Taking Graduate Level Courses

<p>I've been flipping through the time schedules for UChicago, familiarizing myself with the quarter system. I've found that UChicago only offers six quarters of Arabic (three quarters of elementary and three quarters of intermediate). 20103 is the final class (part three of the intermediate level) offered to undergraduates. However, the graduate level courses begin with 30101. The pre-requisite is 20103, which is the final undergraduate level course. It seems that an undergraduate could just continue through the graduate level. Level 40101 is specifically listed as open to undergraduates, but level 30101 is not. Would a student interested in taking many quarters of Arabic be able to take graduate courses as a third year student? Does anyone have any insight? </p>

<p>University</a> of Chicago Time Schedules</p>

<p>I have little doubt that you’d be able to easily enroll and take a graduate level course in Arabic.</p>

<p>I took a graduate Bio class as a 1st year, and I have many friends in various majors who have taken graduate classes. The university is very open in allowing undergrads to take upper level graduate classes if they’ve exhausted the undergraduate offerings (or they are nonexistant).</p>

<p>There are also courses that are cross listed between undergrad and grad. I used to TA a course that was cross listed between undergrad, grad, and psychiatry in the med school.</p>

<p>Thanks for the response. idad, it does look like it is cross-posted. It’s listed as a graduate course in the time schedules but is listed on the undergrad website… somewhere (I was sniffing around last night).</p>

<p>This may not get answered on this thread, but can you take a CORE sequence out of sequence? I was doing an incredibly basic, very preliminary sketch last night of the CORE just to get a feel for it. It’s a big part of UChicago and until very recently I wasn’t considering UChicago because of it, but it is really growing on me. But if you have two classes in a sequence (like MATH13100 and MATH 13200), do you have to take them back to back or can you skip a quarter in between? With a lot of two-course sequences, this seems like a fit problem.</p>

<p>I am confused by your post. If you look at the Course Catalog, the University offers two different advanced-intermediate options (classical and colloquial Arabic) – those are the 300-level courses – as well as a separate course on colloquial Egyptian Arabic, and the advanced 400-level course. All of those are in the College course catalog, and are presumably open to undergraduates (as, by the way, the undergraduate courses are open to graduate students who want to learn Arabic).</p>

<p>Applicannot- for the most part, different core sequences compound on eachother as you move along, so you are not able to take them out of sequence. MATH132, for example, assumes you have knowledge based in MATH131, and it would be difficult to take without having the knowledge from the first quarter of the course; the same is so with the second or third quarters of social sciences or humanities sequences relative to the quarters that came before them. It would simply be to your disadvantage to take them out of sequence, as you would lack the basic skills in the subject area assumed of a person who has taken the initial one or two quarters, and because there are often (if not always) multiple sections of core courses offered, you can usually make them fit in with other courses you’d like to keep in your schedule.
The one exception I can think of is Civilization Studies, in which you can often (but not always) take the quarters out of sequence or take two quarters of different civilizations classes.</p>

<p>My son just completed his first year with several graduate level language courses under his belt, so I can assure you you can take whatever courses are appropriate to your level of preparation. Not only can you take courses that are cross-listed with undergraduate and graduate course numbers, but you can also (sometimes) take courses that have only graduate course numbers if you have the professor’s permission. You may have some difficulty with the latter situation when registering for courses, but your professor can help you navigate the registrar’s office’s requirements.</p>

<p>As for course sequence, I meant can you skip a quarter in between? That is, could you take MATH 131 in the Fall and then MATH 132 in the Spring, without taking a MATH in the winter?</p>

<p>I think – but I am not 100% certain – that Math 132 is only offered in the winter. So you could take Math 131 one fall, and then take Math 132 four quarters (counting summer) later, but you wouldn’t be able to skip just one quarter. </p>

<p>(The whole request is a little bizarre. Where you have a course that is strongly cumulative, why would you want to split it up with a quarter in between? Just take the darn course and get it over with! You may even want to take the third quarter!)</p>

<p>JHS is right, math 132 is only offered in the winter. Really, taking a whole year off of math would be a bad idea just to accommodate something else in a schedule; for courses in sequence, it is almost always possible to make your schedule work with the courses in sequence you need and electives or other courses of interest, even if it means you have to trudge through math 132 in the winter and wait to take a more exciting class the next year :)</p>

<p>Also, I think that there are probably a number of sections of Math 131-132 that meet at different times, so you can probably make them fit into your schedule. If your schedule changes fall to winter, you may be able to switch math sections, too, to eliminate the conflict.</p>

<p>Well, like I said, it was incredibly preliminary. I’m more looking at the way the Core works than how to specifically schedule my classes. Because there are three quarters but many sequences are only two quarters long, I was just curious how you would get them to fit.</p>

<p>S1 also completed several graduate courses as a first year. He spoke with folks in the department last fall, determined he could handle it, and told him to speak with each prof individually. He was able to pink slip into the ones he wanted without any difficulties. This has worked extremely well for him.</p>