School of Interdisciplinary Studies

Dean's Message

As The University of Texas at Dallas continues to celebrate its first 40 years of creating the future, I pause to focus on the School of Interdisciplinary Studies’ recent contributions to the University's success:

• Last year, we introduced our minor in health care studies. This 18 hour minor gives students from any school on campus a solid foundation in the medical arts from an interdisciplinary perspective. Created in collaboration with the University’s pre-health center, students pursuing this minor not only learn the foundations of medicine from UT Dallas expert faculty; they take classes from UT Southwestern Medical Center faculty as well, on the UT Dallas campus. We believe this new minor will help many UT Dallas undergraduates successfully compete for slots in a variety of professional schools, ranging from medical schools to pharmacy schools, to optometry and dental schools.
• Our Jumpstart volunteer program, begun in 2008, continues to grow (see “Jumpstart” story for details).
• Our commitment to helping students create their futures is demonstrated by our graduates. At the end of the fall 2009 semester, UT Dallas awarded 113 undergraduate degrees to students in our school. Four of these students began at UT Dallas as freshman, 56 transferred from other UT Dallas schools and 53 transferred from other higher education institutions to the University. To me, this means that our efforts to continuously provide opportunities for a wide distribution of students have been successful.

A key component of our success is the Interdisciplinary Studies advising team, comprised of Associate Dean Elizabeth Salter and three professional advisors. This team enables students to devise a suitable interdisciplinary degree plan, and also serves as a student's primary resource for other services offered by the University, such as career counseling.

Considering the progress that we have made so far, we have a very optimistic view of the way forward. At UT Dallas, the School of Interdisciplinary Studies will continue to provide access to and champion a superb, customized education for a variety of students into the future.