Office of the Registrar

All Students are responsible for checking your schedule for errors before exiting myHeliotrope or leaving the Registrar’s Office. If there are any errors, you must change them immediately. Exiting myHeliotrope or leaving the Registrar’s Office denotes your acceptance of your schedule. 

Registration for course(s) means you assume responsibility for paying all tuition and fees associated with your registration. Unless you drop courses or withdraw from the College by the published deadlines, you are responsible for the charges even if you do not attend a single class. The liability and refund policy is available on the Student Financial Services web page.

All late registrations are subject to a $40 late fee. See the Academic Calendar for the start of the late registration period.

The College reserves the right to cancel a course at any time. If the college cancels a course, students will be notified  promptly by the appropriate school and be given an opportunity to register in another course, if possible. Students should contact their advisor or the Advising Center for assistance in enrolling in another course. If applicable, tuition and fees will be refunded upon course cancellation.

Email is the college’s primary means of communication between students, faculty, and staff. Messages regarding course information, important deadlines, missing documents, billing statements and other correspondence may be sent to your official Purchase email account. The college expects that such email communications will be received and read in a timely fashion. Students are responsible for the consequences of not reading communications sent to their account in a timely
manner. 

In the event of inclement weather, announcements concerning the cancellation of all classes will be made via email, local media, and the college website, and available at the weather hotline (914) 251-7500.

Special Courses (Tutorial, Independent Study, and Learning Assistantship) require a Special Course Contract form to be completed and signed by a faculty sponsor. Only Purchase College matriculated students are eligible for tutorials, independent studies, or learning assistantships. Students cannot register online for these courses.

Additional information about special courses is available on the Tutorials and Independent Studies page.

The internship is a supervised work experience for which the student receives academic credit. It provides an opportunity for the student to gain experience in an area of academic study or in the fields of a student’s career interest. Students must be matriculated and have completed 30 credits prior to registering for an internship. The internship site placement should be set up during the semester preceding the commencement of the internship. An extensive listing of internships are available online through Purchase JobScore. Once the internship has been secured, the student, the internship on-site supervisor, and the faculty sponsor must complete a learning contract through the Career Development Center.

Additional information about internships is available on the Academic Internships page of the Career Development Center’s website and the Academic Internships Policies page.

All seniors must register online for their senior project. Students should register for Senior Project I in their first semester and Senior Project II in their second semester. To register, students must obtain the CRN for their Senior Project sponsor’s specific section, to be provided by the faculty sponsor during the advising period. 

To be considered a full-time student, you must be registered for at least 12 credits (9 credits for graduate students). To graduate in four years, an undergraduate student would need to register for 15 to 16 credits each term. Permission must be obtained from your advisor to register for more than 18 credits (for students in BA or BS programs or BFA students in Art+Design) or more than 22 credits (in BFA and MusB programs) in one term. You be registered for at least 12 credits by the end of the add/drop period to receive certain forms of federal, state, and institutional financial aid. If you are a part-time student, please consult with the Office of Student Financial Services.

Winter session: Because of the intensive pace of winter session courses, all students are limited to a maximum of 4 credits—no exceptions.

Summer session: Students may enroll for a maximum of 12 credits across the summer sessions.

For further information, please see the Full-Time and Part-Time Status and Overload Approval policy.

When a student repeats a Purchase College course, all grades received will remain on the official transcript, but only the highest grade received will be included in the quality and grade point average and the hours toward graduation. Students who have taken coursework before Fall 2014 must file a Repeat Course form with the Office of the Registrar to ensure accuracy of their cumulative grade point average and official transcript. The grade excluded from the cumulative totals will be annotated with an “E” on the transcripts. The grade included in the cumulative totals will be annotated with an “I.” The repeated course, which is defined by the same course prefix and course number, must be repeated at Purchase College under the same grading system in order to be eligible for this policy. Therefore, courses previously taken and earned as transfer credit are not eligible for repeating. Students receiving financial aid are encouraged to check with the Office of Student Financial Services to avoid losing an award, especially when repeating a previously passed course (grade of D or higher).

If you have a hold, you may not register or add/drop. Holds are visible on your student profile in MyHeliotrope. Please see the instructions to check for holds for further information. You must clear your hold(s) with the appropriate office(s) prior to registration.

