Independent Study Guidelines
Students may register for an independent study during each semester of the regular academic year. Essential features governing independent study are as follows:
New York Six Cross-Registration
Colgate University, Hamilton College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Skidmore College, St. Lawrence University, and Union College.
Sharing Grades with Family
Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, the University may not disclose personally identifying information from students’ educational records (including schedules, grades, and GPA) without the student’s consent. To allow students to share their information with trusted individuals like parents or guardians, Colgate uses the InfoShare system.
Degree Planning
About Degree Works
To help students and advisers monitor progress toward degree completion, Colgate uses Degree Works, a web-based tool which uses degree requirements from the University Catalog and re-organizes the student’s transcript categorically to produce an easy-to-read audit.
The audit is divided into blocks to show all of the necessary requirements and how courses taken or in-progress count toward those requirements. Each block contains checkboxes to easily identify what courses and requirements are complete, almost complete, or still outstanding.
FERPA
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and its implementing regulations, as amended (collectively, FERPA), afford students certain rights with respect to their education records.
These rights are:
1. The right to inspect and review the student's educational records within a reasonable time, not to exceed 45 days, of the day the university receives his/her request for access.