Undergraduate and Graduate Courses
Course Numbering
University of Louisville undergraduate students typically take courses at the 100 through 400 level. Courses numbered below the 100 level are not used in calculations of earned hours or the university grade point average. Courses numbered at the 100 and 200 level are primarily for freshmen and sophomores, and such courses generally contain introductory or basic material. Courses numbered at the 300 and 400 level are primarily for juniors and seniors, and such courses generally contain advanced undergraduate material.
Courses at the 500-level may be open to both advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Courses numbered at the 600-level and above are for graduate students only. Undergraduate students requesting to enroll in a 500-level course for graduate credit or in a 600-level course may do so only with special permission of the instructor in the course and the dean of the student's enrollment unit, be registered for at least one undergraduate course, have earned at least 60 credit hours of coursework at the undergraduate level, and have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. A maximum of nine (9) credit hours of graduate coursework may be applied to the undergraduate degree. Such graduate level courses will satisfy requirements toward the undergraduate degree and therefore cannot be used for subsequent graduate credit.
In rare cases, undergraduate students at the University of Louisville who are within six (6) semester hours of completing the baccalaureate requirements and who are enrolled in a graduate course may obtain graduate credit at the University of Louisville. This can only occur if the course has not been used to satisfy part of the baccalaureate requirements, and if the chair of the department involved and the unit dean approve.
Accelerated Bachelor's/Master's Option
Undergraduate students will follow the departmental process to apply for admission to the accelerated program before beginning their final 30 credits of the bachelor’s program. Only exceptional students who meet all admissions requirements will be eligible for admission to accelerated programs; those who are admitted will be allowed to enroll in graduate coursework in their final 30 hours of the undergraduate program. Students who meet the program guidelines for successful completion of the graduate coursework as an undergraduate may then apply for admission to the master’s program.
Students applying for admission to a 30-hour to 35-hour master’s program may take a maximum of nine (9) credit hours as an undergraduate which will count toward both the bachelor’s and the master’s degree; those applying to a 36-hour or more master’s program may take a maximum of twelve (12) credit hours that will count toward both the bachelor’s and the master’s degrees (the guiding principle is that no more than one-third of a student’s coursework may be double-counted for two different degrees at different levels).
Graduate credits taken while in a bachelor’s program must be transferred to the student's graduate record after the student has completed one semester as a graduate student.
See specific programs for further requirements for applying to an accelerated program.
Prerequisites
Students must have completed the proper prerequisites to register for any course. It is the student’s responsibility to know the prerequisites for a course by checking the course description section of the online university undergraduate catalog. While some of these courses are open to all students enrolled in the University of Louisville, many are restricted to students in certain programs.
Administrative Withdrawal and Course Cancellations
The dean’s office in each unit reserves the right to administratively withdraw students from courses based on academic policies.
The units also reserve the right to cancel without prior notice any courses listed in the Schedule of Classes, and to cancel any course that does not have an adequate enrollment at a reasonable time during the registration period for the semester. The university attempts to provide all courses required for graduation frequently enough to ensure that no student's degree will be delayed by course unavailability, but the university cannot guarantee that such delay will not occur.
