About
The Interdisciplinary Studies major offers students an opportunity to tailor their own multidisciplinary areas of concentration to pursue courses with greater freedom of choice than in the listed majors. A major that is truly interdisciplinary is one that represents an integration of traditional disciplines, a melding of fields that cannot be accomplished by the usual structure of a major/minor or a double major/minor.
An interdisciplinary major is not a fallback or a substitute for those who cannot decide on a major, nor is it necessarily a way of creating a major that at present does not exist at Tufts. Rather, it is a serious undertaking for the student who is committed to blending disciplines in a way that is demonstrably relevant to an identifiable area of intellectual inquiry.
Requiring a high degree of independent initiative and self-discipline, the Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Studies program involves a selection of courses from the social sciences, arts, humanities, natural sciences, quantitative and engineering areas, with at least two of these six areas being represented, plus a senior-year thesis project chosen to integrate the student’s program. The thesis topic should not be one that could be done within a regular departmental program, but instead represents a separate field of study with an identifiable methodology appropriate to the topic.
Candidates who are applying for an Interdisciplinary major should have a minimum GPA of 3.4. If accepted, students may not double count more than six credits from their Interdisciplinary Studies major towards another major or minor.