Alternative Major
Westmont College offers 26 officially approved departmental and interdepartmental majors. Students may also design their own majors and submit them for approval. These programs, called alternative majors, pursue courses of study that are challenging, fulfilling, and excellent preparation for careers and graduate studies.
In constructing and seeking approval for an alternative major, students must follow these guidelines:
1. Secure a faculty sponsor who will enthusiastically support the proposed major and present it to the Academic Senate Review Committee for approval. Students needing assistance in securing a faculty sponsor will receive it from the Office of the Provost.
2. Submit a written proposal through the faculty member and the registrar to the Academic Senate. The proposal should describe the coherence, breadth, and depth of the alternative major. Students must explain how the courses fit together logically, how they cover the essential components of the field of study, and how they provide a mastery of a body of material comparable in scope to other majors. Faculty sponsors will assist students, and the Review Committee of the Academic Senate will provide further refinement, if necessary.
3. Explain carefully how the alternative major will enhance personal goals or objectives, and how these are consistent with the central aims and objectives of Westmont.
4. Major courses should be available at Westmont, either as classes or tutorials under qualified Westmont faculty. This does not exclude those courses at other institutions that the Review Committee specifically approves.
5. Students in alternative majors must abide by the limitation on tutorial units listed in the catalog.
6. Students may include general honors courses and major honors in alternative majors if the appropriate committees approve them.
7. Total units for the major, the distribution of units between lower and upper division, and limits on transfer units should be within the normal pattern of other majors.
8. Students may not appeal to precedent. Each application is unique and individual.