College Academic Services Building
(213) 740-2961
FAX: (213) 740-4839
Email: fliegel@usc.edu
www.usc.edu/idm

Faculty Director: Terry Lee Seip, Ph.D.

Director: Richard Fliegel, Ph.D.

The interdisciplinary major allows students to create an individual, original major. It is a flexible option available when a combination of existing majors and academic minors does not adequately fulfill a student’s educational goals. With close advisement, students can build their own programs of study.

The interdisciplinary major is an intensive research program for students with a focused interest in a topic which requires study from more than one disciplinary perspective. Interdisciplinary majors are usually self-motivated students with good writing skills and an intellectual passion for a particular area of inquiry. Course work is selected to lead to a thesis project integrating the areas of research comprising the interdisciplinary major.

Admission to the interdisciplinary major is by application. Applications, which may be obtained from the program office, are considered by a special admissions committee. Interested students must have a GPA of 3.0 (A = 4.0) or above; those with less than a 3.3 are the exception. No one is usually admitted after the end of the first semester of the junior year.

Students in the program must meet the general education requirements of the college. When admitted, students establish an academic “contract,” which outlines each semester’s course of study through graduation. The contract includes a minimum of nine (four unit) upper division courses, distributed in at least two fields. The primary focus of the major should be in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. These areas of concentration must then be combined in a senior thesis or project, written under the guidance of a faculty committee.

Course prerequisites cannot be waived; admission to courses restricted to majors is subject to availability and direct negotiations; admission to departments and/or schools which have their own admission requirements must be processed separately.