There are three application dates each year and the Committee has been known to send proposals back to the drawing board with advice for reformulation. Thorne's favorite special concentration, a study of game theory and nuclear decision-making, required three submissions before the concentration was accepted, she says. Shustorovich, who studies the relationship between government and science, says he got his proposal accepted after two attempts.

Thorne explains that the nine-part application process is one way the department tests the mettle of would-be concentrators. "Special Concentrations is not for everyone," said Thorne. "If you can't get through the application, you can't do the work."

Oettinger says the Special Concentrations Department is like any other department in its standards for approving a proposal. The Committee tests whether a plan keeps in mind the goals of a liberal arts education, Oettinger says. It cannot be just "a wonderful thing to think about in odd hours," he says.

"Sometimes a student is besotted with a particular idea," says Stone, who advises Organizational Behavior special concentrators.

A good idea may be rejected not because it is "something that's glitzy today and gone tomorrow," Oettinger says, but because it is simply not feasible.

Charney says she thinks finding an adviser for one's concentration is perhaps the "hardest part" of the process, because the faculty member must not only be interested the particular field but also be willing to make the hefty time commitment that advising a special concentrator often requires.

"You do so much work outside of simply meeting with the person," says Loeb of his role as an-adviser.

The Special Concentrations Department rarely accepts freshmen, in part because many Yardlings have not had time to sample the departments. In addition, Charney says that securing a tenured professor as one's adviser is preferable for a special concentrator in order to "guarantee that they're going to be here." And "most freshmen don't have access to professors like that," she says.

Charney's case was unusual in that her proposal was accepted at the end of her freshman year. Her program met with immediate enthusiasm from both Professor of Music Luise Vosgerchian and the former Special Concentrations Head Tutor Kay Hospitz. "I had it lucky with Professor Vosgerchian," Charney says. "I had all the elements ready for me."

Leslie T. Chang '91 is one of the handful of freshmen who have already ventured into the office this year to ask about a possible program. After meeting with Thorne, Change now says she will wait and further investigate the departmental offerings. "I guess I'll shop a little more," she says.

The Special Concentrations Department's greatest strength may be the opportunity it offers for individual attention, students and faculty members say. "She keeps tabs on my social life," says Charney of her adviser. "She is my department."

"Because of the one-on-one relationship with your advisor, you get so much individual attention," Lazo says. "It's more of a small college environment."

"Your adviser is your support," says English. "Your adviser is the one person responsible for keeping you on track," says the Adams House resident.

Doing a special concentration requires a certain amount of self-reliance, students and administrators say.

"They don't waffle around much," says English of his fellow special concentrators. "A lot have had time off," he says. They are "reasonably well-focused and with an independent temperament," says Thorne."

However motivated you might be, "a department is better for anybody," says Thorne. "Going through a department, you have it all laid out for you on a silver platter," Lazo says. But she adds, "if you have an interest in multiple fields, go to Special Concentrations."

Being on one's own can also be a bit lonely, concentrators say. Christina T. Holt '87-'88, who concentrated in Anthropology and Film: Theory and Practice, says she felt "a twinge of jealousy" when her roommate turned in her History and Literature thesis. The History and Literature concentrators locked their door and threw a huge party after meeting the deadline. But Holt had nobody with whom to share her relief after she completed her anthropological analysis of photographs taken in Benares, India.

But a little loneliness "is nowhere near a good enough reason" not to do a special concentration, Holt says. Such events are "the trappings of a college education," she says, adding, "If you like something, that's the important thing."

And most special concentrators say they don't miss the comraderie of a larger, established department. "I need little support from other people to enjoy what I'm doing," says English, who says that his social life lies outside of his academics.

All in all, says Snyder, "special concentrations is very, very nice." Says English, "the special concentrators I know are the happiest people I know."