Visitors' Noncredit Program

Don't need credits? Save money through the Visitors' Noncredit Program

The Visitors' Noncredit Program is designed for adults who are not Cornell University degree candidates and who

• Want to take courses at Cornell at a significant discount
• Do not need those courses listed on an official Cornell transcript
• Do not need to earn credits

With the permission of a course's instructor, and upon payment of a fee, noncredit visitors may sit in on most regularly scheduled, non-participatory, on-campus courses.

You will not earn credits for courses taken through this program, and these courses will not appear on your transcript.

Don't need credits but want a transcript?

If you wish to attend courses at Cornell, don't need to earn credits, but do want your courses to appear on your transcript, see auditing a course.

Program fee

The Visitors' Noncredit Program fee is $TBA. This non-refundable fee is 90 percent off the regular tuition charge. It does not include textbooks or materials.

Program regulations

1. Students in this program must attest that they have received all doses in the primary series of an FDA- or WHO-authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine (e.g., two doses of Pfizer or Moderna, or a single dose of Johnson & Johnson) when they complete the registration form.
2. Students in this program may not enroll in off-campus, online, or participatory courses, including, but not limited to, those in photography, studio and performing arts, computer science, languages, movement and physical education, and the laboratory sciences.
3. Initial permission to register as a noncredit visitor rests with the college or school, its departments, and its faculty members. Individual colleges and schools may limit the number of visitors in each course and determine whether visitors are permitted at all. (Currently, visitors are not permitted to register in courses offered by the School of Hotel Administration or the College of Veterinary Medicine.) Final approval for granting visitor status, however, is at the sole discretion of the registrar of the School of Continuing Education (SCE).
4. There must be space available in a course for a noncredit visitor after all students enrolling for credit have been accommodated.
5. No transcript, grade record, or proof of attendance will be kept for noncredit visitors.
6. Noncredit visitors may take one course per semester. Requests for additional courses must be approved by the SCE Dean.
7. Because noncredit visitors do not receive a Cornell University ID card, they do not have borrowing privileges at university libraries or access to other university facilities and services, including assignment of a Cornell NetID.
8. In addition to the restrictions above, this program is not open to high school students. (See the high school students registration page for more information.)

How to register

The program is on pause through Summer 2023.