Undergraduate Courses with Noncredit Seats

Discover the excitement of undergraduate learning - without the pressure of earning credit.

When space allows, the School of Continuing Education offers noncredit seats in select classes. Priority goes to degree-seeking students, but available noncredit seats let you join courses at a reduced tuition rate.

Summer 2026 Courses

The courses below are a selection of the full Summer 2026 undergraduate schedule. To view all courses use the course search and select the Summer2026 term from the drop down. Please be mindful if there are prerequisites and/or restrictions listed for the course.

Anthropology

Noncredit
The major fields of interest and contributions of social and cultural anthropologists. Accounts of life in different societies are read to illustrate how institutions vary in different cultural settings and to explore what it means to be a member of a culture different from one’s own.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Muller, Sean
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $520

Biology

Noncredit
Introduction to the organ systems of the human body, including the neuromuscular, skeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, and digestive systems. The physiological mechanisms of adaptation to exercise are also considered.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Carmona, Naydu
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Cinema

Noncredit
Sophisticated works in the heterogeneous genres of personal documentary and essay film re-situate self and environment, subverting dominant practices to produce new meaning. Students examine projects from diverse cultural contexts transgressing categories of narrative, documentary, and avant-garde, critical texts from cinema and media studies to feminist theory and disability studies, producing moving image exercises in addition to written texts.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Fabian, Rachel
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq: CIN1510 Or CIN1030
Cost: $625

Communication and Media Studies

Noncredit
Examines the elements and messages in sports films that make people cheer for the underdog and care about teams, players, and sports. Using both big-budget Hollywood films and documentaries with a small scope, this course explores the ideas of team, sport, and athletics and investigates the grip that sports have on American culture.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Paccione, Brian
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Communication

Noncredit
An interdisciplinary (social science and humanities) course that emphasizes critical thinking in understanding the social and historical effects of mass media in the U.S. and throughout the world. This course begins in 19th-century America, when print media shaped and defined the national culture, and concludes in the current century with the mass-media convergence of print, electronic, and digital multimedia that is shaping and defining our global culture.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Zechowski, Sharon
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

History

Noncredit
An introductory survey of the history of Latin America from colonial times to the present. Topics include geography, indigenous peoples, colonization and nation formation, society, politics, economy and culture of contemporary Latin America, and its place in today’s world.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Benmergui, Leandro
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Noncredit
Introduces systems of health and medicine in the European Middle Ages, elite learned traditions taught in universities, and everyday approaches to wellness. Sources for medieval medicine include religious and academic texts, household accounts and even charms, and are used to explore how people managed their health, practiced medicine, and dealt with challenges ranging from treatments to bubonic plague.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Schultz, Jenna
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Noncredit
This course retraces the history of Europe’s multicultural present. Students excavate aspects of Europe’s colonial and postcolonial past and explore how migration from within and beyond Europe has transformed concepts of national citizenship and European identity in recent decades. In so doing, students are equipped to reexamine concepts of race and ethnicity and models of multiculturalism that have been developed in the US context.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Bailey, John
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Literature

Mathematics

Noncredit
Students learn how to employ Excel to create and modify spreadsheets, create macros and scripts, create charts and graphs, import data, create concept maps and sequentially rank information. By learning how to harness Excel’s data analysis and visualization tools, they can analyze information, spot trends, and access information easily and recognize its importance in making critical financial decisions.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times:
Instructor:
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $320

Noncredit
Prepares students with limited backgrounds in high school mathematics for calculus. Topics include absolute values and inequalities, the properties of functions, graphs, logarithms, fractional exponents, and trigonometry.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Roberts, Nicholas
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Noncredit
A continuation of MAT 1500. Topics include differentiation and integration of logarithmic, exponential, and inverse trigonometric functions; techniques of integration; arc length; infinite series; and improper integrals. Applications include work, growth, and decay problems and volumes of solids of revolution.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Monday, July 27
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Anderson, Alan
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq: MAT1500
Cost: $625

Media Studies

Noncredit
An introduction to theories of the media, visual, and performing arts. Using semiotics as a point of departure, students explore the language and iconography of visual communication. The course focuses on works of art, advertising, television, and the web as social contexts of cultural production and analyses the role that ordinary people play in the production of media.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Halperin, Paula
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $520

Photography

Noncredit
An introduction to the techniques, current practices, and history surrounding digital photography. Editing techniques are covered, with attention to image manipulation using Adobe Photoshop and RAW files. Composition, lighting, point of view, and use of narrative are explored. A digital camera is required; cameras may be borrowed, as available, from Campus Technology Services. Students may not earn credit for both PHO 1100 (offered by the School of Art+Design) and PHO 1101.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Mesa-Pelly, Deborah
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $520

Physics

Noncredit
Lecture course for students of both biological and physical science, as well as students of the humanities or social sciences with a background in high school physics or chemistry. Topics include kinematics, Newtonian dynamics, work and conservation of energy, mass-energy relationships, the laws of thermodynamics, and the kinetic properties of matter.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times: Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri @ 04:00 PM-06:30 PM
Instructor: Glazenburg, Zhanna
Type of Instruction: Traditional
Prereq: MAT1150 Or MAT1500
Cost: $625

