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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.2999992370605px;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The best way to start planning your curriculum is to have a concise vision of its application and importance in the real world</span></span>.&nbsp;</span>Most individualized programs require the student to provide an executive summary in order to illustrate the goals and vision of the proposed field of study. This is a helpful tool to onboard <span style="font-size:small;">stakeholders like deans and department heads to your cause. Specific items that may help convince difficult administrators to support you include:</span>

#<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">'''Personal Mission.''' If you have a personal connection to the work, have illustrated you interest in the past, and have specific examples of career paths or programs you'd like to start or join with the help of your individualized major, its a great way to onboard them to your vision.</span></span>#<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">'''Relevant statistics/research about your field.''' This can mean trends in the space, how many institutions have the major, what people do in the space, just anything to make your lofty idea seem like a viable business plan to spend four years on.&nbsp;</span></span>#<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">'''Specific institutional Benefits.''' . What will the college get, specifically, out of offering this major? What will they get about offering an Individualized Major Program? Programs? Funding? More students? Community support? Stronger, more involved students? This is about their very basic wants and needs. See if you can align with an existing University goal.&nbsp;#'''UIF examples'''.There are many Fellows that have created individualized majors with exceptional success and have left legacies of curricula, programs, and support in our institutions. Pointing to success stories similar to your pursuits at similar universities can be extremely helpful for them to visualize. == <span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 21.2999992370605px;">​</span></span>#</span>Curriculum<span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 21.2999992370605px;"></span></span></span><br/> == Designing your is an important step, as this is the actual proposal of your courses. Make sure you're taking a competitive amount of courses, but also stress that a main part of your creation is outside the classroom- you'll want room to apply what you'UIF examples're learning and share it with others. In any case, look at the best ranked schools in your field. Basing your curriculum of those schools will give you more credibility, but kept in mind that many institutions don'nt exactly offer the same resources and course offerings as Stanford or Cornell.  In these cases, where your institution doesn't offer the exact component classes, refer back to your mission statement.There are many Fellows that have created individualized majors What classes fall in line with exceptional success and have left legacies your vision? What classes can be repositioned? What classes can be substituted for requirements out of curriculayour range? Will the institution consider Directed Independent Studies, Research, programsor creating a new course?&nbsp; Make sure that all of this is together in a coherent, easy to visualize and support in our institutionsunderstand, physical proposal that you can give to interested parties. Pointing Be prepared to make concessions and have alternatives to success stories similar courses planned. You will have to your pursuits at similar universities can be extremely helpful positive and confident, but humble- especially if you're the first student. They may ask for revisions. They may also ask for them you to visualizevalidate the choices you've made for classes or focuses. Be ready for a two way conversation.</span></span></span>&nbsp;