Credits are awarded for academic activities pursued outside the formal classroom setting under the supervision of a faculty member of the department. The activities may include reading, research, or special projects.
Prerequisites
To enroll in an independent study, students must have:
- a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher,
- achieved junior standing (for Econ 699),
- written consent of the instructor, the department chair and the Assistant Dean for L&S Student Academic Services.
Procedures
The procedures for undertaking an independent study are as follows:
- Students register in course number 199 or 699 (for 1-3 credits) after preparing, with the approval of the supervising professor, a statement (study proposal) describing the plan of study. The study proposal must be approved by the Department Chair and forwarded to the Office of Student Academic Services in Holton Hall 118. The Independent Study Proposal Form is available from the Economics main office.
- The study proposal must define the focus of the independent study, specify the academic requirements, and outline the criteria that will be used to assign the student’s grade. Generally, the student’s academic requirement may consist of any of the following: a final paper, a compiled dataset and/or results of data analysis, computational output, an oral report, an exam, or other output as agreed to with the faculty advisor of the independent study.