Noncredit
The phenomena of light and sound, widely appreciated as primary media for artistic expression, have also played an important role in spurring scientific investigation of the world of nature. This course explores light and sound through their foundations in the theories of vibration and wave motion. With sound, the application to the production of musical tones is emphasized. The study of light ranges from the early investigations of Galileo, Newton, and Huygens to the work of Einstein in relativity and quantum theory. A paper is required, and some class sessions take place in the lab. A background in physics is not required.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Glazenburg, Zhanna
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Political Science

Noncredit
In modern times, ideological debates have revolved around capitalism, socialism, and democracy and were intensified during the Cold War by the U.S.-U.S.SR. rivalry. Focusing on the development of capitalism and socialism in the West and their relationship to democracy, students examine different conceptualizations of democracy, the global impact of Western developments, and arguments on the compatibility of capitalism with authoritarianism.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Galloway, Sam
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Noncredit
A survey of major political upheavals and belief systems that have shaped and shaken the modern world. In addition to the origins, social foundations, and variants of liberalism, socialism, communism, anarchism, fascism, and feminism, discussions include examples of anti-imperialist, antiracist, and nationalist movements and ideologies from Third World countries and ethnic minorities in the West.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Galloway, Sam
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Psychology

Noncredit
Empirical and theoretical approaches to the basic physiological, cognitive, and social mechanisms underlying behavior. Topics include learning and conditioning; sensation and perception; memory, thinking, and language; psychological development; social processes; and personality and psychopathology.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Harburger, Lauren
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Noncredit
Students study classic experiments and contemporary research in the areas of conformity, obedience, helping behavior, attributions, aggression, persuasion, close relationships and attraction, attitudes and social influence, ethics, and prejudice. This material is applied to both current and historical examples in social research.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Carnevale, Jessica
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Noncredit
An examination of the biological processes by which the sensory systems pick up information from the environment and the psychological processes by which that information is coded, transformed, and integrated to form perceptions. Emphasis is on the visual systems and visual perception. Aspects of perception in the visual arts and music are also discussed.

Term Dates: Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 31
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Clarke, Jason
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Noncredit
An examination of the biological basis of behavior. Topics include neuronal transmission, the coding and higher-order processing of sensory stimuli, movement, regulatory processes in feeding and drinking, sexual and emotional behavior, learning and memory, and psychopharmacology. The biological bases of various psychological disorders are also covered.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Harburger, Lauren
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq: PSY1530
Cost: $625

Screenwriting

Noncredit
Introduces the student to writing a dramatic story for the screen, placing an emphasis on discovery, good work habits, critical assessment, and rewriting as essential to the professional writer. Through numerous assignments, students learn the basics of dramatic story structure, revealing character, writing dialogue, genre, and use of story suspense. All techniques are applied in a final short screenplay.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Monday, July 27
Meeting Times: Tue @ 10:00 AM-02:00 PM
Instructor: Young, John
Type of Instruction: Online - Combined
Prereq:
Cost: $

Noncredit
Students will examine songs, scenes, and the stories behind musicals from Vaudeville, "Golden Age," megamusicals, "contemporary musical theatre," all the way into the ever-expanding, excitingly diverse peripherals and new perspectives of what musical theatre in the now, fostering inspiration and creating room for what the American Musical Theatre has yet to become.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Monday, July 27
Meeting Times:
Instructor:
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq: PSW1000
Cost: $

Spanish

Noncredit
For students who have had little or no previous exposure to the language. Presents the essential structures of spoken and written Spanish by involving the student in situations that concretely represent the concepts of the language.

Term Dates: Monday, June 1 - Friday, June 26
Meeting Times:
Instructor: Gondra, Ager
Type of Instruction: Online - Asynchronous
Prereq:
Cost: $625

Please email conted@purchase.edu if:

You found a course of interest that is not in the schedule above. We may be able to get permission to add a noncredit seat.
You would like see the syllabus before registering.
The course of your choice is closed, so you can be placed on a waitlist.

$120 for the noncredit option in a .5-credit course*
$180 for the noncredit option in a 1-credit course*
$260 for the noncredit option in a 1.5-credit course*
$320 for the noncredit option in a 2-credit course*
$520 for the noncredit option in a 3-credit course*
$625 for the noncredit option in a 4-credit course*

Your registration for course(s) means you assume responsibilities for paying all tuition and fees associated with your registration. Unless you withdraw by the deadline noted in the refund policy you are responsible for charges even if you did not attend a single class.

*plus applicable fees. In addition to the tuition and any listed studio/lab fees, there is a $25 nonrefundable noncredit registration fee paid once per semester. Please note: Specialized course tuition rates may vary from the above.

Students who register for a noncredit seat do not receive college credit, grades, or a transcript. Assessment is given on a pass/fail basis.
This option is open to students 16 years of age or older.
Noncredit spaces are limited, early registration is advised. Early registration discounts do not apply to these courses.
Office Hours are available at the discretion of the faculty and by appointment only.
Students may not switch between the credit and noncredit sections of these courses after the add/drop period.
Please also review the Community Standards of Conduct. This page outlines the expectations for student behavior in an undergraduate course, also referred to as the Student Code of Conduct or the Code.

Adult Noncredit Programs