Tuesday, October 27, 1998
Your major’s what?
EDUCATION: Students may not give smaller majors a second
thought, which is too bad, because those in the majors say they
offer more opportunities for learning
By H. Jayne Ahn
Daily Bruin Contributor
Annie Petrossian never paid much attention to smaller,
less-publicized majors when deciding her major.
"Aside from the fact that they often seem impractical, I thought
it would be hard to find a job with a major like women’s studies,"
the third-year psychology student said.
Senior Thai Tran changed his major from business economics to
political science. He said the popularity of these majors played a
part in his decision and didn’t even consider studying in a smaller
major.
"A lot of students have just never heard of our major,"said
Sparing Verity, student-affairs officer in the earth and space
sciences department.
"Many of our students are ones who, for instance, took general
education courses in the field and got excited by them," she
added.
The general belief among students that smaller majors are
limited in their scope and perspectives is often misled.
Often, such majors are interdisciplinary and have more holistic
approaches than their larger counterparts.
For example, women’s studies is a multidisciplinary field that
draws from the humanities, social sciences, and health
sciences.
Similarly, neuroscience is an interdepartmental program whose
material draws from chemistry, biology and psychology.
"My majors have taught me how to integrate all the information
from different classes, to formulate hypotheses, and to test ideas
about understanding the way living systems works," said Shamsha
Velani, a fourth-year neuroscience and microbiology student.
One advantage of studying in a smaller major is close
interaction between professors and fellow students. Through
departmental networking, students have more opportunities to
partake in fieldwork and research outside the classrooms.
"Through the small classes, we get to know the students and
interact with them quite well," said Wayne Dollase, professor and
undergraduate counselor in the geology department.
"That kind of environment encourages students to get closer to
what the faculties are doing," he added.
About half of the students in the earth and space sciences
department become involved in some kind of research with the
faculty.
"One nice thing about a small major at a place like UCLA is that
you have all the advantages of a large university, yet you have a
belonging place where people know who you are," Verity said.
Here’s a short description of a few majors many students might
be unfamiliar with.
Cybernetics
UCLA is the only school in the nation that offers cybernetics as
an undergraduate program, which currently has 35 students enrolled.
The curriculum is more developed in Europe.
The term cybernetics was first coined by the mathematician and
engineer Norbert Weiner in the late 1940s. In a nutshell, it is the
study of control and communication processes in living beings and
or machines.
Basic core courses in engineering, systems and signals,
communication and controls, high level statistics and probability
theory, and modeling classes make up the curriculum for this
program.
In addition, students have to integrate this multidisciplinary
study with their own interests in fields of life sciences,
behavioral sciences, or engineering.
"Research is not conducted in a narrow way and these fields are
interdisciplinary," said Beth Rubin, advisor for the program.
"This is a way, at the undergraduate level, of bringing students
into interdisciplinary curriculum early on so they can appreciate
or understand how they are integrated,"she added.
Geology and Earth and Space Sciences
Geology is a study of structure, composition and processes that
happen to the earth. It incorporates the basic sciences of
mathematics, chemistry and physics to the study of physical
environment.
It has an enormous application for people’s daily lives: the
building of houses and infrastructural facilities such as roads,
reservoirs, dams and bridges,the study of natural disasters such as
earthquakes and volcano eruptions, and the production of petroleum
and mineral resources.
Today, the environmental and ecological aspects of the field are
also getting much attention.
"Recently, we’ve had a number of our students hired by companies
that handle remediation of ecological problems such as oil spills
and contamination of the groundwater or soil," Dollase said.
Additionally a common theme or change that is occurring at a
number of universities is integrating environmental studies and
geology, as many students opt to pursue degrees in both
subjects.
Study of Religion
Scott Bartchy, chair of the religion studies program, explained
how the major came into existence.
"Students put together what used to be called a liberal arts
education in a sense of really having a broad exposure to a variety
of cultures, approaches, methodologies, disciplines, and
literature," he said.
"Some people became aware that the deepest questions that they
ask are not going to answered out of the natural sciences," he
said.
"Religion is like the gas and motor of many people’s lives,"
Bartchy said. "It is where their values and sense of identities
come from," he added.
In addition, it has grown as an academic discipline over the
years.
"Some learn their own tradition. Some are on a personal quest to
come close to finding the truth. Others are motivated to try to
understand why other people behave the way they do," Bartchy
said.
One advantage of studying religion at on this campus is its
diversity of religions and ethnicities.
"With over 600 self-identified religious groups, Los Angeles has
become the most religiously diverse city in the history of the
planet," Bartchy said.
Musicology
Whereas music majors focus on classically-oriented study of
music in practice and theory, the musicology program provides a
broad understanding of history and literature of music.
It is another program that is not usually offered to
undergraduates at the university level.
"The focus is on studying music in context, which means
embracing history, arts, literature and society," said Raymond
Knapp, the undergraduate advisor.
The program does not require extensive musical background for
the entering students. but demands an area of concentration and or
a specialized field within the concentration area.
For example, a student can take musicology and ethnomusicology
courses in conjunction with an area of concentration in arts and a
specialized field in American Indian Studies.
For some students, it provides foundation that enables them to
pursue careers in teaching and research.
However, many students also go into careers in the music
industry, ranging from records companies, organizing concerts, or
music broadcasting.
Brita Milliard, a 1996 alumna, was asked by a publishing company
to revise a documentary on Mozart.
Titled, "Mozart: Die Dokumente seines Lebens (The Document of
his Life)," the book was printed in Germany in 1997 and has since
then been translated into a number of European languages.
"Studying musicology completely changed the way I hear music. I
can approach it from the composer’s and performer’s point of view
as well as listener’s," Milliard said.
Individual Major
If a student can’t find a major that matches his or her field of
interests, an individual major may be the perfect option.
Students who wish to declare an individual major, which attracts
about 10 people every year, have to provide a statement of purpose
of the major and its relation to his or her goals.
In addition, they must submit a sponsorship and a proposal from
two faculty advisors, indicating that there has been serious
faculty consultation in devising the program.
Toi Turner, the advisor for the program, said that the student
needs to be "willing to do a lot of work and research. Strong
writing skills are especially helpful, too."
Turner also mentioned that the interest or focus of the student
has to be unique enough that it is not accessible in any of the
existing departments.
So, for those students who have yet declare a major or others
who are not experiencing complete satisfaction in their current
majors, there are plenty of options out there.
It’s just a matter of finding and seeking them out.
Comments, feedback, problems?
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