Records Office Forms

Please Note:

In order to receive academic services, including some of those listed above, students and alumni must be in financial good standing and a have a university record clear of holds. The Record Office will not be able to provide certain services, including, diploma release, and class registration (add, drop, withdrawal, and such) to students or alumni with a financial balance due or a hold of any kind on their record. Holds are based on outstanding obligations and may be financial. Examples include fines owed for traffic or parking violations, incomplete immunization records, fines owed to the Mason or consortium libraries, and other administrative holds.

Check Patriot Web (Student Services and Financial Aid/Student Records/View Holds) to view your holds. Contact the department that placed the hold on your account in order to resolve the issue.

Process for setting up an independent study

The responsibility for coordinating an Independent Study lies with the student interested in pursuing such an option. These projects are normally structured for one, two, or three credits, can be graded pass/fail or by letter grade, and are out-of-class credit.

Traditionally such projects involve in-depth research and result in the production of a paper. A student may work with a tenured or adjunct professor on an independent study. However, if you wish to work with an adjunct you should plan to do the independent study in a semester when the adjunct is teaching a course at the law school.

JD Students:

The student must prepare a proposal that will govern the project following the guidelines articulated within the “Independent Study Proposal” form. This form and the proposal, once completed, must be forwarded to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, for final approval. The Dean will notify the Records Office once it is approved. Only the Records Office can register students for an Independent Study and will only do so once the project has been set-up and approved.

The deadline for submitting the proposal is one week prior to the last day to drop a course in the semester in which the independent study is to be completed. The Associate Dean will only consider proposals submitted after this date for “good cause” shown.

JM/LLM Students:

Any student interested in proposing an Independent Study first must meet with an academic advisor in Graduate Programs to discuss why an Independent Study is necessary or appropriate, and the proposal does not proceed unless the academic advisor agrees.

If the academic advisor agrees with the student's proposal, the student uses the “Independent Study Proposal” form and must comply with any course proposal guidance set forth in the form.

The student is responsible for finding a professor to serve as faculty advisor for the Independent Study.

The faculty advisor and academic advisor work with the student to complete the proposal, which the student forwards to the academic advisor when complete.

Upon approval by the academic advisor and faculty advisor, the proposal is forwarded to Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives for comments and approval.

Once the proposal is signed by the faculty advisor and by the Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, it is forwarded to the Records office.

The deadline for submitting the proposal is one week prior to the last day to drop a course in the semester in which the independent study is to be completed.