Interdisciplinary Studies

In the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences .

The primary purpose of the Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS) major is to provide students with an opportunity to develop an individualized set of courses focused on diverse subject areas around interests that are not well addressed by other majors in the college. A student may not be admitted into the major when entering the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences or through the internal transfer process. The change to the major evolves after a student finds their interests diverging from their current major and when a clear idea of new educational objective emerges.

As is the case for other majors, there need to be educational learning outcomes and a set of courses that will meet these academic goals. Unlike other majors where these goals and courses are established by faculty, students are responsible for developing their goals and courses with the guidance of an academic advisor. Generally, students should be drawing courses from across multiple disciplines. It is also expected that the courses taken will move from general introductory courses to advanced courses with greater focus and depth.

There must be an academic advisor identified by the student willing to help with the proposed program. All CALS faculty can serve as advisors for this major. Additional information, including the Learning Outcomes and FAQ’s for the IDS major, can be found on the CALS website.

Requirements for the Major:

In the Declaration of Intent form, a student will be required to outline their focus area and provide an academic plan for completing the major. Major course requirements are:

One oral communications course
One Calc or Stats course
Three lower-level courses within the student’s curriculum focus area (1100-2999)
Five or more upper-level courses within student’s curriculum focus area (3000 +)

In addition, students must fulfill the CALS Distribution Requirements that provide students with academic breadth in the following areas:

Physical and Life Sciences
Social Sciences and Humanities, in preparation for ethical decision-making
Written and Oral Expression, to ensure clear and confident articulation of ideas

Major Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate the ability to use information, concepts, analytical approaches, and critical thinking skills involved in one or more disciplines through a set of increasingly specialized courses.
Ability to use information acquisition skills (i.e. library, databases, internet, surveys, interviews) required by the disciplines developed for the major.
Developing quantitative skills appropriate for the disciplines.
Effectively use professional skills:
- Taking responsibility (self-motivation, ethical behavior, managing time)
- Write and speak clearly (legibly) and persuasively with individuals and groups
- Working effectively with others (building good relationships, effective leadership and team member, influencing others, managing others)
- Asking and answering the right questions (apply knowledge, evaluate actions and policies, paying attention to details)
- Solving problems (identify problems, develop solutions, launch solutions)

College Learning Outcomes

Explain, evaluate, and effectively interpret factual claims, theories and assumptions in the student’s discipline(s) (especially in one or more of the college’s priority areas of land-grant agricultural sciences, applied social sciences, environmental sciences and/or life sciences) and more broadly in the sciences and humanities
Find, access, critically evaluate, and ethically use information
Integrate quantitative and qualitative information to reach defensible and creative conclusions
Communicate effectively through writing, speech, and visual information
Articulate the views of people with diverse perspectives
Demonstrate the capability to work both independently and in cooperation with others
Apply methods of sustainability to the analysis of one or more major challenges facing humans and the Earth’s resources.