This fall, Skyline College will officially launch its four new Meta Majors, but students will begin encountering these navigational tools as soon as this month. These Meta Majors are an important part of the comprehensive college redesign, which includes developing guided pathways and meta-majors, applying impactful changes that scale transformative teaching and learning, and expanding the Promise Scholars Program.
What is a Meta Major?
Meta Majors are an easy way for students to search for and find the major that’s right for them. As they work through this process, students will be exploring academic, career and personal interests.
The four Meta Majors are:
- Arts, Languages & Communication
- Business, Entrepreneurship & Management
- Science, Technology & Health
- Society & Education
Here’s what Meta Majors do, in super simple terms:
- Meta Majors organize all the degrees and certificates at Skyline College into four categories, called Meta Majors.
- These categories provide a starting point for students who don’t know what they want to study to find a major that’s right for them.
- These categories allow students to use their interests as a starting point when selecting a major.
- Meta Majors are purely student facing – the way the college and divisions are internally organized are not dictated by the Meta Majors.
How will students interact with Meta Majors?
Students will encounter the Meta Majors at various parts of the enrollment process, including orientation, working with their counselor, and browsing for a major online. Students will be able to narrow down their degree search by selecting a Meta Major first, then selecting an area of interest within their Meta Major, and finally selecting a specific individual major.
This framework allows students who may be unsure of what they want to study to more efficiently navigate to a major that’s right for them by concentrating on their interests instead of specific academic programs. Counselors will also use the Meta Major website to work with students to help them select a major. Students will still be able to browse a full list of academic programs if they prefer.
Once a student chooses their specific major, they will use their guided pathways to complete the degree requirements of that degree or certificate.
Meta Majors are ONLY a student navigational tool, used when they are selecting their major.
How did this work get completed?
The Meta Majors are launching after extensive user testing, inquiry and hard work by faculty and staff. This work is designed to help improve the graduation rate, which hovers at about 14% for first time, full-time students over 3 years, and varies greatly across different student populations – meta majors are intended to raise this statistic by streamlining major selection.
Over the last two years, the Design Team has facilitated workshops, flex day activities, campus forums, campus-wide division meetings, work team meetings, and student focus groups that have laid the foundation for the Meta Major work.
Special thanks goes out to the Meta Majors Work Group for their intensive analysis and tireless work on this project, including the daunting task of sorting the degrees and certificates into their respective Meta Major and delivering that recommendation to the Design Team. In particular, we wish to thank the Design Team co-leads: Lorraine DeMello, Luis Escobar, Carla Grandy, Mary Gutierrez, Jessica Hurless, Mustafa Popal, and Jess Raskin.
