戴顿大学

Follow Your Own Path

Develop your own path to professional and scholarly growth. We offer individual interdisciplinary graduate programs designed by you in cooperation with an adviser and representatives from the selected programs. You must have an undergraduate degree with a general cumulative grade-point average of 2.8 or above on a 4.0 scale, and submit a formal written request for an individually designed interdisciplinary program to your faculty adviser and graduate committee.

As the largest academic unit at the University of Dayton, the College of Arts and Sciences offers more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. While we are able to provide a wide range of programming in the arts, the humanities, the sciences and the social sciences, our educational philosophy continues to focus on personal attention and close faculty-student interaction.

Program Details

The interdisciplinary program does not replace established graduate programs. Rather, it is a specific program drawn from several disciplines to meet your specific needs — frequently for job-related requirements.

The program you develop must produce interrelated applications of specific disciplines and skills at the graduate level. For instance, a clinical dietitian employed in a hospital may seek graduate-level expertise in counseling and education for patients with chemical dependencies and for teaching interns. Such a student finds that a Master of Science degree in the interdisciplinary program serves the special needs for a broader knowledge base encompassing physiology, communication and counseling. For example, in the humanities, a student may seek graduate-level expertise in historical preservation. A student may find that the interdisciplinary program serves his or her special needs in history, art and public administration.

Your degree will be either a Master of Arts or a Master of Science. Your program should involve several disciplines and be directed by one faculty member from each discipline. These faculty members constitute your advisory committee. The final program will be drawn up and approved by the advisory committee. Copies will be sent to the chairs of the departments involved.

The interdisciplinary program of study must be at least 30 semester hours: 15 may be divided between directed study and a thesis, but must be related to the interdisciplinary areas; six can be electives in more distantly related areas.