Enrollment season is here! Maybe you’re undecided about your major? Or maybe you’ve found some free space in your schedule and you’re looking to add a degree? Well, good news! SMU has a variety of interesting, dynamic programs. Here are few that may be overlooked, or may have never heard of!
1. Medieval Studies
Love knights, poetry, history and Vikings? Does a course entitled, “Love, Lust, and Violence in the Middle Ages” sound intriguing? Then the SMU Medieval Studies program might be for you. Their website describes the program by saying, “Ranging from the fourth century A.D. to 1485, from Celtic Britain to Visigothic and Islamic Spain, Byzantium to Persia and the Caliphate, from script to print, from feast to fast, from fine arts to liberal arts, from Augustine to Abelard and beyond, this program offers an intense and condensed liberal education,” so if you’re a lover of the Medieval Studies might be for you.
2. Music Therapy
Love music? Love science? Want to help people? Then check out SMU’s music therapy program. This is an audition only program, and requires you show skill in piano and guitar. However, if you are already a music performance major, then this would be a great degree to add on, especially if you’re interested in psychology or health. The Meadows School writes, “The Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy uses an interdisciplinary approach to develop knowledge in music theory, history and performance while providing focused training in music therapy, research and psychology.” So if you’re interested in combining a passion for health with a passion for music, this just might be for you!
3. Arts Management
Do you love the arts, but maybe don’t have the gifts or the desire to be in the spotlight yourself? Maybe you’re more interested in the “business” of “show business?” Then, consider a degree in arts management! The Meadows website describes the Arts Management minor by saying, “Fine artists and performers may enjoy the limelight – but it’s the people behind the scenes who are the engines that run the business of art. Arts Management can be an exhilarating and rewarding career path, and the knowledge you’ll gain with this minor can help prepare you for an arts management career working for a major museum, theater company, performing arts center, or other artistic venue.”
4. Digital Game Development
If you love computer science and video games, check out SMU’s Digital Game Development Program! Sure, playing video games is fun, but wouldn’t you love to be the one to create them? (Then maybe you could help fix some of the screwed up depictions of women.) Also, according to the Office of Science and Technology Policy, women earn less than 45 percent of all STEM degrees. So, pursuing a minor in game development wouldn’t just be a way to follow your passion, but it would also be a huge middle finger the patriarchy- who doesn’t love that?
5. Health and Society
If you’re passionate about public health, stopping disease, and making sure everyone has access to the care they need, then Health and Society is the degree for you! It combines aspects of anthropology and biology to examine health in the context of different cultures. According to the SMU website, some benefits of the major are that it, “exposes students in broad and diverse ways to the problems of illness and health care in human societies through speaker series, course projects and experienced faculty” and “assists students to meet a greater variety of post-baccalaureate goals, including employment or graduate admission to schools and programs of medicine, dentistry, public health, nursing, health care administration, psychology, medical anthropology, medical sociology, law and others.” So if you’re interested in any of those careers, look into Health and Society!