Term Descriptions

Fall term: Our fall semester runs from August to December.

Spring term: Our spring semester runs from January to May.
Course Descriptions
We don’t usually have syllabi available for the courses until the first day of class. Typically, the most detailed course description you will get prior to the first day of courses is in the
Undergraduate Bulletin at http://www.unc.edu/ugradbulletin/depts/index.html
or the Graduate
Record at http://www.unc.edu/gradrecord/programs/deptintro.html
. This is because though the general outline of, for example, HIST 420—Politics and Religion in Ancient Greece states, “This course deals with ancient Greek religious practices and seeks to place them in their legal, political, and cultural contexts, and thus integrate them into the study of Greek history,” different instructors have the liberty to focus on specific examples of ancient Greek religious practices given their particular interest in the subject, and will tailor their course to better fit their specialties as instructors. If students could repeat the same course (which you cannot do for most courses), a student could take HIST 420 with five different instructors and not have the same list of readings.
There are some courses that are more regulated than others by the academic department, and where this is the case, you may be able to find a better description of the course on the departmental websites listed at http://www.unc.edu/departments/index.htm
. Some departments will have old syllabi from courses, and some will not. In the case that the description you are looking for is not available on the departmental website and the Undergraduate Bulletin or Graduate Record description is not sufficient, I would first ask your home institution if they would be willing to approve you to send the syllabi of your courses to them on the first day of classes for their approval. Explain to them that detailed course descriptions are not generally available until on or right before the first day of classes. This is because instructors generally have not created their syllabi for their upcoming courses beforehand. If they’ve taught the course previously, they may have an old syllabus, but it will likely be revised between now and the first day of class. If your home institution requires from you that you MUST have approval for each course before you get here, and you’ve browsed through the departmental website and the Undergraduate Bulletin or
Graduate Record but you haven’t found what you need, only then would I encourage you to contact the instructor for the course. You should only contact course instructors regarding their courses after you’ve been accepted to study at UNC-Chapel Hill. More information on how to effectively contact instructors will be available post-acceptance.

Prerequisites and Co-requisites
When you are looking at course descriptions in the Undergraduate Bulletin at http://www.unc.edu/ugradbulletin/depts/index.html
or the Graduate Record at http://www.unc.edu/gradrecord/programs/deptintro.html
, note that most non-introductory courses require that you either have prerequisites or co-requisites in order to take the course.
Courses that require prerequisites are courses that require you to have previous knowledge of certain concepts prior to taking the course. For example, say you wanted to take MATH 515
(History of Mathematics). You would need to have already taken MATH 381 (Discrete
Mathematics) or its equivalent before enrolling in this course. If a course requires a prerequisite that is numbered under 400, please review the course description in the Undergraduate Bulletin at http://www.unc.edu/ugradbulletin/depts/index.html
.
If you are choosing to take a course that has prerequisites, please make sure you check the course descriptions of the prerequisite courses to ensure you have the previous knowledge necessary to enroll in your desired course.
Courses that require co-requisites are courses that require you to take another course in addition to the course you want in order to get credit. For example, if you wanted to take MATH 550
(Topology), you would have to also take MATH 383 (First Course in Differential Equations) during the same term. There is also a prerequisite for this course, which is MATH 233.
Course Numbering System
Our course numbering system is as follows:

50-099 First Year Seminars [not available to exchange students]

100-199 Introductory level undergraduate courses [undergraduate students only]

200-399 Undergraduate courses deemed to be above the introductory level
[undergraduate students only]

400-699 Courses open to undergraduates and graduate students [undergraduate and graduate students]

