The Value of an Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Education

Many people believe that obtaining an interdisciplinary undergraduate education is worthless and an “easy” and “lazy” route. Those people believe that underachievers are the interdisciplinary students. However, that is not the case, people’s opinions are just opinions and not facts; clearly they have not researched or understand the value of an interdisciplinary education; also, those people do not understand the complexity of the problems, concepts, events and the like that interdisciplinary students run into.

An interdisciplinary undergraduate education is more valuable than a single or even double major for many reasons. Interdisciplinary studies are in no way an “easy” route; on the contrary, it is very difficult and complex. These students go beyond just learning concepts and dissect each problem in a new way. Interdisciplinary students are constantly creating new theories, concepts, and solutions to problems. Unlike in a single major or double major where the students base their understandings and solutions on theories and concepts already established interdisciplinary students create new ones. In addition, single and double majors are less open to new ideas and other ways of thinking. Such students do not do much thinking. They only apply in situations what they have learned and are not creative in their thinking, problem solving, rationalizing and so on. They see the world only from one perspective, for example, a solely business major sees things from a business point of view and is unable to put him/herself in the shoes of a psychologist and see things from that point of view. In other words, if an issue does not include numbers, accounting, marketing, and so on than the business person thinks he/she is useless in solving the problem, they are not willing, or do not know any better to think of new ways of seeing the problem and finding a solution for it.

Moreover, a double major is no better at creating new concepts or solutions; neither are double major students able to see things from an integrative perspective; to use both majors to solve an issue. For example a person double majoring in justice studies and engineering may have chose to double major because he/she was indecisive and decided to do both careers. Yet, that person may see no connection between these two careers, preventing the student from creating new concepts, theories; or solving complex problems through integration of multiple disciplinary perspectives to construct a more comprehensive perspective in solving problems. Double major students do have two different perspectives, yet, they can not relate them to construct a comprehensive perspective of complex problems, to be able to solve them. Now, they decide to go through the easy route by not even trying to solve complex issues simply because they were taught two different things and if neither seems to solve the issue, than they cannot do anything about it. On  the other hand, interdisciplinarity, as stated in the reading IDS the Basics, “may be defined as a process of answering a question, solving a problem, or addressing a topic too broad or complex to be dealt with adequately by a single discipline or profession...interdisciplinary is not a simple supplement.” On the contrary it is very complex and seeks for new and integrative knowledge and perspectives.  Interdisciplinarity recognizes the differences between the different perspectives of the disciplines, but still manage to work together and go through an integrative process to understand why each discipline is important in solving the issue and how it can solve it, at the end integrating the perspectives to create a new idea, concept, theory and solution. Moreover, two metaphors used to describe this explanation and IDS is Bridge-building: connections between disciplines and Boundary-crossing: breaking between disciplines (IDS the Basics p. 3). In addition an interdisciplinary education’s value, more than a single and even a double major, can be described and understood through the a metaphor used in a reading about a fruit salad and a smoothie. For example, in a fruit salad there are different types of fruits all mixed together; yes they all have contact with each other but the fruits are there individually and cannot relate to each other in any way; each one has its one flavor. In contrast the smoothie is also made of a few different fruits, each fruit has its own flavor and identity; nonetheless, all the fruits come together (integrate) to make one single delicious flavor. Therefore, that is how interdisciplinarity works. There are different disciplines with different backgrounds, perspectives, concepts, theories, and so forth. Still, they all come together, without loosing each identity to create a single comprehensive perspective to solve the complex problem. So, every discipline is important. In contrast, many times single majors and especially double majors are not able to use and apply all the knowledge they have learned; or apply their understandings in new ways. Then, what is the point of so much knowledge, dedication and learning of two disciplines if we cannot integrate them, because we all know that two is always better than one, especially when integrated to create something new, interesting and a better solution. Interdisciplinary studies is very valuable and it is not about depth but breadth, which allows individualized programs for each person’s personal academic and career goals.