<p>It’s funny, I just had this conversation with my son when I was asking him what he had registered for in the upcoming quarter and he referred to numbers and I asked him what they meant. </p>
<p>Northwestern now numbers their courses Philosophy 101, 201 (etc) like everyone else, but when I was there, they had a system of A-level, B-level, C-level and D-level. A-levels were typically introductory / survey for non-majors, B-levels were introductory classes intended for majors and maybe one or steps above, C-levels were more advanced (you typically needed X number of C-levels in your major), and D-levels were graduate level. So for example I took Philosophy B10 and Art History B85 and Math C92. Honestly I kind of wish they kept it unique; why be like everyone else?</p>
<p>I think that’s it - I asked my son (who’s a Div II student there) about it and that’s what he said. So the other of the five know what level, etc. to be taking.</p>
<p>As a former college transfer advisor at a community college, I appreciate the course numbering, it makes it much more difficult without. It requires syllabi, reading lists and even assignments given, to determine equivalency.</p>
<p>The Evergreen State College doesn’t number their courses because each term students take only one interdisciplinary topic – but their transcripts describe the topic taken and suggest what courses would be equivalent in a more typical college. I think the one I saw used course numbers for those equivalent courses.</p>
<p>Thomas Aquinas College (CA). Everyone takes the same sequence of courses in their “Great Books” program. There are no majors. Everyone gets the same liberal arts degree.</p>