Personalized degrees by design gaining interest

You can get a hamburger the way you like it, why not an education?

Colleges and universities are letting students design degrees specifically to their individual tastes.

Schools in Colorado are offering an educational salad bar for students. The University of Colorado at Boulder, Metropolitan State College of Denver and Regis University are among them.

CU offers what it calls the Individually Structured Major (ISM).

?About a dozen people are pursuing individualized majors in CU’s College of Arts and Sciences now,? said Paul Beale, a physics professor and individually structured major adviser at CU.

Beale said some of the recent ISMs at CU include social change, cybercriminology, traditional and nontraditional women’s leadership principles, Middle Eastern studies, peace education, community-based social change and European studies.

Beale said a student in the College of Arts and Sciences may propose an ISM for a bachelor’s degree if no existing major satisfies his or her academic goals. He said ISMs are normally proposed during the sophomore year.

But ISM isn’t a route for an easy degree. Students with an ISM must meet all minimum major requirements. A three-member ISM faculty committee and the ISM faculty adviser must approve the degree. Students also are required to complete a senior thesis for a maximum of six hours of credit.

Beale said ISMs usually require 40 to50 hours or more of required courses from several different departments.

Students with an ISM have to describe the academic goals of the major and provide a list of all required courses in the major and courses should be selected from approved lists of courses.

Lee Ann Fleming with the public affairs department at Regis University in Denver agreed with Beale, saying that customized degrees are more work for students.

?They (Regis students) have to work with their faculty advisers to consider all core classes and electives, determine the necessary cross-discipline work, decide the amount of time it will all take, and write up a degree program that must be accepted by the adviser, the dean and department chairs,? Fleming said.

Metropolitan State College of Denver has what it calls an Individualized Degree Program (IDP). Students can draw from courses across the college and work with an adviser and a faculty member to map specific educational goals, said Tom Imiolczyk, academic adviser at Metro State.

Imiolczyk, who has written a book called ?How to Choose the Right Major in College,” included a section in that book that deals specifically with IDP.

School officials at Metro have said that an IDP can help students become ?a more confident and capable self-directed, lifelong learner.? That they will be able to ?understand, synthesize, and apply perspectives and information from diverse fields of study.?

Officials say the IDP allows the college to ?respond quickly to changing needs in the community and workplace.? And they say it helps the school identify new programs of study.

Regis calls its customizable education the Individualized Degree Program (IDP) and offers it to both graduate and undergraduates.

But Marie Friedemann, dean of Undergraduate Studies for the School for Professional Studies at Regis, said customized degrees are not as popular as one might believe.

?In the ’70s, designing one’s own degree was an attractive option,? Friedman said. ?But students of today (particularly adult students) lack the time that is often required to design a course or a degree plan.?

Fleming said IDPs are more common for graduate students at Regis.

?In fact, our master’s in liberal studies actually requires the student to design their own program, because it’s usually a combination of subjects like history, English, communications, computer science, Spanish, psychology, art, music, etc.,? she said. ?The process is rigorous, and the student must justify the courses they pick as fulfilling a certain need in their degree.?

?We have several art therapy folks, and we have some who have put foreign language majors together with business,? Fleming said. Tips for planning a degree Here are few tips offered by Metropolitan State College of Denver that may help you prepare an individualized degree.

* Consult the curricula of several colleges and universities for ideas on developing a degree plan.

* If graduate school is in your future, determine if there are entry requirements that should be included with your degree.

* If your degree plan is related to your career goals, find out if you need more information about career options related to your field of study, and requirements for success in that career.

* Determine if an internship in your field of study would be useful. Internships can often be arranged through an academic department.

* Decide what research or problem-solving skills are important to the field of study.

* Find out if courses are included in your program that addresses the historical or social context of your field of study.

* Learn what technological or computing skills are needed in your field.

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