Goal Statement

This is the first section of the big "proposal" I have to put together for my degree. For what it's worth, here is the first draft:

I am proposing a Bachelor of Science in Multidisciplinary Studies through the College of Continuing Education at the University of Minnesota. My three areas of study will be Science and Health Science; Applied, Technical and Professional; and History and Social Sciences. These three areas essentially represent the chronological trajectory that my interests have followed through my initial time at the University of Minnesota, my time away from school, and now my return to complete my degree.

I am currently at a major crossroads in my life, and this degree will serve to clear paths and open doors so that the major decisions I face can be made with as few artificial limitations as possible. I began my university studies as a Mechanical Engineering major, less because I had a passion for the material than because I had an aptitude for a subject many find difficult, and because that aptitude promised an easy path to an upper-middle-class living if I turned it into a career in engineering. The basic undergraduate Mechanical Engineering curriculum will form the basis of my Science and Health Science area. Even while studying engineering, the most interesting classes were those that strayed from the highly technical engineering discipline into areas like industrial engineering. Some of the classes I took while studying engineering will fall into the Applied, Technical, and Professional area.

The remainder of the Applied, Technical, and Professional area will consist of new classes related to my third area, History and Social Sciences. Social sciences, above all psychology, will comprise the majority of my new classes. The investigation of people – their motivations, their follies and their triumphs – has grabbed my interest in a way that investigating technical challenges never did. More than that, I can see a role for social sciences in changing the world in ways that I feel are important far more easily than I can see such a role for engineering and physical science.

I am standing at a crossroads in my life. I do not have a clear intent for where I will live or work a year from now. I do know that many of the roads at this particular junction are currently closed to me. Many jobs will not accept applicants without a bachelor’s degree. Graduate schools, obviously, have a strict requirement that you complete your undergraduate degree first. Although many of the things that have brought me to this crossroads were difficult, I am grateful for this opportunity to imagine a new path for my life. By opening more avenues, my B.S. in Multidisciplinary Studies will allow my imagination will be freer to roam and find a road that suits me perfectly.