Do Non-Credit or Audit Courses Count Toward Your GPA?
What Appears on Your Transcript, What Counts in the Calculation, and What Doesn't

What Is an Audit Course?

Auditing a course means enrolling to attend and participate without receiving academic credit or a formal grade. You sit in the lectures, access course materials, and — in most cases — complete readings and assignments at whatever level you choose. At the end of the semester, the course appears on your transcript with a notation such as "AU" (audit), "V" (visitor), or "NC" (no credit), rather than a letter grade.

The key features that define an audit:

• No credit hours earned: The course doesn't count toward your degree credit hour total.
• No grade assigned: You don't receive an A, B, C, or any letter. The transcript notation is categorical — you either completed the audit (AU) or you didn't show up enough to qualify even for that.
• No quality points: Without a letter grade and without credit hours, there's nothing to put into the GPA formula. An audit course is completely invisible to the GPA calculation.

The practical effect on your GPA: zero. A student with a 3.5 GPA on 60 credit hours who audits three courses still has a 3.5 GPA on 60 credit hours. The audited courses don't appear in the numerator (quality points) or the denominator (credit hours) of the GPA formula.

What Is a Non-Credit Course?

A non-credit course is a course offered by a college or university that does not count toward a degree and does not produce credit hours on your official academic transcript. These are sometimes called:

• Continuing education (CE) courses
• Professional development courses
• Workforce training or community education courses
• Enrichment or personal interest courses

Non-credit courses are common in continuing education divisions of universities. They're designed for working professionals, community members, or students who want to learn a skill without earning academic credit. They typically have their own registration process, separate from the regular academic course catalog, and they produce a completely separate record — often a continuing education transcript or certificate, not your academic transcript.

Because non-credit courses produce no academic credit hours and no letter grade on your official transcript, they have no effect on your GPA whatsoever. They may not even appear on the same document as your degree coursework.

How These Course Types Appear on Your Transcript

For a full comparison of how different grading modes affect your GPA, see our guide on what counts toward your GPA.

Why Students Audit Courses

Auditing is less common than standard enrollment, but there are specific situations where it makes real sense:

Exploring a Subject Without Commitment

You're curious about computer science but not sure if you want to pursue it. Auditing an introductory course lets you attend lectures, work through the material at your own pace, and decide if it's worth taking seriously — without a grade on your record and without the seat counting against your credit hour limits or pass/fail allowance.

Refreshing Knowledge Before a Higher-Level Course

You took organic chemistry two years ago and want to refresh before starting biochemistry. Auditing orgo again lets you attend lectures and review without re-earning the credit hours (which you already have) or muddying your transcript with a second attempt.

Sitting In on a Course Outside Your Major

You're a law student interested in finance, or an MBA student interested in behavioral psychology. Auditing a course in another school or program gives you access to the instruction without requiring formal enrollment in a degree program you don't intend to complete.

Disability or Health Accommodations

Some students who begin a semester on a medical leave or reduced load audited one or more courses with the intention of taking them formally in a later semester. The audit gave them exposure to the material while protecting them from a grade during a health-impacted period.

Senior or Continuing Education Enrollment

Many universities offer reduced-cost or free auditing to senior community members or alumni. These programs let community members access continuing education without the administrative overhead of full academic enrollment.

The Requirements to Earn the AU Notation

An audit isn't passive observation with no expectations. Most schools require you to meet a minimum attendance threshold to receive the AU notation on your transcript. The typical requirement is attending at least half or two-thirds of class sessions.

If you register as an auditor but fail to meet the minimum attendance standard, one of two things happens depending on the institution:

• The course is removed from your transcript entirely (as if you never enrolled)
• You receive a notation of "W" (withdrawal) or "NAU" (no audit) instead of "AU"

Neither of those outcomes affects your GPA. But the "W" notation in particular can draw questions from graduate admissions committees if you have several of them — even if each one was an audit-related withdrawal rather than a standard course withdrawal.

