Interdisciplinary major in science/technology/writing? How to DL?

Trying to hone in on what my son wants to focus on. Technical communications does not seem to be it. He's thinking of taking a combination of history, science, medical history/innovations, etc. along with writing. Can he fine-tune an ID degree along these lines via DL? Do you approach a school and say "this is what I want to do" and they yea or nay? What about these "credit hour banks" where you take classes from a variety of places and the "bank" school will grant a degree in X if you meet the general requirements? How would my son go about this ie. figuring out what classes would be accepted, pulling together a degree? Do these schools accept credits from community colleges in the basics like math, etc.?

Thanks again for making some sense of the possibilities in this next step for him.

Anne - homeschool mom and now guidance counselor

 

Anne,

The field of study called Science, Technology and Society (STS, sometime called Science & Technology Studies) offers individuals an opportunity to study the social, philosophical and ethical implications of science and technology. This is a GREAT field of study and very appropriate for the 21st century. Graduates are well-prepared to enter a variety of positions including science writing. The problem is that there are few DL opportunities in STS. Several of the better STS undergrad programs include NC State, http://www2.ncsu.edu/ncsu/chass/mds/psts.html Cornell, http://www.sts.cornell.edu/CU-STS.html RPI, http://www.rpi.edu/dept/sts/ and VA Tech, http://www.cis.vt.edu/sts/ Look here for additional listings: http://www2.ncsu.edu/ncsu/chass/mds/stsprog.html Note also that Penn State offers several courses in STS via DL.

Even though they may be designated as an STS course, many of the STS undergraduate courses originally come from the fields of Political Science, History, Philosophy, Engineering, Physics, and Sociology. It may be possible to find a DL school with a good complement of STS-related coursework disguised in the courses just mentioned. I would suggest looking at the various DL schools and compare their coursework in these areas with the STS coursework from the schools listed above. I think you'll find many of the same or similar courses are available.

In your son's case, perhaps he could major in English and minor in the History of Science (or Philosophy of Science, or, Sociology, or ideally, in STS). It may require a little work on your part but it's likely you could find several schools that fit this bill. It may also be possible to complete individual coursework via DL from many different schools offering the specific STS-related coursework (from history, philosophy, sociology, etc) then, transfer those credits to a school such as Excelsior, Charter Oak, or Thomas Edison. An English BA is a great liberal arts degree to have and will prepare him well for a writing/journalism career.

I've been very frustrated in my own search for a DL graduate degree program in STS. I've found two. One is Open University's MS in Science http://www2.open.ac.uk/SciMSc/ The other is Deakin University's MA in STS http://arts.deakin.edu.au/masts/ but, sadly, they are no longer accepting students.

Best of luck to you. Let us know what you find out.

Bob