Credit
Academic credit
If you're a Cornell undergraduate, check with your college before submitting the course-enrollment form to make sure that credit for Summer Session courses will count toward your degree.
If you're a candidate for a graduate or undergraduate degree elsewhere, consult the appropriate official in your college or university to make sure that the credit you earn at Cornell will count toward your degree. In most cases Cornell awards the same number of credits for each Summer Session course as it does for fall- and spring-term courses.
Cornell grants academic credit in semester units. To convert them to quarter units, multiply by 1.5.
Registration unit
Cornell graduate students may petition to apply credit paid for and earned in Summer Session courses or summer research paid for to the registration unit requirement. For specific information concerning fulfilling the registration unit requirement, contact the Graduate School.
Credit limits
Generally, you may enroll for:
- up to four credits in a three-week period (effectively a 20-credit semester),
- up to eight credits in a six-week period (also a 20-credit semester),
- up to ten credits in an eight-week period (a 19-credit semester equivalent), or
- up to fifteen credits during the entire summer period (May-August).
These credit limits may be exceeded only in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Any request to do so must be submitted to the registrar of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions with a written explanation of these circumstances. If you're an undergraduate student, the request must include the endorsements of your faculty advisor and your college registrar. (If you're a student in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences, you should seek the support of your advising dean instead of your college registrar.) A meeting with one of the deans of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions may also be required. If you want to take more than 15 credits, you may not enroll online.
