I never thought that I’d still be at Rochester in 2012. Honestly, I had no idea what I would be doing when I arrived at Rochester in the fall of 2006, let alone what my life would look like in 2012. I was totally undecided as an incoming student, a fact that led me to explore our campus’s very unique curriculum, and to decide just what area of study was right for me. At the time I thought of my course availability and selection as nearly infinite. Did I want to take a calculus course? Could I dive into the corners of our minds by taking a brain and cognitive science course? Should I try out political science? How about diving deep into the analysis of Tolstoy’s War and Peace? Over my time here I did all of those things as I worked to develop my own personalized curriculum thanks to the cluster system.
What I thought of at the time as a near-endless listing of courses and majors has only grown over the past six years. Since I’ve arrived on campus, Rochester has gained 10 new programs of study. 10 new majors in 6 years. 1.66(repeating) new majors a year (as a fraction that is 5/3 and that is the Golden Ratio!). It’s a fairly amazing rate of growth on campus. What I thought of as a once-endless listing of majors has only become longer, to now include:
- American Studies
- Archaeology, Technology & Historical Structures
- Bioethics
- Business
- Digital Media Studies
- Epidemiology
- Health, Behavior and Society
- Health Policy
- International Relations
- Optical Engineering
These new programs add to our already-long list of majors on campus. This doesn’t include any majors that students decide to create themselves. Plenty of my classmates created their own majors to fulfill their academic curiosity that weren’t served by an existing major on campus. So even if you don’t see the exact major you are leaning toward now, odds are you can design your program (or maybe we’ll just make it a new major).
Rochester really has proven to be a very important part of my life. I loved my time as a student here, and continue to love being on campus and working with current and prospective students as they discover what they are really passionate about through our curriculum. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting new blog posts that Rochester students have written about these new majors. Check back here for their take on the curriculum and many other stories.
As always, Meliora.