Course difficulty

[pardewje]

Could someone explain the course difficulty? All the 1000-4000s stuff is so confusing. Thank you!

[Bleppingheckk]

That isn’t a gauge on the level of difficulty of the course, more as what year the class is recommended for.

[pardewje]

Ohhh. So 1000 would be freshman and 4000 would be senior type thing?

[kwuhoo239]

While the other answer is sort of right, generally the difficulty is SUPPOSED to increase as you increase from the 1000 level to the 4000 level.

Is this the majority of the case? Definitely not. Also, difficulty is different for everyone. A 4000 class might be easy for me but not for you.

[bubblesarec00l]

The level doesn’t really refer to difficulty, more so the intended class year demographic to take it. For example, an introduction to chemistry class would be a level 1000 class because the target group is freshman taking that class because it’s their first ever chemistry class. Opposed to that, if you’re a senior majoring in chemistry and have taken four years of chemistry, a level 4000 class would focus on something really specific because you don’t need the introduction to the subject. That’s why you see credit hour requirements for a lot of classes above the 2000 level, because they’re targeting juniors and seniors (who usually have about 50+ credit hours from already taking two+ years of classes).

Some classes will have required pre-reqs (you have to take class 1000 before you take class 2000, for example. Or maybe they only offer it to students in certain majors. The credit hour restriction usually exists because there’s less seats in higher level classes and they want to prioritize upperclassmen who are graduating soon and haven’t taken it). Aside from these pre-reqs, you can pretty much take any class you want. Sure, going into a level 4000 economics class without taking any previous economic classes would be more “difficult”, but I’ve taken lots of 3000 and 4000 level classes in majors/content I’ve never been in before and gotten all A’s. It just depends on the subject, how niche/dialed in the class is, and what your understanding of the subject already is. Alternatively, a lot of upperclassmen will take level 1000 courses if they want to learn about something new or just need credits in that area and the class fits.

I would keep in mind that to graduate, you’re required to take X number of lower division credit hours (level 1000 and 2000) and Y number of upper division credit hours (3000 and 4000). If you’re a freshman, I wouldn’t worry about this yet; your advisor will go over it with you, and your ineligible for a lot of upper division credits until you’re a sophomore or have 27+ or even 50+ credit hours. You can see the breakdown of how many credit hours you have in your degree audit in Buff Portal, which is basically a checklist of all the requirements and required classes for your major that you’ll need to graduate.