs through Academic Support.
Proposals are due for Committee consideration by November 1 for Spring approval and April 1 for Fall approval. In order to give yourself plenty of time, you should be familiar with the procedures and requirements and ready to have an initial meeting with your Faculty, Advisor by the third or fourth week of the semester. At this meeting, you should plan to discuss your reasons for wishing to design your own major; the courses that you have selected for the major; your ideas about how the major might relate to your career plans and/or graduate study plans1 and the reasons why a Departmental Major would not be appropriate. Bring the Application form and your current transcript to this meeting. Please make sure that you leave with the Faculty Advisor a copy of the Information for Faculty Advisors, which is included in the Application Form package. Once a Faculty Advisor has agreed to sponsor you, you should write a draft of your Proposal, and get it to the Faculty Advisor for review at least two weeks before applications are due This will allow enough time for revisions, if necessary, and for the Advisor to write a letter of support based on a review of the Proposal.
The final draft of the Proposal, along with your Faculty Advisor's letter, your transcript, and an updated Core Curriculum Worksheet, must be submitted by the due date to the Committee on Majors, Honors and Special Programs, in care of Assistant Dean Slover, CAS Office of Academic Support Programs. If any of the material is missing, the Committee will be unable to consider your approval in a timely fashion.
The Proposal will be carefully considered by the Committee on Majors, Honors and Special Programs, and you and your Faculty Advisor will be notified by the Committee of its decision, in time for preregistration.
Once your Individual Major has been approved, the Registrar will be notified (you must fill out the appropriate Declaration of Major form). You are then expected to meet with your Faculty Advisor on a regular basis, as you would with a Department Advisor, to discuss any modifications in your choice of courses. (If you wish to substitute equivalent courses for some of those listed in the approved Proposal, you should notify the Committee that you are doing so, with the written approval of your faculty Advisor.) In the semester you intend to graduate, you should meet with your Advisor to make sure you have completed all requirements. The Advisor will formally notify the Registrar that you have completed the Individual Major. If any problems arise, or if your original Faculty Advisor is unable to continue in that role, it is your responsibility to notify the Committee.