What you want to do is take a course or two for personal enrichment from another department. It’s generally not a problem as long as you get permission of your adviser and permission of the department you’re taking the course in.

It won’t count in your master’s degree requirements, but in your case it doesn’t appear that would matter to you.

I’m doing that this very semester with an out of area course to decide if I like that program enough to try their MA. It’s not inside my MBA program at all. You’d have to be qualified for admission to that program to do it.

It’s most likely though that you will have to pay for it yourself and it will effect your course load. You won’t be allowed to overload into it.

1. No graduate student may take courses outside their field of study without permission from their advisor.

2. No graduate student may take courses below the 400 level and have it covered by their tuition waiver.

3. No graduate student may cover more than 18 credits per year on their tuition waiver.

Now, if you are working for a straight stipend and are not recieveing a tuition waiver, then these guidlines may not be useful at all, however your best bet is to find an advisor that is willing to work with you on achieving your goals. If you cannot find one that is willing to allow you to spread out your studies beyond the scope of French, perhaps explore an Interdisciplinary degree with concentrations in your areas of interest.

If you like, what you can always do is take some courses outside of your program at another college or university. I likely won’t be transferable, but at least you’ll get to take courses that you want.