How to Read the Course Schedule
This page is for beginners. It introduces you to the Course Schedule. You'll need both the Course Schedule and Undergraduate Catalog to decide which classes you should take at K-State. Here's the difference between them:
The UNDERGRADUATE CATALOG details all the courses that the University offers. It explains what they're about, what prerequisites you'll need and how they fit into different curriculums. It gets updated every two years. Its Internet address is http://www.ksu.edu/uauc/uncat.
The COURSE SCHEDULE provides information for one semester. It shows which courses K-State will offer during the upcoming semester. It tells you when & where they'll meet, the number of credits you'll receive and the course format. The internet address is http://www.ksu.edu/courses.
Line schedules can be challenging to read the first time around. However, this page will help you get started. Just take it slow. It does look like an incomprehensible wall of letters and numbers when taken as a whole, but when you examine the lines individually, it begins to make sense.
The sample listing below was taken from the Fall 1997 Line Schedule and appears as it would in print (except for the rainbow colors... we added that part for clarity). Read the color-coded explanations that follow the sample. Then look around the electronic version for practice. Although you'll find it slightly different from the print version, it is very similar.
| Dept | Course | GR | Title | Credits |
| Sec | Type | Ref No | GE | OP | Days | Hours | Room | Instructor |
| CHM | 110 | GENERAL CHEMISTRY | 3 |
| A | LEC | 07540 | Y | P | MWF | 0230 | W114 | Lenhart, Anne G |
| QZ | M | 0715-0845P | UM 105 |
Dept Course Title: This tells you which department offers the class, its course number and its name. For our example, we see that CHM (the Chemistry Department) is offering two courses: 110 and 111 titled General Chemistry and Gen Chem Lab respectively. Note that they're companion courses. Students typically sign up for both the lecture and accompanying lab. Courses do frequently have multiple parts. In some cases like the one shown above, the credit is split between the two parts. In others like MATH 100: College Algebra, you must enroll in both parts to receive any credit. Always make sure you've got all parts of the course under consideration.
Type: This tells you how the course will be taught. LEC means Lecture format. QZ means Quiz format, meaning that your class will meet for exams at a special time. And LAB means that CHM 111 has the Laboratory format. Click on the following link for a key to the different formats listed in the Line Schedule.
Sec Ref No: Often more than one section of a course is offered. Sec assigns them a letter or number to keep them straight. You can just say I'm in Section 02 instead of I'm in the 8:30 Tuesday section that meets in King Hall 202 and not King Hall 203. Even more specifically, the Ref No is the unique code that tells the enrollment computer your plans. For example O7570 is computerese for Section 03 of CHM 111 during the Fall 1997 semester. Definitely know those reference numbers when you enroll! And keep in mind that reference numbers beginning with 9 designate Fort Riley classes.
GE GR OP: GE stands for General Education. A Y in the GE column indicates that the course counts towards fulfilling the All-University General Education requirements. To see these requirements, go to www.ksu.edu/artsci/genedweb.html. GR OP stands for Grading Option. If you can take a course A/Pass/Fail or Credit/No Credit, a P or C will appear in this column respectively. Grading Options are probably not anything to get bogged down with during your first couple semesters.
Days Hours Room: This is pretty straightforward... you need to know when and where the class meets. Remember that all hours are daytime hours unless followed by P. The CHM 110 Quiz meets 7:15-8:45 PM for example. The only other key is knowing the building abbreviations: W114 means 114 Willard Hall. There is typically a key printed in the front of the line schedule under Schedule Format.
Instructor: After you've been here several semesters, you may hear about some great instructors and want to get their sections. This shows who will teach what. But how can Earline Dikeman teach two labs at the same time in different rooms?!?! A reasonable question. Some teaching assignments are still undecided when course schedules are printed. In those cases departments usually just list the program coordinator. Earline Dikeman probably didn't teach 14 labs in Fall 1997 but she probably did oversee their efforts.
Credits: This indicates the number of credits you'll receive for successful completion of the course. It roughly corresponds to the number of hours you'll spend in class, but labs traditionally run longer than the one hour of credit awarded... under the assumption that labs generate less outside study. You need at least 124 hours of credit to graduate from K-State (at least 120 hours of credit if you entered before the fall of 2003). Some programs require more. A typical semester load is around 12-16 credit hours. If you take CHM 110 and CHM 111, it adds 4 (3+1) credits to your semester load.