Special Options

Faculty Aide Program

Candidates with 3.5 or higher grade-point averages (GPAs) who have completed 4 courses at the Extension School may become research assistants to faculty members through the Faculty Aide Program. The program provides opportunities to develop research skills while supporting faculty in their research projects.

Research assistants are paid $12 an hour for a maximum of 50 hours to work with an instructor on his or her research. Approval of such projects is contingent on availability of funds, and a candidate can hold only 1 position each term.

Candidates interested in this option should review the Faculty Aide Program information sheet and discuss this option with the program office.

Special Student status

ALM degree candidates with GPAs of 3.5 or higher may, with recommendations from the ALM office and 2 instructors, be considered for Special Student status, which enables candidates to enroll in 2 courses per term for 1 academic year in the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Candidates must submit a Special Student petition (see Forms) to Peter O’Malley, assistant director of the ALM program.

They must also submit the Special Student application form—available on the Special Student page on the GSAS website—to Holyoke Center 350, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue. Candidates should meet with the assistant director before applying. The deadlines to have the ALM office process an application and write recommendations are necessarily earlier than the Special Student Office’s deadlines.

Deadlines and tuition. For the 2011 spring term, the ALM office deadline is September 15; for the 2011 fall term, it is February 15. Special Students pay the full GSAS tuition of $4,372 per course.

Before registering, Harvard employees who are eligible for TAP benefits and who wish to enroll in GSAS courses that they intend to count toward the ALM must notify the assistant director of the ALM program. At the conclusion of the course, these students must arrange to have their GSAS transcript sent to the ALM office. Harvard employees on TAP do not need to apply for Special Student status to take GSAS classes.

Study abroad

Harvard Summer School offers study abroad opportunities for 8 credits, and partial tuition scholarships for a limited number of ALM candidates are available. Candidates should use the Summer School Extension student degree course search to determine if study abroad courses can be applied to their degrees. ALM students are permitted to count no more than 8 credits from study abroad programs toward their degree requirements.

Pursuing more than 1 ALM degree

Candidates who wish to pursue 2 ALM degrees should contact Peter O’Malley, assistant director of the ALM program, to review their record prior to graduation. If they have taken additional courses that they wish to apply to a second degree, those courses must be removed from their first degree record before it is sealed. Once the record is sealed, courses may not be removed and applied elsewhere.