Students in the College of Arts and Science can apply to craft and complete a self-designed honors major, rather than one of the existing majors in the College. This new major enables a small number of very capable and highly motivated students to pursue a plan of study that brings together courses from more than one CAS department or program. It differs from the "Individualized Major" that the Gallatin School offers to its students in several ways: (a) these two NYU schools have distinct admissions criteria, general education curricula, and other requirements; (b) this CAS major serves students who can realize their interdisciplinary goals within CAS (except for the 16 credits of non-CAS courses that CAS already permits), whereas Gallatin students draw heavily on courses from several NYU schools; and (c) this CAS major is an honors major, which has prerequisites for entry and entails a heavy commitment to honors level work, including independent research under faculty supervision.