Auditing Courses
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Auditing courses allows approved, enrolled students to attend classes without obtaining grades or credit. Students may attend class meetings, participate in any assigned readings or supplementary materials provided by the instructor, and may be approved at the instructor's discretion to participate in class discussions. Courses audited do not count for credit toward a degree program or program entrance requirements.
Not all courses are available for audit and some schools do not approve any course audits.
Information on auditing policies are available from the following schools for your review:
- Columbia College/Columbia Engineering
- School of Professional Studies
- Columbia Business School
- Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation
- Columbia School of Social Work
- Teachers College
Undergraduate and graduate students from the above schools may contact a course instructor to learn if the instructor is accepting audit students.
Special Auditing Programs
In addition, auditing programs for local community members, which are all available from the School of Professional Studies, are outlined below.
General Auditing is available to adults who have not recently attended high school, are not currently enrolled in a college or university, and would like to sit in a designated class as a silent observer. They do pay tuition.
For more information, visit the SPS page on Auditing Programs.
The Lifelong Learners Program at Columbia University was launched in 1986 by the School of Professional Studies and the Brookdale Institute on Aging and Adult Human Development with the aim of establishing at Columbia University a community of mature learners committed to the principles of lifelong education.
Individuals over 65 years of age who are interested in auditing courses may enroll at a discount as Lifelong Learners. They are also silent observers.
For more information, visit the SPS page on Auditing Programs.
The Columbia University School of Professional Studies Manhattanville Course Auditing program provides adult community members not currently enrolled in college with the opportunity to attend, free of charge, selected courses from the University’s offerings in the Arts and Sciences during the academic year.
This community benefit is available to the residents of the Manhattanville and Grant Houses, and the local Manhattanville community in a number of qualifying zip codes in Upper Manhattan.
Auditors are silent participants in class and may join in discussions only at the discretion of the instructor.
For more information, visit the SPS page on Manhattanville Course Auditing.