CORRECTION APPENDED

The Economics, History, and Psychology Departments have abolished nearly all joint concentrations. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

The change, announced late last week, has left sophomores scrambling to redraft their plans of study, as today marks the deadline to declare concentration choice.

Administrators from the departments defended the decision as beneficial to students and framed it as an attempt to ease the complications associated with joint concentrations. But some students are complaining that the change unnecessarily limits their academic options.

The Economics and Psychology Departments will no longer allow joint concentrations with any department, starting with the Class of 2010. The History Department said it would not accept any joint concentrators, except those who wished to combine history and East Asian studies.

Adam G. Beaver ’00, the assistant director of undergraduate studies for history, said he hoped that the elimination of the joint concentration would help ease the overachieving habits of some Harvard students.

“We were worried that students would attempt to joint-concentrate, then pursue a secondary field as well,” Beaver said. “It would be irresponsible for us to allow students to go after three fields just so it could make them ‘the best.’”

Other administrators said that the changes are meant to help students avoid the inconveniences inherent in having two advisers and two sets of departmental guidelines for their theses.

“A very large proportion of joint concentrators have difficulty writing a thesis because it’s hard to keep two masters happy,” said Jeffrey A. Miron, the director of undergraduate studies for economics. “Sometimes, one department would complain that there wasn’t enough economics in the thesis, and the other department would say that there’s not enough history in the thesis.”

While academic advisers are now encouraging students to pursue one of their desired concentrations as a secondary field, Yuliya Gudish ’10, who had planned to joint-concentrate in psychology and economics, said she is still dissatisfied.

“I really wanted to write a thesis that integrated both of my interests, not one that just conforms to what they want,” Gudish said. “I’ll probably flip a coin on the way over to turning it in, and the one that lands heads will have to be my concentration for now.”

Although some sophomores said they were warned that these departments might abolish joint concentrations, the official notice came as a surprise to many others.

Sebastien D. Arnold ’10—who intended to pursue a joint concentration in economics and history until Thursday’s decision—said that while history advisers had strongly discouraged prospective joint concentrators earlier this semester, he still got the sense that there would be flexibility.

“Letting us know so late is not very respectful to people who spent a lot of time thinking about and looking forward to what they want to do,” Arnold said. “Now, we just suddenly have to make a decision.”

Arnold planned to write his thesis on the history of the gold standard in Switzerland, a task that he says required both the research skills taught in history classes and the theoretical models taught in economics.

“Now, I really am stuck in the middle and not able to do what I wanted to do,” he said. “But I’m certain that the study card I hand in on Monday is bound to be a temporary one.”

Konika Banerjee ’08, a joint concentrator in psychology and human evolutionary biology, said her joint concentration did not require the juggling act that administrators said they are trying to avoid.

“In my case, my fields were so closely related that I had no trouble at all,” Banerjee said. “I had no trouble coming up with a thesis that combined the fields, and there was no hassle other than having to get an extra signature on study card day.”

—Staff writer Nan Ni can be reached at nni@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION: The Dec. 3 news article "No Joint Fields in Ec, Psych For 2010" incorrectly implied that the Psychology Department and History Department ended joint concentrations last week. In fact, the Psychology Department first voted to end joint concentrations in September and made the decision public at that time, according to Laura L. Chivers, the department's advising administrator. The History Department voted to end joint concentrations two years ago, according to Adam G. Beaver '00, the assistant director of undergraduate studies for history.