by Mr. Jay L.

Created on: March 06, 2007   Last Updated: August 30, 2010

When first starting out the community college level, the smartest thing to do is narrow options for your major to the top five areas of interest that most appeal to you; this will aid you in slogging through the seemingly endless lists of degrees and offered courses presented in the school catalog. Anyone can do this, right?

Wrong.

If you are anything like I was you have no clear definition of what you want to do with yourself, or even where your talents lay. After spinning my wheels uselessly, wasting my time taking classes for majors that I inevitably dropped, I decided to scrap the whole education plan of pursuing my interests; instead, I opened the college catalog and focused on the most comprehensive list of transfer requirements (in California this is the IGETC plan for the UC system - other states have similar listings).

Looking through the list, I eliminated the majority of my core classes (such as Freshman Composition, Algebra, and History/Political Science) within the first two semesters I was back in school. Doing so opened avenues to other classes for which these classes were prerequisites, and left many options to round out the number of units required for each transfer requirement section. I then abandoned all preconcieved notions of what was interesting to me or what seemed easy, and sampled a wide variety of classes - unknowingly pursuing what is commonly called a Interdisciplinary Study Course. It should be noted that many community colleges already have such plans outlined, or a councilor can help you determine what is best for you.

Theoretically, such a process is common sense, yet many students flounder and drop out because of the complexity of navigating college requirements. However, what nobody tells a student - even the ones who go into the system knowing what they want - is the secret I am about to tell you.

After you complete two or three semesters of the transfer plan, compare your transcript to the degree reqirements listed in your college catalog; you may find that, by taking an extra class here and there, you qualify for a variety of degrees. This is the true value of Interdisciplinary Studies and taking clustered classes (such as Geography and associated lab classes).

Don't believe it works? This is how I earned the majority of a Geography, English, and Liberal Arts degree while working on a degree in Computer Information Systems - all in two years. I only have a 200 level course in math and one computer class to complete before I have all of three of the four Associates degrees in my hand.

And here is another secret - all of these classes build on each other, and make you a more valuable employee; additionally, completeing several degrees early, though not transferable to a University all at once, keeps your options for later degrees and carreer changes open.

Learn more about this author, Mr. Jay L..
Click here to send this author comments or questions.