Independent Studies are student-driven explorations that are equivalent to a full course. Students initiate and carry out independent studies under the supervision of faculty or community sponsors. An independent study is particularly appropriate for advanced or specially focused work not offered in the regular course curriculum or for study in fields not offered by COA.

Independent studies are fairly easy to arrange. The student needs to write a proposal, which must be approved by the academic advisor and a faculty member who agrees to serve as the independent study sponsor.

Over the years, students have done independent studies on almost every topic imaginable: the history of travel literature; learning how to fly a plane; learning Portugese; animal tracking; learning to program in java; a comparative study of Russian satirists; learning dance choreography; exploration of the use of education to create socio-economic change in India; and epidemiology.