OT: US university course numbering (was Re: "to be" and not to be in the world's languages)

On 3/31/06, Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...> wrote:
> staving Amamnda Babcock Furrow:
>
> >Having had Russian in college (including a special 300-level course on
> >pronouncing it correctly - yes, we did indeed wait for an "advanced" course
> >to learn little details like pronunciation), the way I would pronounce it
> >is pretty much
>
> A 300-level course? Russian must be really difficult to pronounce!
>
> "The palatalised vowels are coming on really well. Soon you'll be able to
> move on to level 256..."
I'm not sure whether you're kidding or whether you're not acquainted
with US university course numbering schemes.

>From what little I've gathered, courses are often labelled with a name
or abbreviation and a number; the name or abbreviation designates the
course (e.g. French) or a vague area of studies (e.g. Linguistics)
while the course number designates the specific course (say, "History
of French Ballet, 1071-1862" or whatever).

The number is often three digits, with the first digit indicating in
what year of study you would be likely to take the course; so during
your first year at university, you'll probably take mostly course with
numbers of the form 1xx; in the second year, 2xx; in the third year,
3xx; and in the fourth year, 4xx. I think 6xx is sometimes used for
graduate-level courses. (Depending on your interests, time, and
previous knowledge, you may also take, say, a course labelled 2xx in
your first year of university -- or perhaps in the third year, if you
have to catch up on a requirement.)

So a "300-level course", to me, is one that you'd be likely to
encounter in the third year of university studies, after having
completed two years of study on a particular topic. This doesn't mean
that the course has 300 levels, but that the level of the course is
similar to other courses with numbers in the three-hundreds.

Along with this comes the prototypical course number "101" for the
basic introductory course in any subject. This use is often found
outside a university context as a metaphor for material suitable for
beginners; for example, the Language Construction Kit might have been
labelled "Language Construction 101" to indicate that it requires few
prerequisites. (See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101_%28number%29#In_other_fields , which
also notes that "usage of the "101" label is likely to be met with
baffled bemusement in many places such as in the United Kingdom," as
well as
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_having_different_meanings_in_British_and_American_English#O
or http://xrl.us/knhx#O )

Hope this helps,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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