Audit a Stanford Academic Course

Learn from some of the brightest minds at Stanford for free! Audit a Stanford academic class to expand your horizons and support your professional development or career enrichment.

Auditing is available on a space available-basis for lecture courses, not courses that involve direct participation such as language or laboratory science courses, field work, art courses with studio work, or other types of individualized instruction. Academic credit is not available for audited courses. Auditing is available during Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters.

Learn more about auditing an academic course

To request approval to audit:

1. Locate the course you wish to audit in Explore Courses.
2. Reach out to the following people to obtain approval to audit the course: the course instructor, the Student Services Officer in the department that offers the course, and your manager (if the course is offered during your work hours).
3. Complete and submit the Application for Auditor Status. To complete the application, you will need to upload approval emails from the instructor and Student Services Officer.

Deadline:

The Application for Auditor Status opens on a quarter-by-quarter basis at the start of enrollment; and the deadline to submit is the Study List Deadline for the quarter you wish to audit. Please visit the Academic Dates webpage at Student Services to find the Study List Deadline.

Canvas access:

After your Application for Auditor Status has been approved, reach out to the course instructor to request access to the course Canvas page.

Auditing Graduate School of Business courses:

The Graduate School of Business publishes a list of courses that accept auditors each quarter and maintains a separate process and deadlines for obtaining approval to audit. For more information, please visit the Auditing webpage at the Graduate School of Business.