Interdisciplinary Studies provides students with the opportunity to construct, with intensive consultation and advice, a 36-credit interdisciplinary ''major equivalent'' that is not restricted to conventional departmental or unit boundaries. While the program encourages the creation of highly individualized degrees, it serves to accommodate students in a variety of fields that lack an undergraduate major and are interdisciplinary by their very nature. These include, among others: Aquaculture, Criminology, Cognitive Science, Environmental Studies, International Studies, Linguistics, Sustainability Studies, Translation & Interpretation, Health Studies and other Pre-Professional programs.To demonstrate knowledge in the chosen area of their interdisciplinary major.To demonstrate the capacity to think across disciplines. (We encourage students to be problem-focused, rather than discipline-oriented, and to recognize that information pertinent to problem-solution is not discipline-bound.)To communicate effectively, both orally and in writing. (The writing of a narrative, which justifies the array of courses in the program, is the first step in developing this capacity.)To demonstrate critical thinking, encouraged, perhaps uniquely, not only by the effort to construct individualized BA programs, but by pressing students to expand the context and forms of inquiry.To demonstrate ''learning to learn'' skills or ‘problem-solving'' skills, which begins with the construction of the specifics of the major, requires initiative in determining what needs to be investigated and how it is to be investigated.