After add/drop until the ninth week of the semester, students can withdraw from a course and receive a grade of “W.” This is a grade representing withdrawal without prejudice and appears on the transcript. “W” grades are not punitive and are not calculated in the grade point average. Course withdrawals will not be accepted after the deadline published in the Academic Calendar.

Students who never attend or stop attending all their classes before the ninth week of the semester (generally around the end of October for the fall semester and end of March for the spring semester), but do not complete the official leave or withdrawal paperwork, are considered to be “unofficially withdrawn” from the college. Federal financial aid regulations require the college to collect last day of attendance and return federal financial aid grants and loans based on the last day the student attended a class or completed an academic activity. For more information on financial aid regulations, contact the Office of Student Financial Services. Visit the Leaves and Withdrawal page for information on how to file for an official leave or withdrawal.

If you are 16 years of age or older, you may register for an undergraduate course with a noncredit option.

If you are a rising senior you may request permission to take a course for college credit.

Course descriptions and schedule information are available on the myHeliotrope online course search. We strongly encourage you to only consider lower-level (1000-2999) credit courses and you are responsible for meeting any prerequisites. Please submit the following documents:

1. A high school transcript (official or unofficial) that reflects an 85 percent or B average
2. A letter of recommendation from the student’s guidance counselor or principal
3. A cover letter, written by the student, including phone, email, and course desired (course number and CRN), and alternate course(s) in case the first option is not available

All materials may be:

• Scanned and emailed to conted@purchase.edu
• Faxed to (914) 251-6515
• Mailed or delivered in person to:
  School of Continuing Education
  Purchase College, State University of New York
  735 Anderson Hill Road
  Purchase, NY 10577

Upon receipt, the materials will be evaluated and the student will be notified via email about the decision within five business days. If applicable, next steps for proceeding with registration will be provided at this time.

New York State residents who are at least 60 years of age are welcome to enroll tuition-free as an “older adult auditor” each semester, including summer session and one course in the winter session, in a maximum of two credit-bearing, on-campus courses in which space is available to older adult auditors. Course and space availability may vary. Vaccination will be required. Older adult auditors must pay the following nonrefundable fees at the time of registration:

• $50 special auditor’s fee
• $25 Purchase College ID processing fee (one-time fee for new students. If you have a current ID card, this fee does not apply)
• Course fees – also referred to as “lab fees” or “studio fees” – if applicable

Parking fees are paid separately: If you will be parking on campus, you must obtain a parking decal.

Registration Dates:

• See the academic calendar for current and future registration dates.

Older adult auditors do not receive grades or earn college credits, but are encouraged to discuss expectations for class participation and work assignments with the faculty after older adult auditor registration.

If you want to …

• earn college credit; and/or
• guarantee space in a particular credit course; and/or
• enroll in noncredit courses; and/or
• use the Physical Education facilities

… you must register and pay full tuition and fees during the regular registration period. Older adult auditors may not subsequently drop credit courses and request to audit them on a tuition-free basis during older adult auditor registration.

 

 

New York State residents who are at least 60 years of age are welcome to enroll tuition-free as an “older adult auditor” each semester, including summer session and one course in the winter session, in a maximum of two credit-bearing, on-campus courses in which space is available to older adult auditors. Course and space availability may vary. Older adult auditors must pay the following nonrefundable fees at the time of registration:

• $50 special auditor’s fee
• $25 Purchase College ID processing fee (one-time fee for new students. If you have a current ID card, this fee does not apply)
• Course fees – also referred to as “lab fees” or “studio fees” – if applicable

Parking fees are paid separately: If you will be parking on campus, you must obtain a parking decal.

Registration Dates:

• See the academic calendar for current and future registration dates.

Older adult auditors do not receive grades or earn college credits, but are encouraged to discuss expectations for class participation and work assignments with the faculty after older adult auditor registration.

If you want to …

• earn college credit; and/or
• guarantee space in a particular credit course; and/or
• enroll in noncredit courses; and/or
• use the Physical Education facilities

… you must register and pay full tuition and fees during the regular registration period. Older adult auditors may not subsequently drop credit courses and request to audit them on a tuition-free basis during older adult auditor registration.

Additional information can be found on the Older Adult Auditing Program page.