The specific attendance and participation requirements for auditors vary by institution and sometimes by course. Confirm the expectations with the course instructor before enrolling as an auditor.

Financial Aid and Audit Courses

Audit courses have no credit hours. This matters significantly for financial aid.

Enrollment Status for Financial Aid

Federal financial aid programs (Pell Grant, subsidized loans, unsubsidized loans) are disbursed based on your enrollment intensity — full-time, three-quarter time, half-time, or less than half-time. Enrollment intensity is determined by the number of credit hours you're taking, not the total number of courses.

Because audited courses produce zero credit hours, they don't count toward your enrollment intensity. If you're taking 9 credit hours for credit and auditing one additional course, your enrollment intensity is based on the 9 credit hours, not on 12 or 13.

For most federal aid, full-time enrollment means 12 credit hours per semester. If dropping to 9 credit hours (three-quarter time) changes your aid disbursement, adding an audit course doesn't restore you to full-time status.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

SAP requirements — which you must maintain to keep financial aid eligibility — include a credit completion rate: you must successfully complete a certain percentage of the credits you attempt. Audited courses are generally not counted as either attempted or completed for SAP purposes, because they produce no credit hours. They don't help your completion rate, and they don't hurt it.

However, policies on this can vary by institution. Some schools count audit registrations differently for administrative purposes. If you're near an SAP threshold, confirm with your financial aid office exactly how audits are treated before registering.

Private Scholarships and Enrollment Requirements

Some private scholarships require full-time enrollment as a condition of maintaining the award. The definition of "full-time" in a scholarship agreement may or may not match the federal financial aid definition. Read your scholarship terms carefully — if "full-time" means 12 credit-bearing hours, then audits won't count toward that requirement any more than they count for federal aid.

Graduate School and Professional School Applications

Graduate admissions committees and professional school application services handle audit courses consistently: they exclude them from GPA calculations because there's nothing to include.

AMCAS (Medical School)

AMCAS excludes audited courses from its GPA calculation. Audited courses that appear on your transcript are typically listed in your course entries without a grade point value, and AMCAS does not assign them quality points. Verify the current policy at aamc.org — AMCAS documentation is the authoritative source.

LSAC (Law School)

LSAC similarly excludes audited courses from its calculated undergraduate GPA. The course appears on your transcript, but LSAC does not compute a quality point value for it. Verify current policy at lsac.org.

How Graduate Committees View Audit Notations

If an audit course appears on your transcript, it's visible to anyone who reads the transcript — including graduate admissions committees. A few audit notations are generally unremarkable. A large number of audits might prompt a reader to wonder about your academic engagement, but this is rarely a significant concern unless combined with other problematic patterns.

One situation where an audit can actually be useful: you audited a course in your graduate field before applying, signaling genuine interest and self-directed learning. This is not a substitute for grades, but it can add a small positive note to your narrative about intellectual engagement with the field.

Credit-by-Exam and GPA: AP, IB, CLEP

This is adjacent territory that creates consistent confusion. Credits earned through:

• AP (Advanced Placement) exams
• IB (International Baccalaureate) exams
• CLEP (College-Level Examination Program)

…are typically recorded as transfer credit or exam credit on your transcript — and do not count toward your GPA at most colleges. They earn credit hours (which can count toward graduation requirements), but they don't carry a letter grade, so they contribute no quality points to your GPA calculation.

This is actually intentional and beneficial: the credit reduces how many courses you need to take, but it doesn't expose your GPA to a bad grade in a course you'd find difficult. A student who places out of calculus via AP credit and struggles with quantitative work doesn't have a C or D in calculus dragging down their GPA.

See our guide on what counts toward your GPA for more detail on how transfer credits and exam credits are handled, including the important distinction between how your home institution computes your GPA versus how professional school application services like AMCAS and LSAC handle transferred grades.

Developmental and Remedial Courses

Remedial or developmental courses — sometimes called preparatory or foundational courses — are below college level and don't count toward degree credit requirements at most institutions. They're designed to bring students up to the readiness level needed for college coursework in areas like math, reading, or writing.

