What even is an interdisciplinary studies degree? Most degrees give you a lane. Stay in it, master it, done.
Interdisciplinary studies works differently. Instead of going deep in one direction, you pull from multiple fields, social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, technology, the arts, and combine them in a way that actually reflects your goals and your career. You’re not wandering. You’re building something intentional.
And honestly? The problems worth solving right now demand exactly this kind of thinking. Climate change isn’t a science problem, it’s economics, public policy, and human behavior all tangled together. Cultural identity isn’t just a sociology question. It’s history, communication, lived experience. The people who can hold all of that at once, who can move between disciplines without losing the thread, those are the people organizations are struggling to find.
That’s what this degree is training you to be.
NU’s two programs, and why the difference matters
These aren’t the same program with different names. They serve genuinely different goals, so it’s worth slowing down here.
Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies
This one lives in the School of Arts, Letters, and Sciences. This Bachelor of Arts degree is built around three thematic concentrations:
- Culture and Identity: How identity, belonging, and cultural systems shape the world around us
- Globalization and Development: The economic, political, and social forces connecting, and dividing communities across borders
- Environment and Climate Change: Where science, policy, and ethics meet to address the challenges that don’t wait for a single discipline to catch up
If you’re heading into business, public policy, nonprofit work, or the social sciences, this is likely your path. It’s broad by design because the careers it prepares you for reward people who can think across functions, not just within them.
Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies in Education
This one is housed in the Sanford College of Education, and it has a very specific purpose: preparing aspiring elementary school teachers in California to meet the state’s credentialing requirements, while giving them a real, substantive degree behind the credential.
It runs in two stages. First, foundational coursework through the School of Arts, Letters, and Sciences. Then, credential coursework through the Sanford College of Education. It’s structured for a reason, California’s requirements are specific, and this program is designed to meet them without cutting corners on the academic depth that makes a great teacher.
You want to teach and have a degree that means something beyond the credential. If you’re still exploring what makes an effective teacher, that’s a good place to start. This is how you do both.
What can you actually study?
You work with an academic advisor to select your concentrations. Then you build a curriculum, General Education requirements combined with courses across your chosen fields. It’s structured, but it’s yours.
Here’s a snapshot of common focus areas:
| Focus Area | What it draws from |
|---|---|
| Leadership Studies | Psychology, business, communication |
| Environmental Studies | Biology, ecology, political science |
| Health Sciences | Biology, psychology, public health |
| Education Studies | Psychology, sociology, educational theory |
| Cultural Studies | Literature, history, anthropology, sociology |
These aren’t the only options. They’re starting points. Your actual program gets built around your goals, not a default template.
Why choose this over a traditional major?
Let’s be direct about something: this degree isn’t for everyone. If you know you want to be a nurse, an engineer, or an accountant, there’s a specific major for that. Go that route. This isn’t a backup option for people who couldn’t decide.
But if your interests genuinely span more than one field? If the career you’re working toward requires fluency in multiple domains? If every time you look at a traditional major, you find yourself thinking “close, but not quite”, then interdisciplinary studies might be exactly right.
Here’s what it actually builds:
- Critical thinking across contexts. You learn to analyze problems from more than one angle. That sounds like a soft skill until you’re the only person in a room who can see the full picture.
- Adaptability. Industries shift. Job titles change. A degree built across disciplines gives you somewhere to go when the field moves.
- Breadth of knowledge. Exposure to different fields means you make connections that specialists miss. That’s not a small thing, that’s often where the best ideas come from.
- A credential that’s actually yours. Not a default curriculum. A program you built around your specific goals.
Jackie Kus, PhD, said it plainly:
“The world of work is changing faster than ever, and employers want people who can adapt, pivot, and learn on the fly. By staying curious and continuously adding new lenses to your toolkit, you become both more resilient and more marketable in any industry.”
That’s not inspiration-poster language. That’s what’s actually happening in hiring right now.
Where do interdisciplinary studies graduates actually work?
Wider than you’d think. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks career outcomes for interdisciplinary studies graduates, and if you’re weighing the earning potential of a bachelor’s degree, here’s where they land.
- Management Project managers, operations administrators, training and development directors, even executive roles. The ability to think across departments, not just inside one, is genuinely uncommon at the leadership level. Employers notice.
- Education and library work: Primary, secondary, and postsecondary teachers, adult educators, career trainers, librarians, archivists, and museum professionals. The BA in Interdisciplinary Studies in Education specifically prepares you for California K–6 classrooms. But the broader program feeds into education at every level.
- Healthcare: Occupational therapists, exercise physiologists, dietitians, EMTs, and lab technologists. Healthcare doesn’t just reward clinical skill anymore, it rewards people who understand the whole patient. Biology AND psychology AND public health. That’s an interdisciplinary mindset.
- Business and finance: Financial analysts, economists, accountants, and financial examiners. A background that combines business with psychology or public policy isn’t common. It’s a differentiator.
- The thread running through all of it: these fields reward people who can work across boundaries. A degree that’s built on doing exactly that is direct evidence you can.
How the program actually works at NU
No rigid checklist. No “here are your 40 required courses, good luck.” Here’s the real process:
- Meet with an academic advisor to map your concentrations to your actual goals
- Select courses across disciplines, literature, social sciences, behavioral sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, and humanities
- Complete NU’s General Education requirements alongside your concentration coursework
- Build a curriculum that coheres, breadth that adds up to something, not just a collection of interesting classes
The flexibility is real. But it’s structured flexibility, the kind that produces a degree with a clear through-line, not a transcript that needs explaining.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s a bachelor’s degree where you draw from multiple fields instead of majoring in one. You work with an advisor to build a curriculum around your specific interests and career goals, combining disciplines like psychology, sociology, business, the sciences, and humanities in a way that makes sense for where you’re headed.
That framing undersells it. For students whose goals genuinely span multiple fields, it’s one of the most adaptable credentials you can earn. The honest caveat: if you’re headed toward a profession that requires a specific, accredited major, such as nursing, engineering, or accounting, go that route. But for careers that reward broad thinking? This degree is built for that.
The BA in Interdisciplinary Studies is for students pursuing careers in business, public policy, or social sciences. The BA in Interdisciplinary Studies in Education is specifically for students pursuing a California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential for K–6 classrooms. Same philosophy, very different destinations.
Yes. NU accepts transfer credits from accredited institutions and awards Credit for Prior Learning — academic credit for knowledge built through work, military service, or professional training. That can meaningfully cut your time to graduation and your total cost.
The BA in Interdisciplinary Studies is built around three thematic areas: Culture and Identity, Globalization and Development, and Environment and Climate Change. Within those themes, you work with an advisor to select the specific courses and disciplines that fit your goals.
Yes, fully online, fully asynchronous. No set class times. Short course cycles designed around the schedule of someone who’s also working, also parenting, also living a life outside of school. That’s who NU builds for.
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