Common Undergraduate Forms and Guides

Excess Credits Petition

    • Use this form if you want to enroll in MORE than 21 credits in a semester

GUIDE to Add/Drop Process

GUIDE to New Graduation Application Process for Undergraduate Students

    • Guide for Advisors and Certifying Officers--this is the SAME person for Earth Sciences
    • October 1 is the deadline for Spring graduation, submitted the preceding Fall semester
    • March 1 is the deadline for Summer or Fall graduation, submitted the preceding Spring semester

Petition to Register/Reserve for Credits

    • This form is for undergraduate students who wish to register for a graduate level course.

For a complete list of Registrar Forms, visit the Registrar's website here. 

Department Forms

ESCI Undergraduate Independent Study Form

    • Use this for ERTH/GEO/GPHY 490R or 492 or 498, GEO 497, GPHY 497, ERTH/GEO 499
    • Student should speak to advisor BEFORE completing the above form
  • FAQ's about this form 
    • What is an internship? ERTH/GEO/GPHY 498
      • Internships allow students to earn credit for gaining hands-on experience in a position related to their major. For example, the internship could be a seasonal position where students participate in data collection and analysis or other activities with professional research or management personnel. The experience could be on-campus and in collaboration with a faculty member, or off-campus working with a professional related to the student’s chosen area of study.
    • How do I set up an internship?
      • Once you’ve located an internship, your next step is to select a faculty sponsor who can help you navigate your internship. Then you’ll contact your work supervisor and together discuss the nature of the internship: what work would be involved, how much, over what period of time.
    • What is an independent study? ERTH/GEO/GPHY 492

      • Independent study opportunities allow students to earn credit for exploring a specific topic of interest, related to their major and future career. Typically, these independent study topics are not already explored in another MSU course offering. The independent study experience will likely include finding and exploring existing knowledge related to the topic of interest and result in some kind of final project (e.g., written paper, literature review, etc.).

        The independent study program must contribute to the student’s intellectual growth and development, include structured supervision by faculty in the Earth Sciences Department, and result in a final product.

    • What is an undergraduate research course? ERTH/GEO/GPHY 490R 

      • Undergraduate research opportunities allow students to earn credit for participating in the research process. The research experience can include developing research questions and hypotheses, analyzing newly collected or existing data to address those questions and evaluate hypotheses, exploring existing knowledge related to the questions (e.g., published literature), and results in a final scholarly product (e.g., written paper, poster, etc.).

        The research program must contribute to the student’s intellectual growth and development, include structured supervision by faculty in the Earth Sciences Department, and result in a final scholarly product.

    • Who do I list as the instructor and who do I list as the advisor? 
      • For an internship, you will list the MSU faculty member overseeing your project as the "Project Advisor" since they will be the ones issueing the final grade. You will list whoever is overseeing your internship on-site as the "instructor". 
      • For an independent study and undergraduate research, you will list both the instructor and advisor as the MSU faculty member you are working with.
    • I am currently employed, can I get internship credit? 
      • Perhaps! The internship adds an academic element to any professional experience. If your current employment involves work related to your degree, if your work supervisor is willing to evaluate it for internship credit, and if a faculty sponsor agrees that it has merit as a learning experience, then you could consider enrolling for internship credit by adding that academic component.
    • How are the credits earned determined? 

      • The amount of credits earned are based on how much time you spend working. A semester-long 3-credit-hour internship should require about the same amount of work as any other three-hour course, which the university calculates a minimum of 9-10 hours per week. Typically, it’s 3 hours in class and 6 hours outside of class.

        So if you work at your internship for about 10 hours a week, you can get 3 credits. If it’s less than that, it would be a 1 or 2 credit internship and the credits are calculated proportionately.

        You and your faculty sponsor should look over the amount of work you propose to do and discuss a fair amount of academic credit for it.

ESCI Graduate Independent Study Form

    • Use this for ERTH/GEO/GPHY 592
    • Student should speak to project advisor and academic advisor BEFORE completing

Graduate Student Forms

IMPORTANT: Form must be turned in to the Graduate School once the DocuSign is complete. Submissions should go through their SharePoint folder found in the blue banner here.

Program of Study

    • This form is used to set in place the student's program of study for master's or doctoral students.
    • Your committee must already be on file through MyInfo e-committee. 

Program of Study Revision

    • This form is used when a student wishes to make a change to their program of study.

Report on Year 1 Committee Meeting and Evaluation/Thesis Defense, Masters

    • Committee Chair completes when a Master's student takes the Comp Exam or Thesis Defense.

Report on Qualifying Exam, Doctoral 

    • Committee Chair completes when a Doctoral student takes the Qualifying Exam.

Reports on Master's Comprehensive Exam/Thesis Defense and Doctoral Comprehensive Exam/Dissertation Defense 

 You can find all grad school forms here.

If you do not see a form listed here that you need, please search the Montana.edu website or contact Earth Sciences at earth@montana.edu.