Auditing a Course

If you audit a course, you attend the lectures but do not turn in assignments or take exams. You do not receive credit for the course and will receive an AD (audited) or WA (withdrew from an audited course) notation on your transcript. There are only a few circumstances where an audit is useful. These include:

• if you want to explore an area unrelated to your major and the course is outside of your primary interests;
• if you want a review of an area you are already knowledgeable in, or;
• if a course is of particular interest but would require an extraordinary effort for you to take for a grade along with your other planned courses.

You cannot repeat for credit a course previously audited at Duke or at another college or university, so be sure that any audited course does not fall into an area in which you might later decide to major or minor or complete a certificate. 

Once you have enrolled in a course for regular credit, you cannot later change it to an audit if the drop/add deadline has passed. You may not audit physical education, studio art, applied music, dance technique, or performance courses. You should also not audit a foreign language course if you are planning to fulfill the foreign language requirement in that language and there is any reason to believe that you may need to take that course for credit.

In order to register as an auditor in a course, you must complete the form found on the Registrar's Office website prior to the end of the drop/add period. Click here to access the form, and click on "Permission to Audit Form.

Last updated: January 2, 2018