How they interact with GPA varies:

• Some schools exclude remedial course grades from the GPA entirely. The course appears on the transcript, but the grade is not factored into the cumulative GPA calculation. This is the most common approach.
• Some schools include remedial grades in the GPA. If the school counts the grade, a low grade in a remedial course can hurt the GPA even though the course didn't contribute to degree progress.
• AMCAS and LSAC generally exclude remedial courses from their calculated GPAs, since these courses don't count as college-level coursework. Verify current policies at aamc.org and lsac.org.

If you took remedial courses, check your school's academic catalog to see whether their grades are included in your institutional GPA.

How to Register as an Auditor

The process for registering as an auditor varies by institution. Common steps include:

1. Check eligibility: Some schools restrict auditing to degree-seeking students, alumni, or community members with specific affiliations. Others allow any enrolled student to audit any course with space available.
2. Get instructor permission: Many courses require the instructor's permission to audit. This is often a formality — most instructors agree — but it's a required step.
3. Register through the registrar or add/drop system: You typically register for an audit during the same add/drop window as regular course enrollment. You may select "audit" as the grade mode in your registration system, or you may need to submit a separate audit registration form.
4. Confirm fees: Audit enrollment may or may not be free. Some schools charge the full tuition rate for auditing; others charge a reduced rate; others charge nothing. This varies significantly by institution and program.
5. Confirm attendance requirements: Ask the instructor what they expect from auditors — attendance, participation, assignment completion. Clarifying expectations upfront prevents confusion about whether you qualify for the AU notation at semester's end.

Converting an Audit to Credit (and Vice Versa)

Some students register for a course and then decide they want to switch from credit to audit status, or they start as an auditor and decide they want the credit.

Switching from Credit to Audit

Most schools allow this during the add/drop period, similar to electing pass/fail grading. After the add/drop deadline, switching to audit status is typically not permitted — you're locked into your grade mode. If you switch to audit before the deadline, the course will not affect your GPA regardless of how the semester goes.

Switching from Audit to Credit

Some institutions allow the reverse — switching from auditor to full enrollment — if space permits in the course and you make the request before the add/drop deadline. After the deadline, this switch is typically not permitted, and you cannot retroactively convert an audited course to credit-bearing enrollment after the semester ends.

Completing an Audit and Later Taking the Course for Credit

If you audit a course in one semester and want to take it for credit in a later semester, this is generally permitted — you simply re-enroll in the standard credit-bearing mode. The audit does not substitute for the credit enrollment. You'll receive a regular letter grade the second time around, and that grade will count toward your GPA normally.

Continuing Education Units (CEUs)

Some professional development and non-credit courses are measured in Continuing Education Units (CEUs) rather than credit hours. One CEU is traditionally defined as 10 hours of contact instruction time in a non-credit learning activity. CEUs are used across industries to document professional training and licensure-related continuing education.

CEUs are entirely separate from academic credit hours. They do not appear on your academic transcript, they do not count toward your degree, and they have no effect on your GPA. They appear on continuing education records or certificates that are separate from your academic transcript entirely.

If you list CEU courses on a resume or graduate application, list them in a professional development or continuing education section — not in the academic coursework section. They're useful for demonstrating professional engagement, not academic preparation.

Online Non-Credit Courses: Coursera, edX, and Similar Platforms

Non-credit courses taken through online platforms — Coursera, edX, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and similar — are completely outside your academic record. They produce no academic credit hours, no letter grade, and no GPA impact of any kind. Certificates from these platforms are valued by employers in certain fields but carry no weight in academic GPA calculations.

When applying to graduate programs, online non-credit certificates can be mentioned in your application materials as evidence of continuing learning and skill development, but they are not a substitute for academic coursework. A certificate in machine learning from Coursera is not equivalent to a letter-graded machine learning course at an accredited university in the eyes of a graduate admissions committee.

