Programs of Study and Course Designations

Information concerning specific programs of study may be found by referring to the sections in this bulletin headed College of Arts and Sciences, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, School of Business, School of Criminal Justice, School of Education, School of Public Health, School of Social Welfare, and Undergraduate Study Opportunities.

Unit of Academic Credit

The credit is the unit of academic value and represents one hour of lecture or recitation or a minimum of two hours of laboratory work each week for one semester or the equivalent. The number following each course title; e.g., (3), indicates the credits offered for that course.

Significance of Course Number

Each course offered by the University is assigned a designation and a number according to a plan that is outlined here. The specific course designation and number appears in the bulletin directly in front of the course title. Each course designation consists of three separate units: (1) the school designation; (2) the subject or departmental designation; and (3) the course number.

The school or college offering a course is identified by a single letter as noted here.

The subject or departmental designation consists of three letters representing an abbreviation for the subject or the department offering the course.

Students ordinarily enroll in courses at the level appropriate to their class. The course number is a three-digit number assigned to the course by the academic unit offering the course.

The first digit reflects the level at which the course is taught. The level designations are as follows:

000-099 Noncredit courses [Exception: transfer courses having no counterpart at the University are often evaluated as the generic A HIS 010 or A HIS E10, A ENG 030 or A ENG E30, etc., meaning 100-level History elective, 300-level English elective, and so on.]

100-299 Lower-division courses, with 200-299 primarily for sophomores. Courses designed to present a large body of information without expecting a mastery of detail (e.g., survey courses in history or literature) or to present general theoretical or methodological approaches (e.g., foundation courses in the social, natural and physical sciences) or to teach skills or techniques at an introductory level (e.g., general physical education) are considered to be lower division. Lower-division courses may be expected to include elementary and may include intermediate levels of subject matter competency but not advanced levels.

300-499 Upper-division courses, with 400-499 primarily for seniors. Courses offered primarily for those who are in the third and fourth years of their university education. The content should go beyond the introductory or survey level and, in the judgment of the faculty, will require prior academic achievement and experience.

500-599 First-year graduate courses (open to seniors with appropriate background and consent of major department chairs and the course instructors).

600-699 First-year graduate courses (open to superior seniors with the approval of their advisers and the written consent of their department chairs and the course instructors).

700+ Advanced graduate courses ordinarily beyond the master’s degree and open only to graduate students.

Letter Suffixes for General Education Courses

The General Education Program employs the suffixes T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z to identify communication and reasoning competencies.

The Meaning of Undergraduate Course Suffixes

Suffixes may be used to designate courses designed to meet competencies within the major in oral discourse, information literacy, and advanced writing. Students should note that the General Education Lookup page indicates only whether a course has been approved to be offered in certain categories. When the suffix is attached to the course offering in the Schedule of Classes, the General Education content of the course is included in that specific course offering.

Whether a course also meets one of the other General Education requirements can be determined from the updated online lists for each category available at “General Education Lookup.”

On MyUAlbany, the “Search Class Schedules” capability also allows students to search for courses in a term that fulfill one or more of the General Education categories. This same search capability exists from the University’s homepage to find courses that meet one or more General Education requirements.

Equivalent Courses

If a course is cross listed (considered equivalent) with a course from another department or school, the equivalent course is listed in parentheses after the course number with an equals sign. Therefore, if a course fulfills a requirement for a major, minor, or general education category, all courses cross-listed with that course shall be considered to fulfill the same requirement.

Students who have received graduation credit for a cross listed course may not also receive graduation credit for the equivalent courses(s) listed in parentheses.

If a course had its number changed within the past four years, the prior number is listed in parentheses after the current course number. Unless expressly allowed to do so in the course description, students who have received graduation credit for a course under a previous course number may not also receive graduation credit for the same course under a new course number.

Repeatable Courses

If a course may be repeated for graduation credit, this will be indicated in the course description. Sometimes the repeatability is restricted and this is also indicated in the course description: "may be repeated once for credit," "may be repeated if topic varies," etc.

If the description does not indicate the course can be repeated for credit, then a student who takes and passes the same course more than once will only receive graduation credit for that course once.