Undergraduate Bulletin, 2002-2003

Programs and Courses

Information concerning specific programs of study may be found by referring to the sections in this bulletin headed University-Wide Offerings, College of Arts and Science, School of Business, School of Criminal Justice, School of Education, Educational Opportunities Program, Office of General Studies, School of Information Science, Office of International Programs, Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, School of Public Health, and School of Social Welfare).


Unit of Academic Credit

Generally, one credit represents the equivalent of one hour of lecture or recitation or at least two hours of laboratory work each week for one semester or the equivalent in honors study.

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.

Letter     School or College
ACollege of Arts and Sciences
BSchool of Business
Dformer Division of Physical Education, Athletics, and Recreation
ESchool of Education
GInternational Studies
HSchool of Public Health
OEducational Opportunities Program
RSchool of Criminal Justice, School of Information Science and Policy, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, and School of Social Welfare
Tformer General Education Honors Program Honors Tutorials
UUniversity-Wide Offerings
XRegional Cross-Registration

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


Course Levels

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.

Some courses are given the designation a or b after the course number, indicating the first and second half, respectively, of a two-semester sequence. The level designations are noted here.

000-099  Noncredit courses [Exception: transfer courses having no counterpart at the University are sometimes evaluated as AHIS010, AENG030, 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

For the "Continuing General Education Program," courses approved in some general education categories and/or as writing intensive courses are usually identified by the following letter suffixes after the course number.

L, I   Humanities and the Arts
MSocial Sciences
NNatural Sciences
EHumanities and the Arts
+ Writing
FNatural Sciences
+ Writing
GSocial Sciences
+ Writing
ZWriting Intensive


The "New General Education Program" also employs the suffixes E, F, G, and Z to identify writing intensive courses. The other suffixes are not used; instead, students and advisers refer to lists for each category.

At the end of course descriptions in this bulletin, the following abbreviations are used, within brackets, to indicate any of the New General Education Requirement categories met by the course:

[AR]= Arts
[BE]= Regions Beyond Europe
[DP]= U.S. Diversity and Pluralism
[EU]= Europe
[FL]= Foreign Language
[GC]= Global/Cross-Cultural
[HU]= Humanities
[IL]= Information Literacy
[MS]= Mathematics/Statistics
[NS]= Natural Sciences
[OD]= Oral Discourse
[SS]= Social Sciences
[US]= U.S. History
[US*] U.S. History expanded list
[WI]= Writing Intensive

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 has 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 differs," 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.

University at Albany