This semester, many students took classes in which they did not receive grades and may not have had to complete all the course requirements.

Auditing classes are a way for students to see what a class is like without having it affect their grade point average.

This semester, there were 273 registered audits, said Donald Larson, executive director of enrollment services and university registrar.

Of last year’s 212,000 grades that were given, 853 audit grades were given to NIU students from fall 2003 to summer 2004, Larson said.

Though auditing is not for credit, according to the 2004-05 undergraduate catalog, the letter “O” or “OW” will be recorded on the student’s transcripts. An “O” means the course requirements were met and “OW” means the requirements were not met.

When enrolled in an audited course, a student can attend class and listen to lectures, said Sue Watterson, chief clerk of records and registration. The instructor sets requirements for students to meet and the amount of participation they can and/or should put forth.

To audit a class, students need to first contact the department of interest and get permission from an instructor, Watterson said. This is one determining factor for which classes can be audited.

Students may want to audit a class for a variety of reasons. Before moving on to the next course, a student may want to audit a refresher course to review information, Watterson said. Students also may audit because they don’t want the class to affect their GPA but are interested in the course, she said.

There also has to be room in the class to audit. If the class is full, no one will be able to audit, said Harold Kafer, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

“If someone asks to audit when registration is in progress, this wouldn’t work until all students who are taking the class for credit had the opportunity to do so,” Kafer said.

According to the undergraduate catalog, students need to pay tuition for the class at the time of registration – the same as they would if they were taking the course for credit.

Larson said the last day to change a course from credit to audit or audit to credit for the spring 2005 semester is Feb. 1.