How to Format Prerequisites, Concurrents, and Corequisites

It is important for prerequisite, concurrent, and corequisite statements to be unambiguous and clear in meaning. Requirement statements that can be interpreted in more than one way can result in one or more of the following:

  • A delay in course approval as clarification is sought during the course review process;
  • The wrong requirements being entered into the LionPATH Course Catalog and displayed in the University Bulletins and Schedule of Classes;
  • Confusion for students and advisers as to what courses or requirements a student must complete in order to be eligible to enroll in a course that has prerequisite, concurrent, and/or corequisite requirements
  • For course subjects using enforcement at the time of enrollment in LionPATH, a student being erroneously denied enrollment into a course at the time of course registration during the prior semester. Conversely, an unprepared student could erroneously be allowed to enroll in a course without having completed the intended requisites.

Definitions

Prerequisite: A prerequisite is a course or other requirement that a student must satisfactorily complete prior to the start of a given course.

Concurrent: A concurrent is a course or other requirement that a student must satisfactorily complete either prior to or during the same semester as a given course.

Corequisite: A corequisite is a course or other requirement that a student must satisfactorily complete simultaneously during the same semester as a given course. Corequisites are used rarely as a course requirement.

Tips for Developing a Clear Requirement Statement

To help ensure clarity in prerequisite, concurrent, and corequisite statements, please adhere to the following formatting guidelines:

  • Use "and" and "or" and not "," and ";" when listing a sequence or combination of courses.
  • Use parentheses to group appropriate combinations when multiple course selection options exist in the single statement.
  • List specific courses by subject and number as much as possible.
  • Avoid wide-scope requirements that encompass general subject areas and cannot be verified in LionPATH.
    • Example: A previous course in International History, Eastern Arts, or World Literature.
  • Be mindful of when requirements that encompass whole course subjects can and cannot be enforced in LionPATH.
    • Requirements that allow students to choose a specified number of credits from an entire course subject are enforceable in LionPATH.
      • Example: Select 6 credits of PLSC
    • Requirements that restrict the course subject selection by course level are only enforceable in LionPATH if there are a small number of courses that meet that criteria. If there are a large number of courses within the specified course-level, LionPATH will not be able to enforce the requirement.
      • Example: Select 6 credits of 400-level PLSC
  • Use the following semester classification nomenclature (instead of "junior", "senior", etc.) to denote semester classification requirements:
    • second-semester standing, third-semester standing, fourth-semester standing, fifth-semester standing, sixth-semester standing, seventh-semester standing
  • Please note, a major requirement should only be included in the requisite statement if enrollment in the major is needed to satisfy curricular considerations for the course. If it is necessary to control registration of the course by major for non-curricular reasons (e.g., to ensure that students in the major can register for a high-demand course with limited course offerings so they may maintain normal academic progress towards graduation) the appropriate alternative option for controlling major is to place an enrollment control on the course. The course control is enforced at the time of course registration.
    • Example: Enrollment in NURN_BS major
  • If minimum grade requirement is greater than D, add minimum grade clause to affected course.
    • Example: C or better in EE 330
    • Example: B or better in COMM 242
  • Enforced Course Subjects:
    • Please note that prerequisites, concurrents, and corequisites for enforced course subjects must be verifiable within LionPATH at the time of course enrollment.
    • If you have other requirements that are not verifiable in LionPATH, consider whether they could be categorized as recommended preparations. If that is not a feasible alternative, you will be contacted for further consultation before the requirements can be processed in the LionPATH Course Catalog.

Examples

Below is a collection of examples of both clearly written requirment statements and unclearly written requirement statements. The examples include an interpretation of the statement, tips as to why a statement is approrpriately formatted or not, and explanations of how to better format unclear requirement statements.

Clear Requirement Statements

Statement Meaning: Student must complete one of the three courses listed.

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "or" connector to denote choice between courses.
  • Parentheses not needed in this example because all courses are contained within the same course selection grouping.

Statement Meaning: Student must complete all seven courses listed.

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "and" connector to denote sequence of required courses.
  • Even though there are several courses listed, parentheses are not needed in this example because there are no alternatives or choices between courses included within this course grouping.

