Requirements
You must choose two or three subject areas and take at least 15 credits of courses in each area, for a total of 45 credits. Of the 45 credits, 30 must be at the upper-division level (courses numbered 300 or above).
1. Areas of Concentration and Credits
1.1. Whether you choose two or three areas of concentration, your courses in the major must total at least 45 credits. The areas may be closely related (for example, biology and chemistry, or history and philosophy) or not at all related (art, psychology, and business). An area of concentration may be associated with a departmental major or minor or with a program, or you may design your own area of concentration that does not exist as an established program at Stony Brook. If you have just two areas of concentration, they may not be in the same department (for example, you may not make an MTD major of ARH and ARS).
1.2. You must complete at least 15 credits in each area of concentration. If you have three areas of concentration, the credits will be 15+15+15. If you have two areas, they may be divided 15+30 or 21+24 or any other way, as long as you have at least 15 credits in each area.
1.3. Because MTD is a program of the College of Arts and Sciences, there is a limit on the number of credits you may include from departments in other branches of the university. No more than 15 credits may be in branches of the university other than the College of Arts and Sciences. (Business Management, Applied Math, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Health Sciences, Marine Sciences, and School of Journalism are outside the College of Arts and Sciences) Therefore, if one of your areas is outside of Arts and Sciences, you must take at least 30 credits in your remaining one or two areas to make up the 45 required for the major.
2. Upper-division credits
You must have a total of at least 30 Upper Division credits (credits in courses numbered 300 or above) in your two or three MTD areas of concentration combined. These must include at least 9 upper division credits in one area and 9 upper division credits in another area. There is no requirement to have upper division courses in your third area. At least 15 upper-division credits must be taken at Stony Brook.
(Remember that the University requires every student to complete 39 upper division credits. This means that if you have only 30 in your MTD fields of concentration you must have an additional 9 upper division credits in other subjects.)
3. Grades and Restricted Courses
3.1. All courses must be passed with letter grades of C or better (not C– or P).
3.2. No more than 6 credits may be independent study (including directed readings, research, or projects). Only 3 credits may be used in any one area of concentration.
3.3. No more than 3 credits of S/U graded courses, such as teaching practica and internships, will be accepted.
4. Transfer Students
If you have taken courses in your MTD fields of study at another college, the MTD advisor will need to see a transcript from your previous institutions so that those courses can be counted as part of your MTD program. You may ask Stony Brook's Transfer Office to send a photocopy of the transcripts to the MTD office, or you may bring in a copy. If you think that any of those courses should be considered the equivalent of Upper Division courses at Stony Brook, you should ask the Transfer Office how to go about getting them evaluated as Upper Division. You should then bring a copy of the Transfer Course Evaluation form to the MTD office.
Requirements II: The Upper Division Writing Requirement
The Upper Division Writing Requirement (UDWR) is an important graduation requirement for all students, because the one of the most important things to learn in college is how to write clearly at an advanced level. It's important for MTD majors in particular, because it is the only way you are measured specifically against other students who are specializing in your field. You must satisfy the WRTD in one of your two or three areas of concentration. Here's how to do it:
2.1. Look in the Undergraduate Bulletin under each of the departments corresponding to your areas of concentration (College of Arts and Sciences departments only), read the procedure for the WRTD in each department, and choose the one department that you prefer to do it in. The requirements differ from department to department; some require you to notify the professor/department at the beginning of the course that you intend to do the WRTD in that course. Whatever the department requires of its own majors is what you must do.
In cases where there is no clearly identified departmental major corresponding to your area of concentration, you should consult with an MTD advisor.
2.2. Check with the MTD office to make sure your WRTD has been received. It is best to check well before your graduation so that problems can be resolved in good time.
NOTE: These pages specify the requirements for the MTD major only.