I do like it! And a Greek prof tried to get me to sit in on his courses. I never had any hint from any prof that an enthusiastic dilettante would not be welcome.
The argument that a taxpayer, a huge portion of whose taxes goes to support education, is a free rider on the educational system is absurd. The educational system in the US is a huge drain on the public fisc through subsidies, grants, and exemption from taxation and what the public gets in return from that system are generally abysmal results. Until the universities are willing to give up all reliance on public money, the average student is the free rider, not the occasional taxpayer who wants to audit a class.
Once I had read through them, I would if possible want some one-on-one time with someone who knows the subject. This is often possible by doing some sort of volunteer work or another.
Maybe others think the same. Yes, end subsidies to all these things, I agree, but remember, everyone is being taxed, so the tuition-paying students are paying 2x. They are still my priority. Other people are paying for it.
My experience matches yours. The professors, and there were more than 15 of em, all accepted my request to sit in. They liked that I was engaged and brought some real world work experience. To be honest, I think it depends on a few more factors than just those three. In response to your statement about professors being flattered at a random person asking if they can sit in on their class, I have little doubt that they would be quite flattered.
I would think economics professors to be especially concerned with this. It would be a big mess, and your argument for valuing learning opportunities would probably be shot down pretty quickly.
Everything comes with a price, and the price for college course learning is formal sign-up. I at least felt that our back and forth did not reach a conclusion and so feel compelled to respond to your most recent comment. The phrase implies a moral judgment that someone is unfairly benefiting from something toward which he did not contribute anything.
In fact, the average adult taxpayer in the US contributes heavily toward the educational system and almost certainly more than the marginal cost imposed on that system by his auditing a course.
I do not think we disagree on the factual premise of that point although we may disagree on the rhetorical effect. In any case, I do not think the case against auditing by taxpaying adults can logically be based on the proposition that they are absorbing resources with a marginal cost that exceeds the marginal cost of the resources that they have contributed through taxes. Of course, that does not mean that no logical grounds for objecting to auditing are valid.
It simply means that, as an empirical fact, auditing seldom falls even within the technical definition of free ridership and so does not raise that particular moral problem. Most students, even college and graduate students, do not pay the average cost of their education through their taxes and tuition combined. Rather, if any group is free riders, it is the students themselves: thanks to payments made by others, they are the ones receiving services while paying less than the average cost of those services.
At a private university, the calculus is admittedly much more difficult because such organizations receive far less of their funding from government and because estimating the value of government services that they receive tax free is quite uncertain.
I suggest a thought experiment. In your second post, you raised what I believe is a more substantial point. The government subsidizes many things, and yet not all of them are provided free to all comers. Is there a morally or economically rational basis to the distinction?
I have never seen one articulated. In any case, it is seldom the case that the fee for government services covers the cost of service.
This makes me believe that the only valid argument for the distinction is to prevent a tragedy of the commons. Air travel is not free for most of us , but entrance into an airport terminal is free. I suspect the reason is that free air transport would greatly increase the resources required whereas free entry into an airport terminal has very little effect on the size and number of terminals required. A tragedy of the commons problem seems, however, like the most fanciful of objections with respect to access to lectures and reading lists for university courses.
Can I Sit In? Categories: Economics of Education. A few possibilities: 1. Professors at top schools are exceptionally unwelcoming of curious outsiders. Economics professors at top schools are exceptionally unwelcoming of curious outsiders. These two economics professors are exceptionally unwelcoming of curious outsiders. Ryan Oct 7 at am. Swimmy Oct 7 at am. Some thoughts: Class size matters.
Mark Bahner Oct 7 at am. NZ Oct 7 at am. Glen Raphael Oct 7 at am. Fergus O'Rourke Oct 7 at am. Jacob AG Oct 7 at am. Robert Oct 7 at am. Free attendance of classes is only welcomed as advertising for support and payment in some way? Mark Brophy Oct 7 at am. According to Reed College: Steve Jobs was formally enrolled for just six months, starting in the fall of Robin Hanson Oct 7 at am.
Jonathan Oct 7 at am. Peter St. Onge Oct 7 at am. Students who audit a class enroll in a course for no credit but typically must still pay for the class.
While auditing a course, you will have access to all class materials but will likely not need to complete homework or take any exams. You may also be encouraged to participate in the class, but this is usually not required. At the end of the term, you will not receive a grade.
What's required of you ultimately depends on the school and the particular class you audit. Some instructors may require you to fulfill certain course requirements, such as submitting class assignments, even though you won't receive a grade on your transcript.
Some instructors may require auditors to fulfill certain course requirements, such as submitting class assignments. In other cases, an instructor may expect your participation to be minimal in order to give more time and attention to fully enrolled students. Not everyone is permitted to audit a class. At the University of Notre Dame , for example, only graduate students can audit a course. Undergraduates at Boston University may audit a course only if space allows and if the instructor approves their request.
While you won't receive a letter grade for auditing a class, many colleges use some sort of notation on transcripts to show that a student audited, rather than officially enrolled in, a course.
At Chapman University in California, for instance, students receive an "AU" on their transcripts to indicate that they successfully audited a class. Auditing a class can be a wise choice for certain students. Choose a class you want to attend and simply start showing up.
This strategy works best for larger courses with 50 students or more. The easiest courses to blend in to are taught in large lecture halls. Skip non-lecture days that include graded assignments such as exams and in-class essays. Avoid overfilled courses or those taught by celebrity teachers.
If the teacher does ask who you are, the best bet is to tell the truth. Say that you heard the class was interesting and wanted to check it out. But, if you are, do so.
Another option is to ask a teacher outright. But, either way, the majority of teachers are open to having engaged students fill their seats. Reasons you may get turned down: the course is already full, the class relies on labs and materials not available to a non-paying student, or the school has a policy requiring long-term visitors to officially audit courses.
When asking the professor to sit in, simply show up the first day. If there seems to be room in the course, approach the teacher afterwards and briefly explain your situation. Auditing is the official way to sit in on a college class.
Each school has their own auditing policy. However, in most cases, you will need to register ahead of time and pay a fee. It is not uncommon for the auditing fee to be the same as regular tuition. You will not be given a final grade for auditing a course. However, you may be allowed to take exams and turn in assignments to receive personal feedback. He enrolled at a city college in his native Quebec in the mid-aughts. He started on an academic track to earn a degree in psychology, but he was too intellectually omnivorous to stick with a single discipline.
So he began taking classes in which he wasn't enrolled. Soon, sitting in on classes he wasn't signed up for started to feel natural. When to hide. He erred on the side of staying secretive. He started thinking bigger. Dumas says he attended Yale in the spring of , couchsurfing for about a month, and he spent time at Brown too. He says he was taking classes and spending only a few hundred dollars a month, most of it on alcohol for parties.
While at these schools, he reaped most of the perks of college: learning, partying, and meeting intelligent, like-minded people.
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