The GPA Formula: Why Audits and Non-Credits Are Excluded

To understand precisely why audit and non-credit courses can't affect your GPA, it helps to look at the formula directly:

Quality points are calculated as: Grade Points × Credit Hours for each course.

An audit course contributes:

• Grade points: None (no letter grade assigned)
• Credit hours: 0 (no credit hours earned)
• Quality points: 0 × 0 = 0

Adding zero to both the numerator and the denominator of a fraction doesn't change the value of the fraction. The GPA is mathematically unchanged.

Use our college GPA calculator to verify how letter-graded courses affect your GPA, and see our guide on GPA on the 4.0 scale explained for a full walkthrough of how the formula works.

Practical Scenarios

Scenario 1: The Curious Graduate Student

A history PhD student audits an economics course to build background for their dissertation research on economic history. They attend every lecture, do the readings, and get a great deal out of it. Their graduate transcript shows "AU" next to the economics course. Their GPA is unaffected. Their thesis committee, reviewing their record, sees a student who actively sought economic literacy outside their formal curriculum — a minor positive signal, not a concern.

Scenario 2: The Pre-Med Who Audits Organic Chemistry First

A pre-med sophomore audits organic chemistry in the spring to preview the course before taking it for a letter grade in the fall. The audit shows on their transcript. When they take the course officially, they earn a B+. AMCAS sees the audit notation and the B+; only the B+ affects their science GPA. The strategy worked — the preview helped them prepare, and the audit itself was GPA-neutral.

Scenario 3: The Financial Aid Miscalculation

A student is enrolled in 9 credit hours and auditing a 3-credit course. They believe they're a full-time student taking 12 "hours" of instruction. In fact, for federal financial aid purposes, they're a three-quarter-time student (9 credit hours). Their loan disbursement is reduced accordingly. This is a common and avoidable mistake — audit hours look like enrollment on a class schedule but don't count for financial aid intensity.

Scenario 4: The Non-Credit Certificate Program

A working professional takes several non-credit data analytics courses through a university's continuing education division. They earn certificates in Python and SQL. These certificates appear on a continuing education transcript, not their academic transcript. Their undergraduate GPA remains exactly what it was when they graduated four years ago. When they apply to an MS in Data Science program, they include the certificates in their application's professional development section — the admissions committee notes the initiative but considers it supplementary to their academic record.

Frequently Asked Questions

Auditing Graduate Courses as an Undergraduate

At some universities, undergraduates can audit graduate-level courses with permission from the graduate program and the instructor. This is more common at research universities where undergraduate and graduate instruction happen on the same campus, and where graduate courses in a field might be the most advanced offering available.

An undergraduate auditing a graduate seminar receives the same AU notation as auditing any other course — no credit hours, no grade, no GPA impact. The audit simply indicates they attended. This can be genuinely valuable for undergraduates who want exposure to graduate-level discussion in their field, and it can support a compelling narrative in a graduate school application ("I audited three graduate seminars in biochemistry during my junior and senior year…").

However, be aware that graduate courses taken for credit by undergraduates — not audited, but actually enrolled for a grade — are handled differently. Many graduate programs include grades earned in graduate courses during undergraduate enrollment in their GPA calculations, particularly AMCAS and LSAC, which may have specific policies about how graduate-level coursework completed as an undergraduate is treated. Verify the relevant application service's policy if you're considering taking graduate courses for credit as an undergraduate.

Employer and Background Check Implications

Employers who conduct academic background checks typically verify that the GPA and degree on your resume match what the institution records. These checks look at your official academic record — not the same thing as your continuing education or non-credit record.

Non-credit and audit courses generally don't appear on official academic transcripts or in automated academic record verification systems. If you list a non-credit certificate on your resume, an employer background check designed to verify academic credentials won't find it in your academic transcript — because it was never there. This is not a problem as long as you're clear about what kind of credential it is (a certificate from a continuing education program, not an academic course or degree).

