Most classes at Stanford are not repeatable for credit, meaning you can only earn the units for them once. You may choose to repeat the course a second time. But if you technically passed the class the first time around (i.e. earned either a Credit grade or a D- or better Letter Grade), you will not gain any additional units for taking the class again.
During course registration, students must choose a Grade Option (see "Grade" section below). Students will only earn the course units if they select the Credit/No Credit or Letter Grade option. We do not provide individual course completion certificates. An official transcript is Stanford University's documentation of your academic record.
Course credits earned. The course must have substantial content overlap with Stanford course work. A maximum of 20 quarter units may represent courses which do not parallel specific undergraduate courses at Stanford. The course cannot duplicate, overlap, or regress previous work. You must receive at least a ‘C-’ grade. ‘Pass’ grades are only accepted when that grade is …
Eligibility. Students who have completed high school and have completed courses for college credit in an associates or bachelor’s degree program since completing high school must apply for transfer admission. Transfer coursework must be completed at an accredited degree-granting institution; coursework completed in vocational, technical ...
The Open Enrollment period for each quarter spans when enrollment opens through to the Final Study List deadline. Please see the Registrar's Academic Calendar for academic and enrollment deadlines. The course catalog and schedule of classes is presented at the Stanford Bulletin's ExploreCourses web site.
If a class is full, you may be given the option of adding your name to a waitlist. When a place opens up in the class, Axess' enrollment engine will place the first eligible student on the waitlist into the class.
Instructors may choose to limit the enrollment in their courses via Permission Numbers. There are two methods by which an instructor or a designated administrator can give you permission to enroll in a class with restricted enrollment. This depends upon how the class was set up; only one method or the other is available if permission is required.
COVID-19 Policy Change: Due to current health guidelines, no auditors are permitted to attend in-person classes. Remote auditing is available only to Stanford affiliates, who must complete and submit an Audit form.
Transfer credit is reviewed and awarded by Stanford's Office of the University Registrar according to Faculty Senate policy. While Stanford has no articulation agreements with any college or institution, a course generally receives transfer credit if it meets the following conditions:
Students must have a high school diploma, the state equivalent of a high school diploma, or a GED in order to enroll at Stanford. Students who are dual-enrolled in both high school and college programs should apply for freshman admission.
institution? In order for the Registrar's Office to be able to conduct a thorough evaluation of transfer credit, information about institutional accreditation, level of course work, grading scales, and units of credit must be available . Generally, this information is included on the transcript key of an official transcript. However, in the event that some or all of this information is not printed on the transcript, students may be contacted for additional clarification or documentation. Transfer credit can only be awarded for courses with final grades posted (no transfer credit is posted for in-progress course work) and all information on the official transcript must match the transfer credit evaluation request form.
Additionally, approved transfer credit is posted to the student's record in whole units only (rounded down), and appears on the official transcript with the name of the institution and the total number of units that were awarded. No individual courses or grades appear on the transcript.
Frosh-Friendly Courses allow students to explore a field of study early in their Stanford careers, generally with minimal or no prerequisites.
Learn how to select courses for your COLLEGE, writing, foreign language, and Ways requirements.
For more advice on choosing your courses, check out the Advising Student Handbook, and particularly the following pages:
Unsure how to navigate among all your course choices? This video presentation by your Academic Advisors will help you get started!
How many classes should you take? It depends. It depends on the classes, it depends on the workload, it depends on your other commitments, it depends on who you are and how you learn.
Typically, expect classes of 3-5 units to be main academic classes that can fulfill requirements and count toward a major, while classes of 1-2 units are usually lecture series or athletic classes, with fewer assignments outside class. Students will combine these in an infinite variety of ways.
Cognitive shifting between different types of work often shows a better result than focusing just on one kind of learning. And it leads to less burn out. Most students do best with a balanced workload that includes a mix of exams and essays, of reading and problem sets, of STEM and humanities topics.
Four main academic classes may be nicely balanced among math, Spanish, chemistry, and history, but if you have two essays and two midterms all due in the same week, you might want to tweak something.