More and More Choose to Design Their Own Majors

Students of SNU's College of Liberal Studies (CLS) are allowed to choose any major among all 82 departments in undergraduate programs. They can also choose to have 'Student Designed Majors' and 'create' their own major by combining multiple fields of studies.

According to the data released by CLS office, more and more of the CLS students are pursuing"Student Designed Majors," rather than choosing one from existing majors. So far 10% of the total number of CLS students is now designing their own majors.

The range and number of chosen majors have increased, while the number of students choosing the ever-popular economics or business administration has declined.

During the 2012 spring semester major-selection process, a total of 162 students chose 196 majors, including double-majors. The results showed the number of students who have chosen student-designed majors to be 8 for the current round of selections, increasing the total number of students who have made the same decision since the introduction of student-designed majors in Spring 2010 to 31.

Considering that the total number of CLS students who have chosen their majors is 312, one out of ten students are planning and designing their own majors to pursue.

"Student Designed Majors" are creative majors that a student designs for him/herself by combining courses from diverse colleges and departments, and which have received the university's authorization. Out of the self-designed majors proposed by students during this round, the majority of majors were those unseen up until now, such as"Latin American Regional Studies,""The Study of Aging,""Peace and Reunification Studies,""Law and Communication Studies," and"Cultural Narrative Studies."

Professor SUH KyungHo, dean of CLS, explained that"This is evidence that students' interests are becoming increasingly diverse and thus more difficult for the university's existing majors to satisfy,"

The percentage of CLS students who choose to major in economics or business administration has also declined.

Until now, economics and business administration made up 43% of the major selections that students made. However, for the 2012 spring semester major selections, only 58 out of the 196 selections (29.59%) were made in favor of economics and business administration. This is the first time that the selection ratio fell below 30%.

In the meantime, although there was no difference in that most of the students chose majors from the College of Social Sciences, the number of majors that the students selected increased greatly to a total of 36. This is notable considering that the number of majors that the students selected in the last 4 semesters, respectively, was 17, 16, 28, and 20. Such results reflect the tendencies of students nowadays to seek diversity.

Hard to Rebel

Unlike the students, however, it was revealed that parents are still preferring economics, business administration, and other popular majors that are advantageous for passing the government exams over any other major.

"Every May and November, when it is time for the students to select their majors, 2 to 3 parents who are going through conflicts with their son or daughter visit my office and demand to know why their child wants to apply for a major that is sure to have him/her go hungry. They ask me if it was me that made their child want to study 'some weird major'," said Professor KIM YoungJi, a research professor of CLS."Some parents even say it would be better to attend a university in the rural parts of Korea if their child is not going to take government exams or study economics and business administration."

Dean Suh said that, in spite all the conflicts, he expect the number of students who are choosing to design their own majors is to increase continuously.

Written by KIM Eun Young, SNU English Editor, eykim09@gmail.com  ?
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com