General Studies?

[simpleSimon]

Can someone explain this major to me?  Why do some colleges and universities still offer it?  While it might make sense at the Associate Degree level my impulse is to see it eliminated at the Bachelor's Degree level.  To be sure, there is value in wide ranging or even random courses in different fields, but it is not clear to me that they should lead to a bachelor's degree.  Random courses seem more suitable for independent study or continuing education.  It is difficult for me to imagine any potential employer being impressed by this major.  What is the case for a Bachelor's Degree in General Studies and why would anyone pursue this at an expensive (private) school as opposed to courses at a local community college?

[marshwiggle]

In a university I know of, it was created in the '60's to appeal to the flower children. I had a roommate who got one of those degrees; he never had to write an exam. He wound up as a transit driver. I knew someone else who got one of those degrees and wound up selling real estate.

So, from what I've seen, not the path to CEO of a major corporation as an independent, outside-the-box thinker.

[ciao_yall]

Can someone explain this major to me?  Why do some colleges and universities still offer it?  While it might make sense at the Associate Degree level my impulse is to see it eliminated at the Bachelor's Degree level.  To be sure, there is value in wide ranging or even random courses in different fields, but it is not clear to me that they should lead to a bachelor's degree.  Random courses seem more suitable for independent study or continuing education.  It is difficult for me to imagine any potential employer being impressed by this major.  What is the case for a Bachelor's Degree in General Studies and why would anyone pursue this at an expensive (private) school as opposed to courses at a local community college?

That was my dream major. I wanted to take every single survey-level class at the college and walk out with a Bachelor's in General Brilliance.

They said no.

[clean]

My uncle was a general studies major. He was a brilliant man, perhaps one of the smartest people I have ever known. He was well above the 'traditional college age' when he started the degree program. I dont remember exactly the reason for his starting it.  It was either because it made him more promotable, or simply because he never finished his degree because of family responsibilities and he wanted a college degree.  Perhaps it was because he was an avid reader and this was something more to challenge or direct his intellect. 

[mythbuster]

We use it here for students who can't quite pass all the courses related to an actual subject based major. For example, in Biology the course that is the huge hurdle is Genetics. If students fail Genetics twice, they are removed from the major. Many of those end up with a General studies degree, aka an almost a Bio major degree. It's a consolation prize.

[Parasaurolophus]

We don't have it here. In fact, we offer relatively few majors here at all.

Because of that, it would make sense to me for us to offer it, or "liberal studies", or something of the sort. We don't have the upper-level demand to sustain majors in most of our arts, humanities, and science disciplines, but we could accommodate combinations relatively easily. Not having degrees really hurts our ability to recruit domestic students; mostly, they start here and transfer to a bigger and better university after a few years. (Which is what they did when we were a community college; the transition hasn't been gentle on the university.) It also hurts each department's ability to grow; we're pretty much all stuck in service limbo.

[wwwdotcom]

General studies is also used for NCAA athletes to help they meet the APR requirements.  At the three universities where I've been a faculty member, all three schools classified each athlete as a general studies (or some equivalent like 'interdisciplinary studies').  Some were only listed as GS major, while others were listed as double majoring in GS and whatever their real major was.  Listing them as GS helps in APR reporting as they can count nearly any course as successfully progressing towards graduation. I was only able to attend college because of an athletic scholarship, so I am not anti-NCAA but I find this practice unethical and ridiculous.

[present_mirth]

Our "general studies" major is currently being phased out and replaced by the equally nebulous "professional studies." In both cases, it seems to be mostly aimed at students who have been bouncing around for several years and have acquired a collection of credits that doesn't add up to a degree in a real academic discipline, as kind of a last-ditch attempt to get them up and out. In other words, not the sort of major students choose to pursue, but one they eventually fall into for lack of better options. I imagine this could be the case even at an expensive private school; wealth does not inoculate against fecklessness.

We also have "interdisciplinary studies," which looks sort of similar on paper, but serves a polar-opposite student population -- the ones who are legitimately passionate about multiple academic disciplines and / or some field of endeavor we don't officially have a major in (like, say, religious studies), and are willing to put in the work of custom-designing their own degree program.

[marshwiggle]

Our "general studies" major is currently being phased out and replaced by the equally nebulous "professional studies." In both cases, it seems to be mostly aimed at students who have been bouncing around for several years and have acquired a collection of credits that doesn't add up to a degree in a real academic discipline, as kind of a last-ditch attempt to get them up and out. In other words, not the sort of major students choose to pursue, but one they eventually fall into for lack of better options. I imagine this could be the case even at an expensive private school; wealth does not inoculate against fecklessness.

We also have "interdisciplinary studies," which looks sort of similar on paper, but serves a polar-opposite student population -- the ones who are legitimately passionate about multiple academic disciplines and / or some field of endeavor we don't officially have a major in (like, say, religious studies), and are willing to put in the work of custom-designing their own degree program.

Do they need to get some sort of supervisory approval for the choices they've made? Or is it just the total number of credits that matters?

