Interested in an Individual Major?

Your first year is for EXPLORATION.

• Working through our First-Year Info Sheet will help you think about your personal pathway.
• Taking a variety of classes will expose you to new possibilities and introduce you to more of St. Olaf’s expert faculty. See the Registrar’s First-Year Registration Guides, including the guide for future Individual Majors.
• Exploring the Archive of Individual Majors will give you a sense of the variety of possibilities and of the work involved.
• Meeting with Individual Major Program staff is a way to understand whether an Individual Major is the right way to achieve your goals.

Seriously considering an Individual Major?

Your sophomore year is for ENVISIONING.

• Working through our Sophomore Info Sheet will help you begin to articulate your vision.
• Reading through all of the steps outlined in the Individual Major Checklist will help you understand exactly what is in store for you when you take on the task of designing your own major.
• Meeting with Individual Major Program staff will be the way to know if your Individual Major idea is feasible, and if it is, this meeting will get the process started.
  • You will be invited to enroll in the Individual Major “Google Classroom,” where you will have easy access to all of our informational and instructional documents.
  • You will get support pulling together your Proposal, which is the first of the four major assignments and related to Writing in the Individual Major.
  • You will be assigned a Research & Instruction Librarian, who will be another resource along the Individual Major pathway.

Getting ready to propose an Individual Major?

Proposing an Individual Major takes a clear vision and a strong argument. The process (details here) includes…

• identification of the “Big Questions” that you want to answer with your major
• research into course offerings and other experiences on and off campus
• multiple conversations with experts on and off campus
• a written document that explains and makes the case for your major
• the support of a Faculty Advisor

When your Proposal is ready, you present and defend it at a Final Review Consultation, which takes place ideally in advance of the Major Declaration Ceremony (Spring of sophomore year) and certainly no later than the first semester of your junior year.

Once your Individual Major has been approved…

The next step is ACTIVATION.

• Like any student, you will be engaging actively with the courses and the experiences that make up your degree. As an Individual Major, you will also be ACTIVELY attentive and reflective about your intellectual and personal growth. Working through the Junior Info Sheet will help you do that.
• You will also be actively engaging with the cohort of other Individual Majors by attending a series of Cohort Meetings, designed to help you build community and learn about the other requirements of the Individual Major.
• Finally, since Individual Majors build to a Capstone Project, it’s important to have that and the Web Portfolio in mind at every stage.

Senior year…

This is when you pull everything together and get ready to LAUNCH.

• Your Capstone Project, which you will plan and the complete during a one-semester or two-semester independent study (IM391 and/or IM392), is the culmination of all of your work. Your project should draw on the learning and integrate knowledge and methodologies from the relevant disciplines, and make a meaningful connection across experiences
• Your Web Portfolio is a way to “capture” what you’ve learned and share it with audiences on and off campus.
• The Senior Info Sheet. will help you think about how to use the work of your major as a way to LAUNCH into your future.