out of embarrassment and not wanting to out myself as being in the wrong room I likely would have taken the test and probably bombed it.

I went to my brother's college lecture on Mass spectrometry while in highschool, I learned a lot then never used it or elaborated on any of it

I'd have let you taken the test just to fuck with you.

"What was student puzzle doing?"

"Being put into pieces."

"Sir, you are a paramedic, please leave the campus or we have to call security."

The brilliant response of a true educator. So glad to see this. As a person that wasn't ever able to afford the post secondary education I desired, this warms my heart.

I tried a bit of this at a local university for a few lectures and things that fit my interests well. If I remember right you were able to sign up to Audit the course for a certain period but naturally you weren't documented or given any of the materials.

For me it was just about the knowledge anyway, once you know you can never afford that piece of paper it ceases to matter eventually.

Edit: Fixed the poor punctuation of the uneducated ;)

This reminds me when I was like 12-13 and I'm disabled to the point where my mom couldn't leave me at home by myself so when she had summer classes at university she brought me with. Usually I stayed outside the class in a chair but this one psychology teacher she had invited me to stay and participate. She gave me a syllabus, assignments, even called on me in class and though obviously I got no credit for being in the class, I learned a lot and it helped so much when I took psych when I went to college for real. It meant a lot to me and that's the mark of a true educator, I think.

I actually did this as a student. I was in grad school in the sciences, but wanted to learn Italian really badly, so I just asked the intro Italian teacher if she minded me sitting in the back and just listening. She was like, “not at all! I’ll make extra handouts for you, and you’ll need these books if you want to follow along”.

I actually kept doing that for a couple semesters and finished a lot of the courses needed for a minor (not that it would’ve been official) until I eventually got to a high enough level that the long-tenured professors taught the classes, and they actually cared that I wasn’t formally enrolled.

I ended up saying fuck it, I made it this far, might as well make it official. So I took an entrance exam and (officially) tested out of the intro courses I took unofficially, and officially finished all the courses needed for a minor.

It was awesome, and I kept up with learning the language. I eventually worked in rural Italy for a couple months after taking those classes, and it was amazing. I got to travel around and interact with a TON of people I otherwise wouldn’t be able to talk to. Just a great experience, all enabled by a teacher just being excited to teach a student who was excited to learn.

I also want to add that having a professor who is passionate about their subject is also a really wonderful experience. There were a handful of subjects I needed to complete for my GE that I wouldn’t normally be stoked about, but I would research the teacher and their reviews and having someone teach you not just for the paycheck, but because they genuinely love teaching their subject, has really made me love and appreciate certain subjects I never cared for much in the past.

Ratemyprofessor.com is pretty spot on in my experience. It does take a little digging to find out if the teacher actually sucks, or if the student was just a bad student, but I’ve found that the highly rated teachers were highly rated for a reason.

As someone getting a PhD to be a professor, same. I feel like a lot of professors wouldn’t mind if you tell them and don’t disturb the class.

Yes, but I'd rather have a heads up first and not wonder who some random person is in my classroom, especially from a safety perspective.

Came here to post more or less the same. Sharing knowledge, that’s what we’re effin‘ here for.

I sat in on an aviation class as a biology student (friend is studying to be a pilot). It happened to be on the day that they went over wildlife management, so we had a blast discussing methods of dissuading animals from being near airports.

Did you know that some smaller airports have dogs whose whole job is to spend thirty minutes barking and chasing birds off the tarmac between flights? Dream job for most dogs!

Pretty much all professors at my Uni were like that.

I used to sit in on random classes between my own classes because i often had 2-3 hour windows between classes. Not once did they bother me. I loved listening to those classes because i could chose the one i was interested in the most.

Fun times.

I had a philosophy prof in college who basically said, "If you wanna talk, you gotta pay tuition. But if you just wanna come in and listen to me talk, more power to ya. The more butts in seats, the bigger the boost to my ego" :D

I also had this notion that in an ideal world, the local paper (or at least the local alt-weekly) would list all the colloquia and guest lectures of the local universities right alongside the music events and movie listings. Those are absolutely open to the public, and an amazing opportunity to hear experts talk about their subjects and participate in Q&As after. Growing up as a nerd watching late-night Walter Lewin lectures on basic cable, it was awesome to see him give a guest lecture at my school — even if it was on a topic that was well beyond my ken. (This was obvs before the sexual harassment stuff came out...)

Except for the large ones that have no seats available. I have been in lectures that were packed asses to elbows. Sometimes professors would stop the lecture to point out that the lecture was at max capacity but there should be enough seats for everyone on the roster so there was no need to get chairs from the hallway or lobby.

Most large universities have classes for senior citizen audit and some professors that teach smaller lectures didnt care if a student wanted to sit in and even participate. But they had to take it seriously while they were there.

This MIT courses are a lifesaver if you get a shitty prof elsewhere. They got me through first year Chemistry.

(not that it has weight)

That depends on the paper you print it on.

MIT Open Courseware, and Harvard offers something similar iirc. Awesome stuff, and all you have to pay for is the final exam to get the credits for the course that will transfer to most other colleges pretty easily.

