Bachelor's Degree with Individual Concentration (BDIC)

BDIC program overview
The Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration program offers highly motivated and self-directed students a unique opportunity to design their own majors. As an alternative to traditional majors, the BDIC Program allows students to pursue their educational goals in areas not available within an existing departmental curriculum on campus. Students, with the help of a faculty sponsor, focus their major and select courses on the basis of a unifying issue, topic, theme, culture, period, or question called an "area of concentration."
The area of study for a BDIC concentration must be interdisciplinary, drawing from at least two fields or disciplines, and it may not duplicate an existing major. Courses may be chosen from any of the departments within the University, and from the other campuses in the Five College Consortium. Internships (up to a maximum of nine credits) and Independent Studies are strongly recommended for most majors. Students are also encouraged to study abroad when relevant.
For more information, visit BDIC at 608 Goodell Building.

Sample concentrations with a Community Service Learning component

Over the past few years, several UMass students have designed areas of concentration that have included community service learning coursework. In some cases, the CSL courses were a major focus of the student’s course of study. In other cases, students enrolled in a CSL course as a way to enhance learning within their major.

See sample BDIC areas of concentration with CSL components:

Creating Equal Access and Social Justice in America

Poverty, Inequality, and Social Change

Race, Politics, and Critical Development Economics

Social Justice Through the Arts

Sustainable Living (with a focus on Health and Development)