Individualized Major Program

Major Related
Resources

Individualized Major Program
Ballantine Hall 129

Career Related
Resources

Career Resource
Library
625 North Jordan Avenue
Phone: 855-0576
Career Development Center
Arts and Sciences
Career Services
625 North Jordan Avenue
Phone: 855-0576

Description of Major

The Individualized Major Program is a College of Arts and Sciences, Bachelor of Arts program that enables students, working closely with their faculty sponsors, to create interdisciplinary majors tailored to their own particular interests and goals. IMP majors normally combine regular courses from several departments with independent, tutorial work and/or internships devised and carried out in collaboration with the students' faculty sponsors.

Each applicant for admission, accompanied by his or her faculty sponsors, is interviewed by a three member subcommittee of the IMP faculty committee. This committee considers whether the proposed course of study is viable, coherent, and suits the applicant�s goals. The committee also considers whether the applicant seems qualified to carry out the proposed work. If the student is admitted to the IMP, the same committee members will be consulted about any subsequent significant changes in the student�s program. Whenever possible, they�ll also serve on the student�s senior review committee. Direct Admit students use their first year at IUB to explore the application process and procedures. Direct Admit students find the creative aspect of the IMP very attractive.

Tutorials: One of the most attractive features of the IMP, students have the opportunity to include up to fifteen credit hours of tutorial work in the major. Tutorials may be one-on-one courses on campus, where the student works closely with a faculty member on independent reading, learning special skills, or supervised research. In a typical pattern, nearly one quarter of the total credit hours for graduation will come from tutorials, the rest being in regular classroom courses. The student is responsible for arranging any tutorial he or she chooses to take. These may be one-on-one courses on campus, where the student works closely with a faculty member on independent reading, learning special skills, or supervised research. Or they may involve off-campus activities, such as fieldwork and internships. Students have earned tutorial credit for such projects as anthropology fieldwork on a Navaho reservation, an internship with a member of Congress, collecting folk songs in Ireland, excavating dinosaur bones, researching the cooperative political movement in Italy, and studying language and dance in Bali.

Final Project: A final project is normally the culmination of the IMP student�s independent learning path. It may take one of a large variety of possible forms: a scholarly paper or an analysis of field research; a performance, film, exhibition, or multimedia presentation; or an internship central to the student�s program. Whatever form it takes, the project helps to show how he student has fulfilled the educational goals set out in the student�s program of study.

Skills & Knowledge Developed in this Field of Study

Examples of majors that have been carried out under the auspices of the Individualized Major Program include fashion design, musical theatre, animal behavior, environment/human interactions, human sexuality, medical illustration, arts administration, film/video production, community education, paleobiology, peace studies, civil and human rights, screen writing, Latin American culture, dispute resolution, multi-media studies, public relations, art therapy, underwater archeology and many others.

Minors and Second Majors that Expand Career Options with this Major

With careful planning, it is possible to complete 1)two or more majors, including the IMP, or 2)one or more majors, including the IMP plus one or more minors or certificates.

Career Options

Careers Specific to the Bachelor's Degree

IMP graduates have had very good success in applying to professional and graduate schools. Good IMP students often have an advantage over other good students because the very nature of their degree conveys independent thinking.

Other Career Possibilities with a Bachelor's Degree

The IMP attracts highly motivated, independent students with intellectual and creative interests that cannot be served within a single department. Such students often fashion their own careers.

For example: Will Shortz is the crossword puzzle editor for the New York Times puzzlemaster for NPR's Weekend Edition. Here is how he describes his IMP experience at IU: "By the end of my junior year I had finished my economics degree and had the idea of majoring in crossword puzzles.... When I came out of the meeting with the program director, I absolutely knew this was what I wanted to do." And he did it, creating an IMP major in Enigmatology (the science of games), devoting his final project to the history of word puzzles and going on from there to become the country's premier puzzlemaster.

Careers that Normally Require a Graduate Degree

Some careers, such as art or dance therapy or arts administration normally require a professional degree for advancement in the field. Students majoring in such fields in the IMP need to undertake further training. The IMP is a good place to prepare for professional schools.

Employment Opportunities

Job Outlook

IMP students do well on the job market because their individualized profiles make them stand out from other applicants.

Salary Information

Varies by individualized field. See resources such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook at the IU Career Resource Library

Potential Career Growth

Varies by career field. See resources such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook at the IU Career Resource Library.

Placement Statistics for IU Graduates with this Major

Not Available.

High School Preparation

Admissions standards for Indiana University.

Special Opportunities

In order to help with expenses incurred in completing the final project, each student is eligible for a modest grant from the IMP. Students who have a GPA of 3.3 may also apply for grants from the Honors Division. Special Facilities: The campus is a good place for independent study. IU Bloomington�s Main Library is one of the 15 largest university libraries in the United States. It has huge computerized databases, nearly 8 million books, and 13 million other items, and it�s supplemented by 33 other campus libraries, including seven independent special collections. IUB also has a cyclotron, two observatories, advanced computer resources with round-the-clock access, multimedia broadcasting and journalism facilities, excellent art studios and printmaking shops, advanced technology for exploring musical and literary texts, nationally known museums for art and anthropology, and extensive labs for sciences from archaeology to zoology. The campus has plenty of places to perform (and equipment to perform with), as well as dozens of performing groups. One of the most attractive features of the IMP is the opportunity to take up to fifteen credit hours of one-on-one tutorial work with individual faculty members.

Noted Alumni

The best known is Will Shortz, who graduated in 1974 with a degree in enigmatology, or the study of puzzles. He�s now editor of the New York Times Crossword Puzzle and was the youngest person ever to achieve this position.