how college course numbering system

by Jessyca Reilly 7 min read

Courses are designated by two numbers, separated by a colon. The first number refers to the department or area of the course; the second number refers to the specific course. For example, in the course designated 600:111 the "600" refers to the Department of Art and the "111" refers to the course.

How college courses are numbered?

Most college courses are identified by three to four numbers. For example, the first digit may indicate the class year, the middle two digits may identify the subject and the last digit may indicate the number of credit hours.

What does 201 mean in college?

101/Freshman, 201/Sophomore, 301/Junior, 401/Senior. Anything above these numbers is usually a graduate level course. The last two numbers indicate subject level relative to other classes offered in that department (ENG101 = Basic English course). 8.

What does 103 mean in college?

Higher 10x courses would be for slightly more advanced content or slight variations, e.g. we use MATH 103 for an introductory calculus course specifically aimed at business and social science students, but MATH 101/102 for the math major stream.Apr 27, 2018

What's the difference between 100 and 200 level courses?

A 100 level course code indicates that you will be engaging with discipline knowledge and skills at a foundation level. These courses are normally studied in your first year of full-time study. A 200 level course code indicates the course is expanding on introductory knowledge and skills.

Are there 1000 level classes?

700 – 900 level classes? There is no universal rule here that every school should adopt this pattern, for most part most of the schools adopt this format (all the four US schools I studied had this pattern). They may have either three digits or four digit classification like 100 or 1000 depending on the school.Dec 30, 2018

What are 400-level courses?

400-level course designation Advanced upper-division courses, seminars, practicums, or internships for majors and upper- division students. Assumptions: 1. Students have completed a substantial amount of work on the 300 level.

What does 101 mean in education?

101 (pronounced ONE-oh-ONE) is a topic for beginners in any area. It has all the basic principles and concepts that are expected in a particular field. In American university course numbering systems, the number 101 is often used for an introductory course at a beginner's level in a department's subject area.

Why is something called 101?

The Oxford English Dictionary finds the first use of “101” as an introductory course number in a 1929 University of Buffalo course catalog. Colleges and universities began to switch to a three-digit course-numbering system around this time.Sep 6, 2006

What is the Louisiana Common Course Numbering System?

The Louisiana Common Course Numbering System (LCCN) is a standard set of four-character abbreviations for academic disciplines and four-digit course numbers. The first digit of the number represents the academic level of the course (1 for freshman, 2 for sophomore, 3 for junior, and 4 for senior). For courses with Louisiana Common Course ...

What is a 1000-1999 degree?

1000-1999 • For undergraduate students, primarily freshmen; for undergraduate credit only. Ordinarily open to all students; in some instances upper-division students may not take these courses for degree credit.

What is 5000-5999?

5000-5999 • For students in post-baccalaureate professional programs (architecture, landscape architecture, law, and veterinary medicine). A student in The Graduate School may take these courses for credit with approval of the student’s major department.

What is a 100-199 course?

A common system works roughly as Najib Idrissi describes: courses numbered 100-199 are first-year courses, which either have no prerequisites or only high school-level prerequisites. Courses numbered 200-299 are second-year courses, which have 100-level prerequisites, and so on.

What does 101 mean in college?

However, "Something 101" has been used for a time in colloquial English to mean "the basics of", "an introduction to" or "a crash course in" something. Funnily enough, this has resulted in me taking some courses which claimed to be the "101" ...

Why do colleges have a course number?

Most college courses in America have, in addition to a title, a course number, which conveys some information about the course and helps in organizing course catalogs and the like.

How many digits are in a course number?

Course numbers usually have 3 digits. Introductory courses in any department are likely numbered 101. Courses with less than three significant digits (005, 099, etc.) are likely to be remedial, tutoring, or non-credit classes.

What is the difference between 100 and 200 level courses?

These classes will acquaint students with the basic terms, methods, ideas and language of the subject. 200-level courses are actually 100-level courses that focus on particular areas within a discipline. Students must have finished a 100-level writing or English class, so they can recognize concepts, read detailed texts, use quantitative skills and articulate themselves with peers. These classes will require students to progress through academic explorations towards conclusions and experiments. Students who take 200-level classes must be able to keep up at a reasonable pace without encountering comprehension difficulties.

What are the 100 level classes?

These basic or survey classes will have titles like general biology, world history or writing fundamentals. These 100-level courses are usually taken by freshman, although some will be sophomores meeting general education requirements. 200-level classes will be more strenuous and focused on specific topics like Asian history, Western literature and computer programming. Some of these classes may require students to have taken the prerequisite 100-level class. 300- and 400-level classes involve in-depth coursework and require greater knowledge of a certain field. These classes are usually taken during the final two years of college. Some 400-level classes include first-year graduate students who are preparing to take 500- and 600-level classes offered through graduate schools.

Step 1

Assemble the administrators, professors and other important faculty members. You will need the input of these individuals to properly code each course.

Step 2

Instruct the faculty for each department to go through their course offerings and categorize them by level (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior or advanced). Advanced-level courses include a senior project or thesis class, or any specialized class that is nearly a graduate-level course.

Step 3

Tell the department faculty that after their courses have been assigned a level, they must be put into sequence whenever applicable. For example, freshman may have to take English I followed by English II. This applies wherever prerequisites within the department are necessary for a student to take a class.

Step 4

Finalize the codes and review each one to make sure they are correct. Each code should have three numbers that relate to the level, subject area and sequence number. For example, a sophomore level Mathematics class named Trigonometry II would likely have the course code "211" according to this formula.

image