700-999 Graduate courses [available only to graduate students]
With the exception of the important distinction between introductory and non-introductory courses, students generally should not assume that courses have been arranged in ascending order of difficulty or specialization (i.e., ENGL 420 is not necessarily more difficult than ENGL 340). The logic behind any departmental numbering scheme will be specific to that department.
If you are classified in our system as an undergraduate, you are not permitted to take courses numbered 700 and above. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Graduate students generally should not assume that courses have been arranged in ascending order of difficulty or specialization. The logic behind any departmental numbering scheme will be specific to that department.
If you are classified in our system as a graduate student, you are not permitted to take courses numbered 399 and below. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Course Types (LEC, REC, LAB)
Here at UNC-Chapel Hill, we offer different modes of instruction for our students. Most all courses are taught in the style of lectures (LEC), where you sit in a classroom with other students as the instructor teaches the material to you. Sometimes the lectures are so large that students don’t really have the opportunity to interact with the material as much as the instructor would like. In those cases, instructors also schedule a mandatory recitation component (REC) to accompany the lecture. Please read more about these recitation sections below:
Recitations
Recitation sections are like tutorials. For some classes, you have a lecture that you must attend between 1 and 3 times per week, as well as a recitation section you must attend once a week. Most of the time, courses that have a recitation component associated with them are very large lectures (between 100 and 500 people). The weekly recitation section is mostly used as a discussion section. These sections are led by graduate students who work under the professor, and you use that time to discuss readings and delve deeper into the material than the lecture can.
This provides you with an opportunity to get to know certain students in your class, and to get more out of the lecture sessions. Both lecture attendance and recitation attendance are mandatory, and taking the recitation section alone does NOT grant any additional credit for the course.
Some lecture courses also have lab components (LAB), where students meet approximately once a week for three or four hours at a time to have hands-on experience with the material. Unlike recitations, labs typically have their own credit outside of the lecture, meaning that it is not always mandatory that you take the lab component at the same time you’re taking the lecture. For example, say you want to take our Microbiology course, BIOL 422. If you’ve already taken BIOL
422 but you didn’t take the lab component, you could just take BIOL 422L (the L designates the course as being a lab) for 1.0 to 2.0 hours of credit. If you didn’t need to take the lab, you could just take BIOL 422 for 3.0 credits. If you had to take both the lecture and the lab at the same time, you would sign up for both BIOL 422 for 3.0 credits and BIOL 422L for 1.0 or 2.0 credits. The amount of credits you have for the lab corresponds directly with the amount of time you spend in the lab.
The abbreviations LAB, LEC, and REC are what we use to designate the different course types in our ConnectCarolina system. Make sure when you are signing up for courses that you pay attention to these abbreviations so you can ensure you’re taking the right type of courses.

Section Numbers
Oftentimes, courses are so popular or necessary that multiple instructors teach the same course during a semester. To differentiate between the different instructors who teach the course and the times when they teach it, each course has a section number (001, 002, 003, etc.). The great thing about section numbers is that if a course you need to take has more than one section offered, you have the flexibility to choose whichever section best fits your schedule. It is also wonderful because if the section you choose fills up and is closed, there is a chance you can take another section of the same course at a different time. Here is a breakdown of how to choose the section you need:
001-009: These sections are mostly lecture sections. Since most classes are lectures, this is the type of section number you will choose most often for your courses.
401-499: These sections generally refer to lab sections. If you are taking BIOL 422-001 and you want to take the lab as well, you might also sign up for BIOL 422L-401.
600-699; 700-799; 800-899: These section numbers are usually reserved for recitation sections.
Make sure you check the class notes in your lecture courses to see if you need a recitation section, and if you do, make sure you select one within the range for your particular section (that information is available on the class notes page).
900-999: These section numbers are mostly used and created by the Friday Center for Continuing
Education, and primarily refer to either online courses (which I strongly discourage you from taking, as they are outside of the exchange agreement and will cost you an additional $2000+ per course) or on-campus courses that are reserved for the Friday Center. Please refrain from preregistering for any Friday Center course, and if you have questions about a specific course with a section number 900 or above, please email your exchange student advisor.
Course Minimums and Maximums
PLEASE NOTE: All courses taught at UNC-Chapel Hill are worth credits. Generally, lecture courses are worth approximately 3 credits each. Some courses are worth 4 credits if they meet more often (e.g., beginner foreign language courses), and other courses are worth 3 credits for the lecture, and 1 credit for the lab.
FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS:
Your mission is to be enrolled in at least 12, and preferably 15 credit hours prior to your arrival.
Though you technically only need 12 credits to remain full-time in compliance with your student visa, please try to enroll in at least 15 (but no more than 17) credits during your enrollment appointment (more information regarding registration will be available post-acceptance). When classes start, you can increase your credit load up to 18 credits. You will find that it is easier to swap courses than it is to drop, and the deadline to drop courses happens late into the semester
(once classes begin, you only have a week to add more credits to your schedule). Many students start off the semester taking between 15 and 18 credits, then drop down to 12 credits once they have been to a few weeks of classes and can determine what they want to keep on their schedule.
The most important thing to remember is that UNC’s minimum is 12 credits, but your home university may require you to take more (but not less) than our minimum. Please check with your

