IDP opens course options

As students are beginning to compile classes for their new
schedules, many are branching out to different departments to
utilize the wide array of courses offered to them.

Although there are a variety of majors and minors available to
UCLA students, many students do not like the restrictions of
departmental courses and instead opt for interdepartmental program
majors, better known to students as IDP majors.

The UCLA College currently offers 24 interdepartmental majors in
diverse areas across the campus. The IDP majors don’t just
include social science and humanities courses, but extend to
sciences as well.

For these students who have to take classes from more than one
department, registration can become a stressful time due to a
number of factors that make some required classes less
available.

For the interdepartmental aspect to work, “it requires
cooperation among various departments,” said Jeanine Moreno,
neuroscience IDP counselor.

Moreno said the neuroscience IDP major has less students than
most other majors on campus.

“The whole major is under 300 students,” she
said.

Moreno said one hardship with the department is that because the
faculty teaches voluntarily, sometimes there is a shortage of
classes, but she added there are advantages to voluntary
faculty.

It means “that they have a genuine interest in teaching
and in the students,” she said.

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the IDP programs,
many students are encouraged to double-major.

In fact, double-majoring has become more popular in the Asian
American studies department.

Over the past four to five years, it has become more popular for
students to double major instead of just minoring, said Stacey
Hirose, Asian American IDP adviser.

“They’ve discovered there are only a few more
courses they need to take to double (major),” Hirose
said.

Although a double major may be advantageous for some students,
others find it difficult because of the strict unit-cap enforced at
UCLA. To aid students in danger of hitting the unit maximum, many
IDP programs also offer minors in their subject area.

Soon, the Asian American studies department will change from an
IDP major into a regular departmental program, Hirose said, adding
that, “as we become a department, it will be more difficult
for them to finish (a double major.)”

Hirose said that the students who seem to have difficulty are
the ones straddling both North and South campuses.

Although completing majors in both science and social science or
humanities is possible, it becomes harder for these students to
stay within the unit limit. And when there isn’t enough room
under the cap, they end up minoring.

Hirose said majors with no relationship at all with the Asian
American studies IDP major, such as classics, can also make it more
difficult to have two majors.

Because IDP programs require students to take courses in a range
of departments on campus, sometimes students must take upper
division courses without completing the prerequisites that the
regular department students had taken.

Hirose said this makes keeping up with coursework more difficult
for these students than others.

“They might have to study harder or seek more
assistance,” she added.

Another unique aspect of the IDP programs is the
interdisciplinary nature of the professors with the course
load.

Unlike most majors, where a majority of the faculty are trained
in their specific discipline, the professors of IDP majors are
trained in many different fields.

Emily Renk, a fourth-year classical civilizations student, said
that she chose to take the interdepartmental course because
“it broadens (her) world views.”

As a classical civilizations student, Renk is required to take
11 upper division courses, seven of which are from areas outside of
the Classics department.

She said that she was interested in the IDP program because she
liked its originality and didn’t want to take the same core
classes she had already experienced.

“I wanted to broaden what I already knew, especially
having taken those types of courses in high school,” she
said. “I wanted to take courses in what I hadn’t been
able to learn.”

Renk plans to attend dental school after graduation, and she
says she didn’t find it difficult to take her major courses
and also take her prerequisite courses for dental school.

She added that she enjoyed having the ability to take both North
and South campus courses because it offered her a
“well-rounded education.”

Many believe that these programs not only offer a broader
education, but they also offer a support system for their students.
Along with counseling support and a strong committee backing,
students can find additional support in each other.

Moreno said the students in the neuroscience major can join an
undergraduate society for backing, though these groups are often
not run by the departments.