Academics
Building
upon historical strengths in engineering and agriculture, the West Lafayette
campus offers over 5,800 courses in more than 400 undergraduate majors:
Agriculture, Education, Engineering, Exploratory Studies, Health & Human
Sciences, Liberal Arts, Management, Pharmacy, Purdue Polytechnic Institute,
Science, Veterinary Medicine, and Honors College. Purdue is one of the leading
research institutions with a reputation for academic excellence. Many academic
departments continually rank in the top ten nationally.
Finding Classes
To search the schedule of classes:
- Choose the
semester you will arrive at Purdue in the Term pull-down
menu. If that term is not available, choose the comparable term one year
earlier.
- Select
a Subject
- Choose
Campus: West Lafayette. If you fail to do
this, you will see courses that are offered at distant Purdue campuses that you
cannot take.
- Courses
numbered 49999 and below are undergraduate classes and 50000 and above are
graduate-level classes. Exchange students are not able to take courses on the
60000 level.
Course Registration
After your acceptance to Purdue, the list of desired courses are sent to an
academic advisor. The advisor will review the academic background, determine if
course selections are appropriate, and email instructions on how to register.
During the first few days at Purdue, it is suggested to meet with the academic
advisor to evaluate the registered courses.
Class Structure
In the
United States, class attendance and participation are normally considered
course requirements. Daily or weekly homework assignments, frequent short tests
or quizzes, and teachers keeping track of the number of times you participate
in class discussions are common grades for courses. At the end of each semester,
final examinations may cover the entire course content or only a portion of it.
Credits
Course weight or value is measured
by "credits" and the amount of credit is based upon the number of
hours the class meets each week. A typical 3-credit course might meet for 50
minutes three times a week, or for one hour and-fifteen minutes twice a week. Students
spend two hours outside class for readings and homework for every hour spent in
class. One unit of credit equals three hours of work per week. Exchange students are required to maintain
full-time student status while at Purdue, which means a minimum of 12 credits
every semester. Since most courses at Purdue are worth 3 or 4 credits, students
generally take between 3 to 5 courses per semester.
Professors
University
professors generally welcome classroom questions and discussions with students.
Professors maintain regular 'office hours' – times during the week when they
are available to meet with students to discuss course topics, homework
assignments, or any related subject matter in which students are interested.
Grades
Academic
performance in each course is evaluated by the professor using letter grades of
"A" to "F". The grading system used to evaluate a student's
academic performance is based on a four-point scale. For exchange students, a
transcript is mailed to the home institution at the end of the semester.