If you are ever asked to provide your academic transcript to an employer, the transcript they receive will show your credit-bearing coursework and your GPA. Audit notations may or may not appear depending on the institution and the transcript type requested. Non-credit courses will not appear at all. This is simply the nature of these course types and is not something you need to explain or manage beyond accuracy on your resume.

How Academic Advisors View Heavy Audit Use

From an academic advisor's perspective, a student who frequently audits courses is typically demonstrating intellectual curiosity rather than a problem — it's a legitimate and positive use of the audit option. The concern arises when audit use suggests avoidance: if a student audits courses they were initially enrolled in for credit and then switched to audit because they were struggling, that pattern is worth understanding and addressing.

If you're considering auditing a course for avoidance reasons — you're enrolled in it for credit and you're worried about the grade — talk to an academic advisor before making the switch. The audit conversion is usually irreversible after the add/drop deadline, and your advisor can help you think through whether pass/fail grading, a withdrawal, or simply pushing through for the letter grade makes more sense for your specific situation. Each of those options has different consequences, and an advisor can help you see the full picture.

Transcript Notation Differences by Institution

While "AU" is the most common notation for an audited course, institutions use different designations. Understanding what notation your school uses matters if someone else is interpreting your transcript:

If you receive a W because you didn't meet audit attendance minimums, that W looks identical to a standard course withdrawal on your transcript. Graduate reviewers can't tell from the transcript alone whether a W came from dropping a credit course or failing to meet an audit attendance threshold. If this situation applies to you and you're applying to graduate programs, a brief mention in an additional information section can clarify what actually happened.

Frequently Confused: Audit vs. Pass/Fail vs. Withdrawal

Students sometimes use "audit," "pass/fail," and "withdrawal" interchangeably when they mean different things. Here's how to tell them apart:

Audit: You register for a course as an observer. You attend but do not receive a grade or credit hours. The AU notation appears on your transcript. GPA impact: zero.

Pass/Fail: You enroll for credit and receive a Pass or Fail designation instead of a letter grade. A pass earns credit hours but no quality points — GPA-neutral. A fail earns no credit hours and counts as 0.0 in the GPA calculation at most schools — GPA harm. This is meaningfully different from auditing.

Withdrawal: You drop a course after the add/drop period. You receive a W on your transcript. A W earns no credit hours and no quality points — GPA-neutral at most schools. But unlike an audit, you were trying to earn credit and chose to leave. Multiple Ws can raise questions with graduate admissions committees about persistence and course commitment.

The critical distinction is between auditing and pass/fail: auditing is completely GPA-neutral regardless of how you performed. Pass/fail is GPA-neutral only if you pass — a fail in a pass/fail course typically does lower your GPA. Students who elect pass/fail thinking it's equivalent to auditing are making a significant error. Auditing removes GPA consequences entirely; pass/fail removes them only for the positive outcome.

If you're trying to reduce GPA risk from a course, auditing is more protective than pass/fail — but auditing earns no credit hours. If you need the credit hours and want GPA protection, pass/fail is the tool for that job, with the understanding that a fail still counts. If you need neither the credit hours nor the stress, and just want the learning experience, auditing is the right choice. If you want to eliminate the course from your record entirely mid-semester, withdrawal is your path. These four options serve different purposes and shouldn't be treated as interchangeable.

Sources and Further Reading

• University registrar academic-policy pages (individual institutions set their own audit and non-credit policies)
• U.S. Department of Education — Federal Student Aid guidance on enrollment status and SAP
• AAMC — AMCAS Instruction Manual (for audit course GPA treatment — verify at aamc.org)
• LSAC — Policies and Procedures for GPA Calculation (verify at lsac.org)
• NCES — National Center for Education Statistics (for context on grading and credit practices)

Related guides: What counts toward your GPA — a complete reference for every course type, grading mode, and credit situation. And Does a pass/fail class affect your GPA — for the one grading mode adjacent to auditing that does sometimes affect your GPA (the fail outcome).

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