Information for students and faculty

Three parties participate in arranging and authorizing honors college credit for independent study or internship/practicum/field experience: the student, the supervising faculty member and a Lee Honors College advisor. All three must agree upon the specifics of the project before the student will be enrolled in the course for credit.

To count an internship/practicum/field experience or independent study as an honors course, you must first determine if you will be registered for these experiences through a course offered by a WMU academic department other than the honors college. This determination affects the paperwork you will be required to complete and whether or not you must enroll in HNRS 3990 or HNRS 4950.

If you are registered through a WMU department

• You do not need to register for an HNRS 3990 (Field Experience) or HNRS 4950 (Independent Study)

• You do need to submit to your honors advisor a request to use a departmental independent study or field experience as honors college credit form before the drop/add deadline of the semester in which you are enrolled in the independent study or field experience.

• The form must be signed by the faculty member assigned to the course. A graduate assistant/teaching assistant may not sign this form.

If you are not registered for a course at WMU

• You need to register for HNRS 3990 (Field Experience) or HNRS 4950 (Independent Study) in order to receive honors course credit

• You need to submit an agreement form for independent study or field experience before the drop/add deadline of the semester in which you are doing the internship or independent study.

• A WMU faculty member must agree to supervise you and issue you a grade for your internship (in coordination with your internship site supervisor). The WMU faculty member will sign the independent study or field experience agreement form. A graduate assistant/teaching assistant may not supervise you.

• A Lee Honors College advisor will manually register you for the HNRS 3990 or HNRS 4950 course.

• Once you have completed your independent study or field experience, your supervisor must complete the supervisor’s evaluation of student’s field experience and submit it to the WMU supervising faculty member. The WMU faculty member will then record a grade for your independent study or field experience.