Driven by intellectual curiosity, students occasionally partner with faculty to design one-on-one courses.

Run as a tutorial, reading courses are specially designed and arranged between a student and a faculty member. Students may also apply to earn credit for an audit-only graduate course by taking it as a reading course, provided that they follow the application guidelines outlined below.  

Reading courses are normally limited to one per term.  Not normally offered as part of the curriculum, they count as a regular course and may count as a departmental in one’s major. However, reading courses may not satisfy distribution requirements. Reading courses transcript with the department code, a special 090-level course number, and a descriptive transcript title.

Pending approval by the supervising professor and the department chair, a student can elect to take a reading course as  Graded A-F only, Graded PDF only, or Graded A-F/Optional PDF.  If more than one student is enrolled in the course, the grading basis will be determined by student consensus/majority preference.  

For a course to be considered as a departmental, students must take the course for a letter grade and should select the “Graded A-F only” option. 

If the reading course is offered “Graded A-F/Optional PDF,” individual students will initially be enrolled as Graded A-F and will have the option to select PDF during the PDF election period.  A reading course taken as an elective PDF will count toward the student’s maximum of four PDF courses.

Note: First-year students will not be permitted to take reading courses, even if those courses are transcripted versions of graduate courses.  Sophomores will only be permitted to take graduate reading courses in MAT with the individual endorsement of the department. 

Contact the associate dean with questions or schedule an appointment to discuss a proposal. 

Student Guide: Reading Course Development Process