Taking a class at university as a non-affiliated student

[sethmachine]

Hi,

What is is called when one wishes to attend a class at a college/university which they are not affiliated with, and said class would count for no credit of any kind--it is attended/taken for sheer academic curiosity / stimulation / etc.

I want to call it external auditing (versus internal auditing) but surprisingly few schools seem to have information about this kind of enrollment.

My alma mater does, though the policy is ridiculous: as an external student you pay full tuition for each audited course, with the understanding that it can never be used as credit or towards any future degree.

Is this a normal practice at colleges / universities, or an exception? Obviously I doubt a school like Harvard would have such a program, even for graduates from (less) prestigious universities, and after all few graduates ever have any need of such external auditing.

The reason I'm looking into this is because I took a year off, so I can't be enrolled in grad school until Fall 2015, and I'd like to keep my mind sharp and continue learning.

Just curious if anyone else knows about this kind of stuff (in U.S.).

 

[PurgeandFire]

Yeah, we usually call it auditing. It normally requires permission from the instructor, and/or GSI's (if you'd like to audit the discussions as well), and they'll make some sort of arrangement. If it is a big class (lower div) no one will notice though, lol. If it is upper div, definitely ask for permission. I'm not sure if there is a name for it. I mean, you're not considered a student at that particular university unless you enroll. That might be why there is no info on it. It is weird that your alma mater even specifies a cost--usually auditing is considered "open". But maybe you went to a private. idk.

Otherwise, "official" enrollment as an external person is usually referred to as "Concurrent Enrollment", or sometimes "Dual Enrollment". But I don't think that is what you want. It is normally used for actual credit, and you would participate in exams and quizzes etc. It is also insanely expensive.

But policies can vary from school to school. It'd be best if you call an academic advisor or some other similar authority and ask them what you should do.