{"id":316,"date":"2020-10-30T15:26:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T15:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/educ\/independent-study\/"},"modified":"2022-06-09T15:44:05","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T15:44:05","slug":"independent-study","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/educ\/major\/independent-study\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Design an Independent Study"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Students sometimes wonder about the \u201cEduc 399 Independent Study\u201d listing in the schedule of classes. What does it mean, and how can I tell if it\u2019s a good fit for me?<\/p>\n

399. Independent Study\u2014\u00a0Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar\u2019s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are required for enrollment. (1-2 course credits) -Staff<\/em><\/p>\n

An\u00a0independent study means that you\u00a0design\u00a0your own syllabus of academic readings and writing assignments, and persuade a faculty member to agree to meet regularly with you and\u00a0evaluate your work, typically for one credit. Since a one-credit independent study has higher expectations for academic work than a half-credit exploratory internship, Trinity allows us to count an Educ 399 toward the Educational Studies major.<\/p>\n

Finding a faculty sponsor for your independent study may\u00a0not be easy, because Trinity College does not offer faculty any financial compensation or\u00a0career incentives to do this. If you have not previously enrolled in a course a faculty member, they are unlikely to agree to work on an independent study with you, because you are unfamiliar to them. Furthermore, scheduling frequent meetings\u00a0with an individual\u00a0student on a solo topic is\u00a0not an efficient use of most faculty members\u2019 limited\u00a0teaching time.<\/p>\n

If you wish to persuade an Educational Studies faculty member to supervise your independent study, then consider this advice:<\/p>\n