What Can I Do With An Interdisciplinary Studies Degree?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degrees allow stu­dents to com­bine sub­jects from dif­fer­ent fields, giv­ing them con­trol over their edu­ca­tion to suit their inter­ests and career goals.
• Grad­u­ates can enter a wide range of fields, such as mar­ket­ing, jour­nal­ism, edu­ca­tion, or pub­lic rela­tions, because the skills they gain are versatile.
• Stu­dents work close­ly with advi­sors to craft a degree that reflects their per­son­al inter­ests and pro­fes­sion­al ambitions.

The pur­pose of an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degree is to open the pos­si­bil­i­ties of what you can do with your degree, espe­cial­ly in com­par­i­son to a more tra­di­tion­al degree. So let’s say you were to earn your Bachelor’s degree in edu­ca­tion. You’d like­ly con­tin­ue on to grad­u­ate school, or start work­ing in the edu­ca­tion field. While there are many jobs with­in edu­ca­tion, your degree has put your career and/or edu­ca­tion on a cer­tain track. That doesn’t mean you’re trapped with­in that track, but it is more con­fin­ing than an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degree. Gen­er­al­ly, inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degrees:

• Are offered as B.A. or B.S. degrees at the under­grad­u­ate level.
• Com­bine sev­er­al dif­fer­ent edu­ca­tion­al dis­ci­plines with­in that degree.
• Give you greater con­trol over what you study while earn­ing your degree.
• Fea­ture greater inter­ac­tion and sup­port from fac­ul­ty advisors.

In an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degree, you’ll most like­ly work with advis­ing staff at the IS pro­gram of your choice to cre­ate a degree plan and cur­ricu­lum that reflects many of your inter­ests, helps you gain expe­ri­ence in sev­er­al dif­fer­ent dis­ci­plines that lead to vast­ly dif­fer­ent careers, and builds skills that will apply through­out your career and life. So what can an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degree do for you?

At Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter, we’ve gone through cur­rent pro­grams and ranked 30 of the best inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degrees for you to peruse at your leisure. If you find a school you like, feel free to shoot them an email to request more infor­ma­tion. We ranked schools based on their cost per cred­it hour, stu­dent to fac­ul­ty ratio, nation­al rep­u­ta­tion, and aver­age ear­ly salary of the school’s graduates.

Peo­ple who com­plete inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degrees con­tin­ue on in a seem­ing­ly lim­it­less num­ber of careers. You can find grad­u­ates of an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies pro­gram include work­ing in:

• Sales
• Loan pro­cess­ing
• Mar­ket­ing
• Human resources
• Bank­ing
• Train­ing
• Jour­nal­ism
• Archae­ol­o­gy
• Polit­i­cal Science
• Edu­ca­tion
• Health­care
• Pub­lic relations
• Social work
• Envi­ron­men­tal Science
• Social media marketing
• Busi­ness administration
• Non­prof­it management
• Social ser­vices

As you might notice, most of these posi­tions don’t have much to do with each oth­er. While you’ll often need fur­ther edu­ca­tion in a spe­cif­ic area, or to gain real-world expe­ri­ence in it after earn­ing your inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degree, an IS pro­gram itself gives you real util­i­ty with­out lim­it­ing your options. It’s safe to say you can do more with an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degree than you could in more tra­di­tion­al pro­grams. Of course, you’ll still need to work hard, but the diverse expe­ri­ences an IS pro­gram can expose you to will improve your chances of doing many dif­fer­ent things in your life and career.

With a wide range of expe­ri­ence, excel­lent prob­lem-solv­ing skills, an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies major can become a social work­er, women’s advo­cate, recruiter, project man­ag­er, or assis­tant pro­fes­sor. There are no inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies jobs — no job title, entry-lev­el, part-time or full-time “inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies” career path. You carve your own path, with unique career oppor­tu­ni­ties and aver­age salary.

What you do with your inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degrees will be a prod­uct of your effort, the pro­gram you choose, and the dis­ci­plines you choose with­in that pro­gram. All of that starts with find­ing the right pro­gram for you. In our rank­ing of the best pro­grams, you can find an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary stud­ies degree that fits your lifestyle, apti­tudes, and goals. When you find a pro­gram you like, you can reach out and request more infor­ma­tion to begin the process of apply­ing to an IS degree that’s right for you.

Relat­ed:

Top 30 Best Bachelor’s in Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Studies

Top 15 Bach­e­lor of Lib­er­al Arts Degree Programs

Top 15 Online Bach­e­lor of Lib­er­al Arts Degree Programs