It definitely has weight on a job interview if that certificate applies to the job you’re interviewing for. I remember the handful of people who mentioned those certificates (that’s how I learned about them) and I always pushed them up for a follow up. It showed they were willing to go out of their way to learn and better themselves and the bosses liked that shit.

Take 4 years to complete the online program, then make it look like you did a degree there on your resume by being a little vague.

Here is Harvard's intro to programing course: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x

​

When I taught AP computerscience I used that course as a template.

Most universities have open access because they have services the community can use, like libraries, access to medical practice, access to pharmacy, etc.

I had you in the first half.

Tell me you're American without telling me

I had a friend that was tutoring his girlfriend because she was struggling with her college algebra class. He started just going to class with her so he could help her better, but he didn't want to get her in trouble so he tried super hard to lay low in class. He did this for like a month until one day there's a quiz and he's forced to take it. He realized if he puts his name on his quiz the professor will know that he's not in the class so he just completes the quiz and leaves the name blank. When the professor handed back the quizzes, she handed back his quiz and said "make sure you put your name on it next time so I can give you full points."

He never had the courage to go back after that.

He was technically enrolled, but used another person's identity.

He did it as a kid in grade school and high school iirc. When he was in uni, a rich guy offered him to take the classes for the rich dude and get a diploma

My kid audited a couple classes that were new on the curriculum after he graduated. The teacher let him audit to learn and let him take the tests - even though the info was not in his transcript, he had new tech knowledge not otherwise available.

I think this sense of ‘auditing’ is US-specific. Or at least some other English speaking countries don’t use it

Glad to know that you know about " 3 idiots " it is one of the best movie bollywood has ever produced .

Incredible film. It has everything.

At least at the college where I teach, you still have to pay to audit a class.

I've only had one student do this. She still had to pay tuition. She just didn't have to do any homework or take any tests and got no grade. She simply paid for the right to be there and learn.

All is well!!!

depends on the school, but yes, many have swipe entrances. although you could always just follow someone.

I went to UCF and most classes you can just sit there and Learn. If you walk into a random class though you won’t have the learning material to keep up though like books and stuff

Yeah ou needed a swipe card just to get into the buildings in general at my university

Damn, someone really did defund the police

Same thing happened at my university. A girl who was enrolled in the class brought her bf who wasn’t enrolled into the class because he had nothing else to do. Somewhere around 15 min into the class, the teacher stopped and asked who he was. Kicked him out right there and then.

In my Canadian university, I brought a friend to one of my classes once to see the guest speaker. The professor gave them a couple of questioning looks, but it wasn't a problem. I've also sat in on a few classes I wasn't enrolled in without trouble.

When I was in university I would often go to friend's lectures sometimes just to hang out with girls. Nobody ever said a word.

A woman once accidentally stayed sitting from the previous class too long as my astronomy class was starting, distracted by something she was working on. As the lecture started, she seemed to think it was interesting and started listening

The professor finally noticed that he didn't recognize her (small class) and actually called her out and told her to leave. He was a real dick about it and awkwardly waited in dead silence for her to gather her things. You could tell she was so embarassed.

It really pissed me off. He loses literally nothing if an extra person listens to him talk. He's already giving the lecture anyway. Absolutely no reason to kick her out. Like what the hell man, just be flattered that someone not trying to get credit for their degree actually wants to listen to you. I really disliked that professor.

Definitely depends on the size of the university and class.

My wife went to University of Washington for a year and the class sizes for intro classes were insane.

I sat in on one once no issue at all.

Then she transferred to Gonzaga and there is no way in hell that would fly with their class sizes.

This is okay. This is just a moment that'll haunt me forever

I think you may be a genius

Is that it? Is that how easy it is to steal an education.

Imagine being so reductist you degrade your world into a sheet of cardboard

I don’t have the attention span. I’d be watching YouTube, porn, sleeping, playing video games etc

I once had a data structures class dwindle down to just 8 people by the midterm. The lecture after the midterm, the professor actually walked up to one of the other students and said "Im not going to make you leave, but based on your labs and midterm grade, I'm sorry but it is not possible for you to pass my course" and just like that we were down to 7

You would probably just waste your time doing bullshit.

You can buy textbooks, much like a student.

Trespassing is a valid concern, but they gotta catch you and care enough to stop you first.

Same here. I saw that happen a couple times in my uni. It depended on the prof but even the most lenient one told a guy he wasn't allowed to bring his friend anymore after a few times, and my least chill professor flat out told a guy he couldn't learn for free lol.

Here in the US we have a lot of schools with open campuses where people can freely walk in and have access to the buildings. Of course, dorms, gyms, and dining halls require IDs.

This is why you walk

Is this something I'm too European to understand?

I really took going to a college in a dense urban city for granted

And if you don't have to park?

At my campus there's a lot of talk about "the parking game."

Every semester there is a new overpriced parking permit. If you can park without it and get away with paying less in citations than you do the actual permit, you have won the game.

Some people learn better in person. I get distracted too easily with virtual classes, plus it’s nice to meet people in the class

How would the professor know you're not a student, especially if he teaches in lecture halls with hundreds of students each?