Majors

Combined Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree Programs

Regulations Concerning Majors

The University offers majors in the General Program through the schools and colleges indicated here. In addition, there currently exist unique departmental program majors in art and music that complement the regular University major options in both of these areas.

Most majors are available with an honors program option and several majors have combined bachelor’s/master’s degree programs. Approved faculty-initiated interdisciplinary majors are also included in the University’s curricular offerings. In addition, students may design their own interdisciplinary major in accordance with procedures established by the Interdisciplinary Studies Committee of the Undergraduate Academic Council.

Declaration of Major

Freshmen are generally admitted to the University and not to a particular department, college, or school. Students may declare their intended major when they have earned 24 graduation credits. For most majors, students need only complete a minimum of 24 graduation credits to declare a major in the school or college offering their major. Other majors, however, are restricted in the sense that students must be granted formal departmental of school approval or satisfy stated admissions criteria before being officially classified as that major. Students interested in declaring or changing their majors should inquire about the specifics at the Advisement Services Center, LI 36. Students are advised to declare a major by the time they have completed 56 credits. Failure to do so may jeopardize timely graduation and may have serious consequences for financial aid recipients. For further information regarding academic requirements for financial aid recipients, please visit https://www.albany.edu/financialaid/requirements.shtml. Student athletes must follow NCAA regulations concerning declaration of major.

Restricted Majors

Currently, admission to the following majors is restricted to those who meet admission criteria or who are selected as a result of an application process.

• Accounting
• Art (Departmental)
• Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Interdisciplinary Major)
• Bio-instrumentation (Interdisciplinary Major) 
• Business Administration
• Criminal Justice
• Digital Forensics
• Economics
• Financial Market Regulation (Interdisciplinary Major)
• Mathematics
• Music (Departmental)
• Nanoscale Engineering
• Nanoscale Science
• Psychology
• Public Health (Interdisciplinary Major)
• Rhetoric and Communication
• Social Welfare
• Sociology 

Selection to these restricted majors will differ depending on the degree of competition generated by other applicants and/or the completion of specific course requirements. For further details on the specific requirements and selection processes for each of these majors, please refer to the appropriate department or school description in this bulletin.

Multiple Majors

Students may elect more than one major, designating which is to be considered the “first major,” the “second major,” etc. The first major listed shall be from the department from which the student elects to receive advisement. The faculty of the school or college that offers the first major shall recommend the student for the appropriate degree. For example, a student completing the three majors biology, history, and philosophy would receive a B.S. degree if the first major were biology or a B.A. degree if the first major were history or philosophy. The first major must be established prior to the conferral date of the degree.

For each major, students must complete the major requirements as outlined in this bulletin. However, for a student with two or more majors, a specific course that is applicable to more than one of the majors may be applied toward each of the majors to which it is applicable. For example, a student with majors in accounting and economics may “double count” calculus and some economics courses, applying the credits toward both majors; if the student also had a third major in computer science, the calculus course A MAT 112 would “triple count,” applying to all three majors.

The above ability to apply a course to multiple majors is limited to the extent that all students must complete a minimum of 48 non-overlapping credits between majors and/or minors. Thus, a student with two 36 credit majors may apply up to 12 credits of coursework to each major (provided the coursework is approved to fulfill requirements in both programs). For example, a student with majors in criminal justice and sociology may apply A SOC 220 and A SOC 221 to both majors and up to 6 additional credits of coursework if they are courses that have been approved to apply to both majors.

Academic departments which offer more than one major can choose to develop a policy to prohibit students from declaring multiple majors within their programs. Any such policy proposal must be submitted to UAC for review and approval.

The Student-Initiated Interdisciplinary Major

In addition to existing majors offered by the University’s departments, schools and programs, a “Student-Initiated Interdisciplinary Major” option is available through the Undergraduate Academic Council’s Interdisciplinary Studies Committee. This option is designed to allow highly motivated students to meet special educational goals not available from the many existing majors at the University.

In the development of an interdisciplinary major the student and prospective faculty sponsors are asked to insure its intellectual merit by considering the following questions: Will the proposed major make it possible to undertake future disciplined inquiry such as that which is found in graduate or professional study? Will the plan promote mastery of the methodological tools relevant to the subject matter? Are there sufficient bodies of scholarly literature to allow for in-depth study in the major’s disciplines? Will the plan allow for gaining significant knowledge to read and evaluate professional and scholarly literature in the major’s disciplines?

The following information will assist in the formulation of a major.

Non-Duplication of Existing Majors: The proposed major must involve coursework in at least two different departments or schools. Moreover, the proposal must not duplicate or nearly duplicate opportunities available to University at Albany students through existing major programs.

Coherence: The proposed major must consist of a coherent, integrated program of studies. As with any other major, there must be some relationship between courses to be undertaken as well as sufficient depth of study in the area under consideration. It would also be helpful to know if models exist on other campuses for the proposed major. This information will assist the student in constructing a program of studies and the citation of an existing program will support the application for such a major.

Credits: The proposed major must consist of at least 36 but not more than 66 credits. If the major includes fewer than 54 credits, the student will be applying for a major only and will need a separate minor to meet minimum graduation requirements. If the major includes 54 or more credits, the student will be applying for a combined major and minor program and, therefore, no separate minor will be needed.

Upper Division Course Work: At least half of the credits in the proposed major must be at the 300 level or above.

Independent Study: The proposed major may include a maximum of 25^% of independent study coursework.

B.A. or B.S. Degree: The coursework in the interdisciplinary major will normally dictate the type of bachelor’s degree to be earned by the student.

Faculty Sponsorship: The proposal must have a primary and a secondary faculty sponsor. The primary sponsor must also agree to serve as the student’s major advisor for the proposed program. The two sponsors must be members of the teaching faculty and must come from two different academic units (departments or schools) offering courses included in the major.

Student who believe they might like to construct their own major should begin plans as soon as possible, but the application for the major cannot be filed until the student has completed at least 30 graduation credits.

Once a student has tentatively decided on the theme for the proposed study, the Undergraduate Bulletin should be reviewed to verify that no existing major encompasses that theme. The Bulletin and the Schedule of Classes should also be used to identify possible courses which might be included in the proposed major and, based on the courses they teach, possible faculty who might be willing to serve as sponsors for the major.

Before deciding on all the details of the proposed major, the student should speak with several faculty for the following reasons: (a) to determine the likelihood of finding two faculty sponsors for the program; (b) to solicit suggestions on how to further refine, limit, or expand the chosen theme; (c) to solicit further suggestions of individual courses or sequences of courses which might be included in the major; and (d) to determine whether or not the student’s goals in creating the major are likely to be met by the combination of courses chosen.

Further information and application procedures and forms may be obtained by contacting the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, LC 30 (518-442-3950).