Enough to be Dangerous: A Degree in Multimedia Experience Design

I distinctly remember sitting in an engineering class during my sophomore year at Boise State, when the professor, after being asked whether a particular design solution should be chosen because it “looked better”, responded, “We’re engineers. We don’t care how it looks.” Immediately, I knew I was not where I was supposed to be.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I had chosen mechanical engineering for a reason. I am, and have always been, a highly detail-oriented, scientifically-minded, mechanically-inclined individual. From an early age, I always assumed I would be an engineer. Yet, here I was, almost halfway through my college education, in crisis because, despite my best efforts, I did care how it looked. I spent the next few days weighing my options. Was it worth starting over in a different discipline? If so, which one? I felt too aesthetic for engineering, too analytical for art, too blue-sky for business. And yet, my personal hobbies and developing career interests in themed entertainment shared a collective role across all of these subjects. I knew my ideal education included important pieces of multiple majors, but I didn’t feel at home in any particular one full time.

To be honest, I don’t remember what it was that lead me to the interdisciplinary studies (IDS) program. I wish I could thank whatever or whoever it was, because, after looking it up on the Boise State website, I do remember reading the program description and realizing that I had found my home. Three years, and classes from more than 15 different areas of study later, I graduated with a 100% custom degree in multimedia experience design!

The purpose of my degree centers around knowing “enough to be dangerous” in a wide variety of disciplines. In a team of experts, it’s the person who knows enough about each of their individual fields to communicate effectively with and between them that can help bring them together to realize a larger vision. For my degree, I purposefully sought exposure to three major areas of study: engineering, art, and business. When I originally sat down with a course catalog and took note of every class I wanted to have in my degree, I quickly racked up a neat 307 credits. Of course, after many sessions of paring down the selection, I was left with a more normal course load. As part of my bespoke education, I ended up taking classes in screenwriting, computer science, psychology, differential calculus, video game design, technical theater, digital storytelling, marketing, thermodynamics, ethnography, and public speaking, among many others.

As you can imagine, there was a lot of paperwork involved in such an endeavor. Though most of it was simply for record-keeping purposes, I’ve included my original “Statement of Justification” below: a document that outlines to the Boise State IDS committee my reasoning for being accepted into the program (as opposed to finding another major on campus that would suit my needs).

I am forever grateful for the opportunity to take my college education into my own hands through IDS. There is so much I was able to expose myself to that I wouldn’t have known existed if I hadn’t taken a class in a particular building, or within a certain department. I imagine almost every student experiences at least one instance of “when am I ever going to use this?” during their academic career. I can honestly say that, after making the switch to a major I created by myself for myself, I never wondered that again.