Colleges are big places--even Snow College--and students face many options when choosing a course of study, which has implications for classes, for transfer institutions, and for careers. Meta-majors are a way to help students make early decisions about their majors and to begin to work with faculty mentors.

Two Options and Additional Ones with Meta-Majors 

Meta-majors are designed to help students navigate between two common scenarios.

First, students entering Snow College in pursuit of an associate degree may choose the most broad course of study: general studies. This can lead to an associate degree, but a student earning this degree may miss out of prerequistes and lower-division classes needed for their eventual major.

Second, these same students may choose a specific major like Pre-Engineering, Philosophy, or Business, begin taking classes and then change their minds about a major. They may need to take additional classes for their new major.

Meta-majors offer another route. Of course, Snow College applauds and supports students who know they want to major in Natural Resources or Theater, and Snow offers the classes to make sure they are ready to seamlessly transfer to a bachelor's program. At the same time, Snow is a wonderful place to explore options while taking general education classes and making decisions on a major.

Meta-majors offer a middle approach. Every major available in an associate degree is grouped with similar majors and associated with a meta-major. For example, the Sociology, Social Work, and Psychology majors all connect to the Behavioral Science meta-major. Students who know they would like to major in something related to the Behavioral Sciences can choose that meta-major and begin taking classes in the general area. Once they make a decision about a major, they can declare that. Classes in the meta-major are designed to also count for the regular majors, eliminating the need to take extra classes.