[Hegemony]

We have a General Studies major, which in fact I run.  It caters to two separate groups. The first is students who really want a self-designed interdisciplinary major, and are frustrated by all the requirements in narrower majors which restrict them from taking a wide array of courses.  For instance, we have students who are interested in Environmental Studies, but who don't want to be restricted by the very science-oriented focus of our formal Environmental Studies major.  They also want to study law and policy as relating to Environmental Studies, and courses from Geography, and even things like Art History for the history of the portrayal of landscapes.  We have a number of students who want to integrate courses in Music into their major, for instance in studying the '60s.  So they put together our music courses on the '60s and protest music with Poli Sci courses and History courses.  And so on.

The second group are people who have a checkered college career and are transferring in five years' worth of courses without any substantial number oriented toward a particular major. They can declare a major in General Studies and get out without having to accumulate another ton of debt.

Since I've headed the program, I ask people I meet in high positions (heads of law schools, heads of government councils, heads of theatres, etc.) what they majored in.  A surprising number say "General Studies."  I think it appeals to very ambitious students who just can't settle on one focus.

[secundem_artem]

Turns out you can get a General Studies degree and become governor of Iowa.

I've always figured that it mostly served people taking a course here and there, now and then, and eventually putting enough credits together to get a degree.

[mamselle]

As I mentioned somewhere else, I did Independent Studies throughout my scholastic career, such as it was, such as it may become.

As an undergrad, I had two years of dance majors' classes (modern and ballet, plus performance and costuming labs); 4 art or architecture history courses; 1 in early church history, 1 in the Bible as literature, 1 in medieval and renaissance studies, and 1 in English drama; 4 in music theory, one music conducting course, one in Greek Orthodox music history and one in electronic music; 1 in theater history, 1 acting and voice, 1 directing, 1 costume and makeup, 1 stage/scene design, and two performance credits plus several costume lab credits. Oh, and the required math/sciences: palentology, biology, and 2 quarters of calculus.

This was written up and approved by a committee that was fairly rigorous (I hadn't known I could take art history and they required it; I was very happy they did!); it was a new program that had just been instituted the year (1973) I started.

Not bragging (well, maybe...a tiny bit?) but, I made Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with honors in the liberal arts, so it wasn't a loose  program at all.

Others did pre-theology (it was a state school, so you couldn't actually major in religion but there were enough history, sociology, literature, and philosophy courses to cobble something respectable together); criminal justice hadn't been a major before but the number of people who put that together led to its separate formation a couple years later, etc.

But it wasn't called "general studies," it was a "PSP," Personalized Study Program.

I remain grateful that it was possible to do it that way; I'm still building on the things I studied there and then.

M.

[present_mirth]

Our "general studies" major is currently being phased out and replaced by the equally nebulous "professional studies." In both cases, it seems to be mostly aimed at students who have been bouncing around for several years and have acquired a collection of credits that doesn't add up to a degree in a real academic discipline, as kind of a last-ditch attempt to get them up and out. In other words, not the sort of major students choose to pursue, but one they eventually fall into for lack of better options. I imagine this could be the case even at an expensive private school; wealth does not inoculate against fecklessness.

We also have "interdisciplinary studies," which looks sort of similar on paper, but serves a polar-opposite student population -- the ones who are legitimately passionate about multiple academic disciplines and / or some field of endeavor we don't officially have a major in (like, say, religious studies), and are willing to put in the work of custom-designing their own degree program.

Do they need to get some sort of supervisory approval for the choices they've made? Or is it just the total number of credits that matters?

For the Interdisciplinary Studies degree, the student draws up a proposal that has to be approved by a committee of faculty. I'm a little vague on how the Professional Studies degree works; I think there is some sort of capstone course everybody has to take, although it seems to be more along the lines of "how to write a resume and act halfway professional at an interview" than anything really rigorous.

[the_geneticist]

My undergrad university had a "general studies" major.  It was used as both a way to grant a degree to folks who had almost-but-not-quite finished all the requirements for a particular major and for folks who wanted to design a custom plan of study.  If I remember, it had to be approved by a committee and include a senior capstone.  I do remember that the university had a rule that once you had a certain number of credit hours (over 200? 250?  it was a shockingly high number) that you HAD to choose a degree and graduate.  I'm guessing there is a story behind that particular rule.

[Vkw10]

My university has a general studies major. About two-thirds of the students are "returning adults" who have good full-time jobs and some college credits. Most returning adults develop a program that closely parallels an existing major, but use the GS major to avoid strict compliance with that major's requirements. For example, we have a major that requires a four week international experience, which returning adults with full time jobs avoid by declaring a GS major.  Most are good students, interested and willing to work, but not willing or able to spend a month abroad.

The rest tend to be students who are steered to GS because they're floundering, not meeting prerequisites for upper level courses in their original majors or switching majors several times. They have to identify a concentration, which can be as few as four upper division courses from one department, and earn a certain number of upper division credits (about 60). A few are good students, pursuing GS degrees because they really want to design their own majors, but most do minimum work needed to pass.