What is the meaning of the three-digit codes in American university lessons? Such as: “Building a Search Engine (CS101)”, “Crunching Social Networks (CS215)”, “Programming A Robotic Car (CS373)” currently in Udacity.
Seems to me that 101 is always the introduction to the subject. But what about the other numbers? Do they correspond to some (subject specific) standard? Are they arbitrary (perhaps with general trend to give more difficult lessons higher numbers)?
The first digit is the most important. It indicates the “level” of the course: 100/1000 courses are freshman level, 200/2000 are sophomore level, etc. There is some flexibility in these classifications, though. Examples: My undergraduate university used 1000 for intro level, 2000 for intermediate level, 4000 for senior/advanced level, and 6000 for graduate level. (3000 and 5000 were reserved for courses at a satellite campus.) My graduate university uses 100, 200, 300, 400 for the corresponding undergraduate year levels, and 600, 700, 800 for graduate courses of increasing difficulty levels.
The other digits in the course number often indicate the rough order in which courses should be taken within a level. This is not always the case; sometimes they are just arbitrary, or they may indicate the order in which courses were added to the institute’s offerings.
In general, though the numbers indicate the levels of the courses and the order in which they “should” be taken, students’ schedules need not comply precisely (outside of course-specific prerequisite requirements).
It varies from institution to institution, but generally the first number indicates the year you’re likely to study it, so “Psychology 101” is the first course you’re likely to study in your first year of a degree involving psychology, which is why it’s the introduction to the subject. The numbering gets messy for a variety of reasons.
I should point out I’m not an American university student, but this style of numbering system is becoming prevalent throughout the English-speaking world.
101′s stereotypically the introduction to the course, but this sort of thing actually varies quite a bit between universities. Mine dropped the first digit for survey courses and introductory material; survey courses were generally higher two-digit numbers (i.e. Geology 64, Planetary Geology), while introductory courses were more often one-digit or lower two-digit numbers (i.e. Math 3A, Introduction to Calculus). Courses intended to be taken in sequence had a letter appended. Aside from survey courses, higher numbers generally indicated more advanced or specialized classes, though not necessarily more difficult ones.
Three digits indicated an upper-division (i.e. nominally junior- or senior-level) or graduate-level course. Upper-division undergrad courses were usually 100-level, and the 101 course was usually the first class you’d take that was intended only for people of your major; CS 101 was Algorithms and Abstract Data Types for me, for example, and I took it late in my sophomore year. Graduate courses were 200-level or higher.
What is the meaning of the three-digit codes in American university lessons? Such as: “Building a Search Engine (CS101)”, “Crunching Social Networks (CS215)”, “Programming A Robotic Car (CS373)” currently in Udacity.
Seems to me that 101 is always the introduction to the subject. But what about the other numbers? Do they correspond to some (subject specific) standard? Are they arbitrary (perhaps with general trend to give more difficult lessons higher numbers)?
The first digit is the most important. It indicates the “level” of the course: 100/1000 courses are freshman level, 200/2000 are sophomore level, etc. There is some flexibility in these classifications, though. Examples: My undergraduate university used 1000 for intro level, 2000 for intermediate level, 4000 for senior/advanced level, and 6000 for graduate level. (3000 and 5000 were reserved for courses at a satellite campus.) My graduate university uses 100, 200, 300, 400 for the corresponding undergraduate year levels, and 600, 700, 800 for graduate courses of increasing difficulty levels.
The other digits in the course number often indicate the rough order in which courses should be taken within a level. This is not always the case; sometimes they are just arbitrary, or they may indicate the order in which courses were added to the institute’s offerings.
In general, though the numbers indicate the levels of the courses and the order in which they “should” be taken, students’ schedules need not comply precisely (outside of course-specific prerequisite requirements).
It varies from institution to institution, but generally the first number indicates the year you’re likely to study it, so “Psychology 101” is the first course you’re likely to study in your first year of a degree involving psychology, which is why it’s the introduction to the subject. The numbering gets messy for a variety of reasons.
I should point out I’m not an American university student, but this style of numbering system is becoming prevalent throughout the English-speaking world.
101′s stereotypically the introduction to the course, but this sort of thing actually varies quite a bit between universities. Mine dropped the first digit for survey courses and introductory material; survey courses were generally higher two-digit numbers (i.e. Geology 64, Planetary Geology), while introductory courses were more often one-digit or lower two-digit numbers (i.e. Math 3A, Introduction to Calculus). Courses intended to be taken in sequence had a letter appended. Aside from survey courses, higher numbers generally indicated more advanced or specialized classes, though not necessarily more difficult ones.
Three digits indicated an upper-division (i.e. nominally junior- or senior-level) or graduate-level course. Upper-division undergrad courses were usually 100-level, and the 101 course was usually the first class you’d take that was intended only for people of your major; CS 101 was Algorithms and Abstract Data Types for me, for example, and I took it late in my sophomore year. Graduate courses were 200-level or higher.