Auditing is a privilege extended to matriculated RISD students who wish to attend classes or other regular activities of a course, but not to receive grades or credit or to submit work to the instructor for criticism. Non-degree seeking students, including students visiting or here on exchange, are not eligible to audit.

In order to audit a course, instructor permission is required. Instructors will accept auditors only if class size and facilities permit. Registration for audit status is available during the Add/Drop period only. Audit status must be specifically approved by the instructor.

Auditors may change to regular enrollment (i.e. for credit and a grade) only during the Add/Drop period. Requests to audit a course after the Add/Drop period will not be accepted. For purposes of maintaining good academic standing, auditing is not counted toward the student’s required minimum credit load. As such, since no credits are awarded when auditing, students do not need to request an exception for a credit overload if they are already at their maximum semester credit load. Students are eligible to audit a course as long as they are actively registered for the semester. There is a maximum of three audits in a student’s career.

When auditing, there is an attendance requirement of a minimum of two-thirds of the class meetings. The student’s satisfactory participation as an auditor will be indicated by “AU” on his or her transcript. Students who do not meet the attendance requirement may be withdrawn from the course by the instructor, in which case the grade of “W” will be recorded.