Students at NYU Shanghai can apply to craft and complete a Self-Designed Honors major, rather than one of the existing majors at the campus. This 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 NYU department or program. During their sophomore year, students compose their academic plan for the major in consultation with their two faculty advisers for their self-designed program of study as well as with the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Their two faculty advisors have to be from different majors and one has to be from a relevant department in New York if more than three of the required classes are from a major that exists in New York but not in Shanghai. By the spring of the sophomore year, the plan of study must be submitted to and approved by the Academic Standards Committee. This NYU Shanghai major serves students who can realize their interdisciplinary goals within the Global Network University drawing on courses from any of the study away sites and portal campuses within the existing NYU Shanghai study away limitations. It is an honors major, which has prerequisites for entry (3.75 Cumulative GPA; students must maintain a 3.65 GPA to remain in the major) and entails a heavy commitment to honors-level work, including independent research under faculty supervision.