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. Proposals are reviewed by the College and must be submitted no later than the end of the first week of the semester through the online proposal system. 

Reading courses are limited to one per term, and are not open to first-year students.  Not normally offered as part of the curriculum, they count as a regular course and may be approved to 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.

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

Student Guide: Reading Course Development Process