Upper Level and Lower Level Credits

It's a very novice question but I would like to clarify myself. Any help would be appreciated.

What is the difference between these two - upper level and lower level credits?

How do they assess? Any other pointers associated to this would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

Originally posted by Tarbuza: "What is the difference between these two - upper level and lower level credits?"

Well, that depends on who you ask. Theoretically, lower level (or lower division, as my RA school calls them) credits are supposed to be courses that are broad or introductory in nature and would usually be taken in the first two years of a traditional four year degree program. While upper level (or upper division) credits are supposed to be more specific and in depth and would usually be taken in the last two years of a traditional four year degree program. ACE (American Council on Education) evaluates training programs using this philosophy. In practice, many private colleges treat all courses taken at a four-year school as upper division and all courses taken at a two-year school as lower division. Public universities usually use the number of the course 1XX and 2XX are lower level and 3XX and 4XX are upper level.
The importance of the distinction comes when a schools has specific transfer credit or degree requirements connected to upper and lower division credits. For example, the university may have different transfer credit maximums for lower or upper level credits. Or, a major may require a specific number of upper division courses (as opposed to specifying the particular courses). Or, general education distribution may only be able to be met by lower level courses.

The student needs to find out: 1) How does the college or univeristy you are interested in define lower and upper level courses/credits? 2) What university policies make reference to upper and lower divison courses/credits? Unfortunately, like a lot of things in US higher education there will be as many answers to those two questions as there are colleges and universities.

Hworth

 

Hworth's response is well written and quite accurate. There is one notable "exception to the rule" in nontraditional education . . .

At Thomas Edison State College, for example, upper-level credits can be interpreted two ways. The first is the traditional way - courses numbered 300 or above, or courses that would be taken at the upper level in a traditional program.

The second way is that TESC interprets more than six credits in a single specific subject area to be upper level. (In other words, the first six credits are lower level, and those above six are upper level.)

How does this work? Let's say you receive credit for four 3-credit courses in music that would normally be lower level. We'll call them Piano 101, Voice 101, Brass 101, and Strings 101. All are normally first-year courses (according to their numbering) for which traditional schools would award a total of 12 lower-level credits; however, at TESC they would count two of the courses as lower level and two as upper level. The only restriction that TESC has is that there is a limit to the number of credits they will accept from two-year or community colleges. (Therefore, the hidden trick if one were to challenge such courses by portfolio is to take the course descriptions from the catalog of a four-year college.)

 

Dear Dr. Levicoff,

Super excellent infomation, Steve!

Actually, your point proves my hyphotesis that it is possible to earn a Bachelor of Liberal Arts, Liberal Studies concentration (or Bachelor of General Studies, Liberal Studies concentration) by taking only lower division classes from traditional schools. This can be achieved by earning multiple associates, but of course, the last thirty credits (or more, depending on the institution) have to come from associates from senior instituions.

All the best,


Karlos Alberto "Caballero" Lacaye
[email protected]