<p>There are one or 2 colleges in NJ that has an aviation program. I was wondering, how could a student add a major or concentration to a list of majors a college has? Can it be done upon request by a student? How long does it take to add a major to the college?</p>
<p>If the program or major requires hiring additional faculty and staff, which in most cases it would, adding a program or major will take a considerable time and considerable dollars. At most institutions there will be committees to go through, and many people will have differing opinions on which programs should be added. Of course if you come up with a million dollars or two to endow a chair in aviation (or geology or …), the college will likely move faster, but academic decision making is often excruciatingly slow.</p>
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<p>Some colleges allow students to “create their own major” (I know that Stanford does). I don’t think this implies adding classes that are not offered, but rather building a cohesive program of study from the courses already offered. I would guess that this option would be more likely to be available at a private school than at a public one. I also think that the process is quite involved, and not nearly as painless as the admissions brochures would let you believe.</p>
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<p>American made the point that they had added some majors that students created previously, but these were programs that were easy to create - area studies that combined existing language and literature study with social science courses. I think it would be pretty hard to create an aviation program if it wasn’t already half-way in place.</p>
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<p>my community does have an aviation program, but the only problem is that they don’t have an aviation management major, which is the one I ultimately want to major in. If they do have it, then it would be an incentive to stay at my CC for the full 2 years.</p>
<p>I work at a state institution, and adding a new program is a very lengthy process. I believe our state has to look at if other state institutions already offer the proposed program, plus certification/accreditation issues, plus the costs of new faculty, curricula development, etc. It must go through several committees and approvals, culminating in our Board of Regents’ approval. That said, in the 10 years I’ve been here, we have added several programs, so it does happen. But there would have to be a market demand and a belief that the program would be profitable for the institution.</p>
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<p>ktsai, are you talking about a program which needs to be FAA accredited? If so, adding such a major is a big deal and a lengthy process (and expensive). If you’re talking about adding some extra courses that already exist to create a related or parallel major- you should email the department chair or academic dean to find out how to do that.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
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<p>Usually adding a major is a big deal because it involves hiring new faculty, figuring out building space and schedule space, you have to know that there will be enough students interested in it to make it worthwhile, so that usually takes some kind of study, there’s a lot of resources that go into creating majors and concentrations, so much so that it’s unlikely one will be created while you are still at that university, unless the creation of one was in the works before you started your first year there. </p>
<p>Some universities do allow students to design their own majors or concentrations, but that isn’t the same thing as the school adding a major that will be there forever.</p>
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<p>Aviation management is a pretty specific and unusual major. Of the ~3850 colleges and universities in the country only ~85 offer that major. If you really want to go someplace with that major, I think you’d be better off going to a school that offers it rather than trying to get it offered at a school which does not offer it at this time.</p>
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<p>Pretty sure that ASU Polytechnic campus offers this major. Could also look at Embry-Riddle. I would imagine that a joint engineering-business degree would be a way to go, on this. Also, adding a major is a lengthy process as other posters have said, although a University President or Provost can fast-track it; even so there are faculty to hire, courses to develop, accreditation, etc.</p>
<p>Would you consider dual degrees: Aviation and Business Administration with management focus?</p>
<p>Yeah, maybe I could get dual degrees in Aviation and Business.</p>
<p>There are 4 year institutions that have Independent majors. Some of them call it Interdisciplinary major. On the record there is no further description of your major as there is in a major in English or a major in Chemistry. It takes a persuasive speaker to convince a department head to supervise your independent major. You might want to consider transferring your aviation credits to a 4 year and combine that with an interdisciplinary degree in business. I think if you do something like that you must be prepared to explain and prove up what are you studied when you apply for jobs.</p>