Welcome to the Exploring Majors and Certificates pages. You'll find videos, links to major requirements, information about advising, and more.
Take advantage of these resources to help you choose the academic path that is right for you:
- Watch this video to see how Greg Victory, Director of the Career Center, answers the question, "Does My Major Really Matter?" and learn about the connections between your major and career.
- Learn about different majors, minors and certificates using the links below. Check out the videos from faculty and students discussing the major.
- Talk to Peer Success Leaders who are majoring in areas you're interested in.
- Reach out to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS), or Certificate Program Director, to learn more about their major or program.
- Meet with a DAE or specialty advisor. There is a DAE for each academic division who can help you decide between different majors of interest, and a global and cross-disciplinary advisor who can help you integrate your academic interests with opportunities beyond the classroom.
Broadly conceived, the humanities disciplines use historical, philosophical, and artistic approaches to study the human condition in all its facets. Humanistic and artist knowledge plays a crucial part in the education of the individual; the pursuit, creation, and theorization of meaning; and qualitative analyses of social systems and cultural practices. The Disciplinary DAE for the Arts & Humanities is Dr. Jules Odendahl-James, both a scholar and a practitioner (theater director, dramaturg). She can discuss your interests in the fields listed below at both theoretical and applied levels. Whether you are searching for how to integrate your interests across fields, maximize opportunities in separate and time-intensive interests, find research mentors, develop your own portfolios, or strategize about how best to represent your unique Duke journey, an appointment with Dr. OJ can provide clarity, spur more productive questions, and leave you with a specific to-do list that makes next steps more tangible.
Natural Sciences are the branches of study that explore natural phenomena using data and other evidence from observations and experiments to understand the world, and it includes both life and physical sciences. In order the understand the natural science field (and many others), quantitative approaches using statistical, computational, or mathematical methods are often utilized.
The social sciences explore the patterns of human behavior, and researchers in these disciplines study a wide array of topics from the intricacies of complex social structures to the grand mechanisms of intercultural exchange. With such a vast scope of study, the social sciences make use of several methodological approaches and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data sets. Our Social Sciences DAE, Dr. Michael Domeracki, a comparative religiousist by training, advises students as they explore majors, minors, and certificates, research, and experiential opportunities within the broad umbrella of social scientific inquiry. He has spent his career helping students compose competitive applications for undergraduate research, co-curricular experiences, and post-baccalaureate options like fellowships or graduate school. Dr. Domeracki offers majors discernment and general social sciences advising appointments to students of any class year, at any time of the year, at this link.
Certificate programs offer students an opportunity to pursue a subject they are passionate about and gain skills and training. Students take six courses to earn a certificate and the courses often span multiple disciplines or departments.