Breadcrumb
Individualized Degree Plan
Chart your own course. The Individualized Degree Plan (Interdisciplinary Studies, B.A.) invites you to collaborate in the design of your major and earn a degree that aligns with your unique interests and goals.
An Interdisciplinary Studies degree is a jumping off point for a career in many industries and can serve as a foundation for you to thrive in emerging career fields, where various disciplines converge. Through this program you will develop knowledge and skills across multiple disciplines and learn how to apply integrative interdisciplinary analysis to real-world problems.
This flexible degree path may be completed in-person, hybrid, or based on your interests and course availability, may be completed online.
As a student in the Individualized Degree Program you will design a degree plan that incorporates courses in multiple disciplines.
In addition, a sequence of required core courses introduces you to interdisciplinary thinking and modes of inquiry, and facilitates integration of the multiple disciplinary perspectives and knowledges presented in your other coursework.
Info Sessions
If you have any questions or would like to set up a meeting to discuss the program and your plans, please email idp@humboldt.edu or join the IDP program director for an online meeting to ask questions and get program information.
Career Options
An Interdisciplinary Studies degree will prepare you for a range of educational and professional pathways, including graduate study and careers across the public and private sectors in which possessing cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills is an asset. You can tailor your coursework toward graduate programs and careers in interdisciplinary and emerging fields. In addition, you will acquire interdisciplinary habits of mind that can enable you to transition through different careers and take advantage of evolving employment opportunities.
The Individualized Degree Program aligns with current labor market trends and knowledge, skills, and abilities that employers value. The 2021 Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), How College Contributes to Workforce Success: Employer Survey on What Matters Most, reports a desire from employers for the college experience to balance breadth and depth of learning, producing versatile graduates who can adapt to problems as they arise. Employers emphasized the value of exposure to a wide variety of academic topics and disciplines and acquisition of digital communication, information literacy, and critical thinking skills. As highlighted in the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Resources for Interdisciplinary Careers, many careers are at the intersection of more than one discipline or area of study.
The following list includes some examples of interdisciplinary career fields, it is not meant to be all inclusive; many other interdisciplinary career fields exist. Some interdisciplinary careers require specific and/or further education.
- Law and Advocacy
- Community Planning and Development
- Medicine
- Healthcare Administration
- Applied and Public Health
- Environmental Policy
- Sustainability
- Renewable Energy
- Natural Resources Planning and Administration
- Teaching
- Education Administration
- Public Policy
- Public Administration and Governance
- Government Relations
- Scientific and Technical Communication
- Social Innovation
- Entrepreneurship
- Marketing and Management
- Human Resources
- Organizational Leadership
Customized
Earn a degree that aligns with your unique interests, and specific educational and career goals. The Individualized Degree Program (IDP) provides personalized support for you to identify, explore, and cultivate your individual intellectual and professional interests; develop essential career skills, abilities, and experience; integrate your academic work within and outside the classroom; and practice the reflection skills necessary to be a proficient lifelong learner.
Through the IDP, you can fuse more than one major field and forge a distinctive path that will help prepare you to navigate your career and civic life with an interdisciplinary perspective and diverse set of skills. Unlike traditional degree programs which require students to select one major or take on a double major, the IDP allows you to create your own major by identifying multiple areas of interest and combining them to create a unique degree program. In conjunction with your multidisciplinary coursework, the program's interdisciplinary core curriculum facilitates degree integration by helping you to synthesize your learning, develop interdisciplinarity, and explore career possibilities. Through the core courses you will also build valuable professional skills in digital communication, research and analysis, strategic planning, critical thinking, problem solving, and project management.
Flexible
The Individualized Degree Program provides a flexible guided pathway for you to earn your degree. You are able to integrate coursework from across multiple colleges and programs to help you prepare for 21st century careers. You can complete the program in person on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus, combine online and in-person courses for a hybrid educational experience, or depending on your interests and course availability, you may complete your degree online - meaning you can tailor it around your current professional and personal obligations. In addition, the IDP program aligns with all California community college associate degrees for transfer (ADTs), and allows you to transfer in coursework from other bachelor's degree programs, so that you can complete your degree efficiently.
Experiential
The IDP program provides you a variety of opportunities for hands-on learning. You have the option of including one or multiple internships in your degree plan. Through a dedicated internship course, you will be guided in finding and securing internship placements that align with your degree focus and career goals. You may also incorporate study abroad experience into your degree plan.
In your interdisciplinary core courses you will engage in a number of experiential learning projects, and during your senior year, you will complete an independent research or creative project as your capstone experience.