Undergraduate
Bachelor's Degree Programs
Individualized Major
Major in Individualized Major
While the needs of most students are well served by existing majors offered on campus, some students have academic interests that do not fit well into existing programs or traditional disciplinary boundaries. The Individualized Major Program (IMP) in the School of Liberal Arts meets the needs of such students. It serves disciplined and self-motivated students who may wish to major in traditional disciplines or interdisciplinary areas for which majors are not available at IUPUI, as well as those who wish to fashion unique and original interdisciplinary majors that reflect their individual experience, interests, and needs. These include students whose work and life experiences suggest the need for fresh ways of organizing existing courses into meaningful new majors, as well as innovative students who wish to bring together course work in several disciplines to focus on a thematic area or make unusual yet valid connections between areas that are rarely studied together. The IMP can also serve transfer students who wish to continue work started elsewhere in areas in which IUPUI has faculty expertise but no organized majors.
Unlike other majors which prescribe a fixed area of study, the individualized major provides a structure that allows such students, in consultation with faculty members, to design their own majors on various topics and fields of study. Each major course of study varies in accordance with the needs and interests of individual students. Students work closely with faculty advisors, and all individualized majors are overseen and approved by a faculty committee that ensures each student-designed major has intellectual integrity and rigor.
Admission Checklist
Review materials on IMP website, paying special attention to the program description.
Contact the administrative assistant via email impsla@iupui.edu for general program information.
Discuss your plans in greater detail with the Director of the Individualized Major Program who will give you a full description of the program and its requirements.
Conduct an audit of your academic record in relation to the School of Liberal Arts general education requirements with an advisor in the Office of Student Affairs.
Identify a member of the full-time faculty who is willing to serve as your faculty sponsor for the IMP. You may have more than one advisor. Please ask your faculty sponsor to contact the Director of IMP with any questions about the program.
Ask this faculty member to sign the Supervisor Agreement Form, who will return a copy to both you and the advisor and create a section of SLA-I 360.
Sign up as a prospective IMP major (Pre-Individualized Major) in the School of Liberal Arts Office of Student Affairs located in CA 401.
Register for I 360, a 1-hour variable topic course graded S/F. Your faculty sponsor will serve as the instructor for this course.
Develop a plan for your major with your faculty sponsor, including lists of courses and a timetable (use the form provided on the IMP website). Include a rationale of three or more pages that describes and justifies the major you have designed, with a discussion of how it suits your educational and professional needs better than any existing majors.
Submit the completed major plan and statement in final form to the Director of IMP by the semester deadline posted on the IMP website. The Director of IMP will submit this proposal to a faculty committee, which will meet with you and your faculty sponsor before granting final approval.
The Committee will meet to consider your proposal. When the proposal is approved, you will be officially admitted to the Individualized Major Program.
Change your major from Pre-IMP to IMP in the Office of Student Affairs located in CA 401.
From this point on you and your faculty sponsor will be responsible for your academic progress towards the BA degree with an Individualized Major. You must consult with your advisor to register for courses and keep the Director of IMP advised of your progress every semester. You should plan to take your capstone I 460 course in your last semester. You must submit a one-page proposal before the end of the previous semester for permission to register for this course. Contact Dr. Shepherd for more details.
You and your faculty sponsor will be responsible for selecting a topic for the senior capstone course, I 460, and for scheduling its defense in consultation with the Director of IMP.
