A self-designed major gives you the ability to draw upon the strengths of several disciplines and departments to create the precise experiences you want as you pursue your career goals. We have nearly 100 self-designed majors and minors already available. But working with a team of teachers and scholars, you are free to create your own. Self-designed majors have gone on to pursue countless career paths – from advertising to biological psychology to the classics and more. The options are virtually limitless for you at Westminster College.
A self-designed major allows you to chart your own course. There’s no better example of that than Jessica Kuykendall, who leveraged her major in exercise science and health psychology to land a dream internship at Fulton State Hospital and the Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center.
To complete an individualized degree through the Self-Designed Major program, you will work with faculty members from two different academic departments that best represent the courses listed for your major. With the aid of the faculty committee, you will then develop a proposal for the major under the Self-Designed Major program.
The proposal should consist of a general description of and justification for the self-designed major, a list specific courses, and an outline of which semester each of the courses will be taken. Self-Designed Majors must contain a minimum of 32 credit hours and complete a capstone experience, such as a research project or internship.
“I appreciated the academic standards set by the office, which required me to put a lot of thought into my learning goals, to reflect on my successes, to occasionally revise my goals, and to present my work to my faculty sponsor and others.”
Covell Lindstrom ’21 Self-Designed Major at Westminster College
Our joint program with William Woods University (WWU) gives you even more options to create a self-designed major or minor. Working with a faculty advisor from each institution, you can select academic programs from both campuses. At least half of the courses must be taken at Westminster. No additional tuition is required; course fees must be paid directly to WWU.
Upon satisfactory completion of the work prescribed in your plan, you will be certified as having met the graduation requirement for a major.
All self-designed majors must complete a minimum of 32 credit hours in classes approved by the Faculty Committee. A capstone experience is also required.
At Westminster College, you also have the option to pursue a self-designed minor. As is the case with self-designed majors, you will collaborate with faculty members from two academic departments that align with the courses listed for your minor. You may also take advantage of our joint program with William Woods University and attend classes on both campuses.
If you designed a science or mathematics major of some sort there will be jobs available for you in the private sector at technology firms, business firms, the government, and more. Graduate school is always an option. With the research facilities and opportunities at Westminster you will be well-prepared for whatever field you wish to enter.
If you designed a major in communications, English, foreign languages, history, political sciences, or a unique combination of those areas, there will be jobs for you in advertising, public relations, business, consulting, teaching, and law to name just a few. Employers are always looking for people with great oral and written expression - skills you will attain during your education at Westminster.
In short, the sky is the limit. Westminster provides you all the resources it has to offer, enabling you to achieve your own unique successes in life.
Some students know exactly what they want to study and want to focus on a major that can train them for their dream job. Other students either have not fully decided what they want to do after college or have so many interests that they do not want to be limited to just one field of study. If you are one of these students, a Self-Design major is perfect for you. It affords you the opportunity tailor your own major based on your specific interests and career plans. It allows you to combine multiple disciplines and create an educational path that is designed just for you!
Designing your own major can be such a fun, creative, and rewarding process. However, we do not expect you to do it alone. Students work closely with our expert faculty in the student’s disciplines of interest to select courses, internships, and other educational experiences to create a rigorous and meaningful major.
Below are just some of the amazing interdisciplinary majors students have self-designed here at Westminster College. For a full list, please see the Self-Designed Majors and Minors Catalog: https://www.wcmo.edu/academics/programs/files/current_sdm_catalog.pdf
Absolutely! Student can self-design a minor that can complement their major field of study. Much like our Self-Design Major process, students can work with expert faculty to design their ideal minor.