home university to ensure that you plan on taking the number of courses appropriate for you to transfer back towards your degree at the end of your exchange.
FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS:
Your mission is to be enrolled in at least 9, and preferably 15 credit hours prior to your arrival. All
9 credits must be obtained in courses numbered 400 and above.
Though you technically only need 9 credits to remain full-time in compliance with your student visa, please try to enroll in at least 15 (but no more than 17) credits during your enrollment appointment (more information regarding registration will be available post-acceptance). When classes start, you can increase your credit load up to 18 credits. You will find that it is easier to swap courses than it is to drop, and the deadline to drop courses happens late into the semester (once classes begin, you only have a week to add more credits to your schedule). Many students start off the semester taking between 12 and
15 credits, then drop down to 9 or 12 credits once they have been to a few weeks of classes and can determine what they want to keep on their schedule. The most important thing to remember is that
UNC’s minimum is 9 credits, but your home university may require you to take more (but not less) than our minimum. Please check with your home university to ensure that you plan on taking the number of courses appropriate for you to transfer back towards your degree at the end of your exchange.
Business School
You are permitted to select up to one Business course during your exchange here, but as Business courses are housed through the Kenan Flagler Business School (KFBS), you are not permitted to pre-register for this course. All Business undergraduates have the first priority in selecting the courses they need in order to graduate. To indicate your preference for the one Business course, you will complete an online survey closer to the start of the semester, and your registration will be dependent on space availability and prerequisite requirements being satisfied. The online survey will be posted on the Kenan-Flagler website approximately one week prior to the start of the semester ( http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/programs/undergraduate-business ). THERE IS NO
GUARANTEE that you will be able to get a space in any one particular course.
The only BUSI courses available for graduate level students will be in the 400-699 range— you are not permitted to take courses in the Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Master of
Accounting (MAC) programs.

All subjects have a three or four letter abbreviation code for them in ConnectCarolina. This means that when you are entering in Course Subject information in your Shopping Cart, you need to enter in this abbreviation so the system knows to look within a specific department for the courses you want. Please use the table below to help you fill in the correct subject abbreviation for courses within the College of Arts and Sciences:
AERO— Aerospace Studies (Air Force ROTC)
AFAM, AFRI, CHWA, LGLA, SWAH,
WOLO— African and Afro-American Studies
AMST, CHER, FOLK— American Studies
ANTH— Anthropology
APPL, MTSC— Applied Sciences and Engineering
ARCH— Archaeology
ART— Art
ASIA, ARAB, CHIN, HEBR, HNUR, JAPN, KOR,
TURK, VIET— Asian Studies
BIOC, BIOL, BMME— Biology
CHEM— Chemistry
PLAN— City and Regional Planning
CLAR, CLAS, GREK, LATN— Classics
COMM— Communication Studies
COMP— Computer Science
EURO— Contemporary European Studies
DRAM— Dramatic Art
ECON— Economics
CMPL, ENGL— English and Comparative Literature
ENST— Environment & Ecology
EXSS, RECR, LFIT, PHYA— Exercise and Sport
Science
GEOG— Geography
GEOL— Geological Sciences
BULG, CZCH, DTCH, GERM, HUNG, MACD,
NORW, PLSH, RUSS, SECR, SLAV— Germanic
& Slavic Languages & Literatures
GLBL— Global Studies
HIST— History
LTAM— Latin American Studies
LING, MAYA— Linguistics
MASC— Marine Sciences
MATH— Mathematics
ARMY— Military Science
MUSC— Music
NAVS— Naval Science
PWAD— Peace, War, and Defense
PHIL— Philosophy
ASTR, PHYS— Physics and Astronomy
POLI— Political Science
PSYC— Psychology
PLCY— Public Policy
JWST, RELI— Religious Studies
CATA, FREN, ITAL, PORT, ROML,
SPAN— Romance Languages and Literatures
MNGT, SOCI— Sociology
STOR— Statistics and Operations Research
WMST— Women's Studies