Uncommon Majors at CUA -

By Anthony Curioso

At CUA, there are many different majors of varying sizes throughout each academic school. Some majors have dozens of students come to CUA every year for them – the US News and World Report listing for CUA says that 28% of the CUA Class of 2023 majored in “Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services,” followed by 11% each who majored in “Social Sciences” and “Health Professions and Related Programs.”

Other majors, such as classical studies, archaeology, physics, and music education, have very few students; the major of music education will cease to exist after all the remaining students have graduated. There are also departments, such as musicology and modern languages, which have stopped offering all of their former undergraduate major programs, likely at least partly due to a lack of students who wanted to study those fields. However, the School of Arts and Sciences replaced the foreign language majors in the modern languages department with a new global studies major this year, giving students a new way to pursue studies in foreign languages. The closure of some majors has presented awkward situations, such as classes running with less than the minimum number of students needed for a course to run because these courses fill major requirements for those enrolled. Another awkward situation resulting from majors closing is that some students must take multiple classes earlier or later than they normally would, based on when the department offered specific courses within a rotating schedule. The professors for these courses also needed to modify how they taught their respective classes with fewer people, from altering assignment deadlines and presentation dates in the course schedules in class syllabi to multiple instances of professors needing to coordinate with the student(s) in their courses on when the course would meet.

Nicholas Michalczyk, a senior physics major, commented on his experience as a student in a small major.

“There are only six undergraduate physics majors in the entire University, so I’ve had some interesting situations such as classes with only two or three people in them and instances where we undergraduate students were hearing the same lectures as graduate students but graded differently for some assignments,” Michalczyk said. “On the one hand, though, being in a small major is good because you get more 1-on-1 time with your professors.”

For the small majors in which the University is still accepting students, whether these majors will grow in population remains to be seen.

Michalczyk commented on his advice for students who want to do less common majors at CUA.

“It might be more challenging to find help with your coursework sometimes if you’re in a less common major,” Michalczyk said. “However, my advice would be to take advantage of 1-on-1 time with your professors and reach out to the other students in your major who might be able to empathize with you or help you find a solution to what you’re struggling with.”