This post was written by Hatchet reporter Christina Carpenter.

When students want to change majors or add minors, they usually want to ask: “What if?”

They can now get answers to those “what if” academic questions with a new tool on the online advising system DegreeMAP that will let students choose additional programs and see how close they are to completing those requirements with their current credits.

Administrators hope the new feature on DegreeMAP, which allows students to monitor their progress toward their degree, is one step toward giving students a more interdisciplinary educational experience.

“It’s something I’ve been trying to do for a long time – being able to move around different classes and create different scenarios,” said Varsha Sundararaman, sophomore in the Elliott School of International Affairs and chair of the Student Association Senate’s academic affairs committee.

The new feature is a small step toward a major University goal: allow students to experiment with different academic subjects. The University stressed interdisciplinary learning and research in its decade-long strategic plan, finalized last spring.

Forrest Maltzman, senior vice provost for academic affairs and planning, said last fall that adding the feature was one way the University would try to create more academic flexibility. His office is also combing through academic bulletins to remove some of the University’s “bizarre academic requirements” that prevent students from studying multiple fields.

“I think we say no too often,” Forrest Maltzman, the senior vice provost for academic affairs and planning, said last fall. “We say no through all sorts of rules, all sorts of regulations that sort of limit what students can do.”

Academic advisers are also receiving additional training outside individual schools to help students who study across colleges.