Can you put courses you have taken on application with no certificate?

I wouldn't put add'l coursework as an Extracurricular Activity. If you do not received college credit, an official transcript or an institutional certificate of achievement, then I would use the add'l information section and explain that you took X number of courses on Coursera/eDx as part of your intellectual curiosity.

My advise is always to sign up for online courses that directly augment your course rigor in the most meaningful way which is either to take courses for college credit or take an online AP course at eDx because that shows you had some mastery of the material. Or if you are a CS Major, taking programming classes in Python or other languages show you are keenly interested in learning about the subject matter. But if your selected coursework is simply a function of being interested in history or government and you are not applying as a History Major or Political Science Major, then it falls less into course rigor and more in the intellectual curiosity mode. Whether you get a certificate in these doesn't really matter. From a college admissions lens, it does show you have some IV/IC but it doesn't replace for example an AP Course on your transcript that is light. So if you plan on apply to top 25 colleges where 8-12 APs a target level, and you have 4-5, I'd strongly recommend that you sign up for more APs over the summer or school year, if those APs are not offered at your school. Coursera/eDx non-college credit/non-AP classes are not a replacement for real APs or IBs.

Good luck.

Hi @runnergirl55!

These certificates are usually meant for employers, since many jobs require specific skill sets that people might not have if they took a different major or just didn't go to college. They're not usually designed to replace the more abstract style of high school and college courses, or they're simply not accredited (which is a complicated and expensive process). As such, a college is not going to recognize these as courses in the same way they would a standard high school class or even dual credit.

But you can put these courses down as extracurriculars. They won't necessarily be as impressive as, say, a leadership position, but they're a good way to demonstrate curiosity and drive if you're looking for something to fill out the rest of your list.

You don't really need the certificates for admission then, but they might be worth getting if you think you'll need them in the future (or if there's a cutoff to when you can order them).

Lastly, though, I'd recommend looking instead to something that will make a big difference in college applications: self-studied AP courses. Taking an AP class yourself and getting a decent score on the test will look very impressive to admissions officers, because they're more familiar with the AP curriculum and know how rigorous it is. An AP course would also be accredited, meaning you could score out of some introductory courses in college. Here's a quick guide to self-studying for AP tests: https://blog.collegevine.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-self-studying-ap-exams/

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.