Statement Meaning: Student must complete a total of two courses:

  1. HDFS 312W

    2. and

  2. HDFS 129 or HDFS 249

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "and" and "or" connectors to denote choice between courses and required sequence.
  • Parentheses used to group together courses that belong in the same selection grouping and to separate an additional requirement.

Statement Meaning: Student can choose to complete the two courses grouped together or the single course alternative:

  1. COMM 421W and COMM 422

    2. or

  2. COMM 471

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "and" and "or" connectors to denote choice between courses and required sequence.
  • Parentheses used to group together courses that belong in the same sequence grouping and to separate a requirement alternative.

Statement Meaning: Student must complete a total of three courses:

  1. ACCTG 211

    2. and

  2. ECON 102

    3. and

  3. SCM 200 or STAT 200

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "and" and "or" connectors to denote choice between courses and required sequence.
  • Parentheses used to group together courses that belong in the same selection grouping and to separate additional requirements.

Statement Meaning: Student must complete one of the following sequences:

  1. 9 credits of any PHIL course
  2. PHIL 6 and 3 credits of any other PHIL course
  3. PHIL 9 and 3 credits of any other PHIL course
  4. PHIL 113 and 3 credits of any other PHIL course
  5. 6 credits of PHIL at the 200-level

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "and" and "or" connectors to denote choice between courses and required sequence.
  • Parentheses used to group together courses that belong in the same selection grouping and to separate additional requirements.

Please note that the inclusion of the whole course subject requirement of "9 credits of PHIL" is enforceable in LionPATH. The inclusion of the course-level requirement of "6 credits of PHIL at the 200-level" is acceptable for the PHIL course subject only because there is a small number of courses that meet that criteria. Requirements that restrict the course subject selection by course level are not enforceable in LionPATH if there are a large number of courses that meet that criteria. In this circumstance, you will be contacted for additional consultation.

Statement Meaning: Student must complete the two listed courses and have seventh-semester standing or higher in the Environmental Systems Engineering major.

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "and" connector to denote sequence of required courses. Use of semester standing to denote semester status requirements.
  • Use of the correct program code to denote required major enrollment.

Please note, the appropriate way to control major for non-curricular reasons (e.g., general demand for the course overwhelms the number of course offerings and it is necessary to ensure students in a particular major are able to register for the course) is to apply an enrollment control on the course, which is enforced at the time of course registration.

Statement Meaning: Student must complete one of the following options:

  1. EE 330 with a grade of C or better
  2. PHYS 400
  3. METEO 421 and METEO 431

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "and" and "or" connectors to denote choice between courses and required sequence.
  • Use of "C or better" to denote a course with a minimum grade requirement that is greater than D.
  • Parentheses used to group together courses that belong in the same selection grouping, to separate requirement alternatives, and to confine C or better minimum grade requirement to the only course with that criteria.

Statement Meaning: Student must complete a total of four courses:

  1. FDSC 200

    2. and

  2. FDSC 201

    3. and

  3. Selection of two courses from the following list: FDSC 400 or FDSC 405 or FDSC 408 or FDSC 410

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "and" and "or" connectors to denote choice between courses and required sequence.
  • Specification of how many courses a student must choose from the selection grouping. This statement comes after the fixed required courses of FDSC 200 and FDSC 201 so they are not mistaken as being a part of the selection grouping.

Statement Meaning: Student can choose to complete three courses if selecting the single course choice within the brackets or four courses if selecting the two courses grouped together within the brackets:

  1. BE 301

    2. and

  2. MATH 251

    3. and

  3. Selection of one course from the following list: ME 300 or ME 201 or CHE 220 or EMCH 302H

OR

  1. BE 301

    2. and

  2. MATH 250

    3. and

  3. MATH 252

    4. and

  4. Selection of one course from the following list: ME 300 or ME 201 or CHE 220 or EMCH 302H

Formatting Notes:

  • Use of "and" and "or" connectors to denote choice between courses and required sequences.
  • Parentheses used to group together courses that belong in the same selection grouping and to separate requirement alternatives.
  • Brackets used to clarify a complex requirement statement that includes a sub-grouping of courses within the larger selection grouping.

Unclear Requirement Statements

A statement with a combination of "and" and "or" connectors without parentheses to provide appropriate groupings makes the statement ambiguous. The above example could be interpreted in multiple ways. Each of those interpretations is listed below along with the correct statement formatting.

Interpretation 1

A student must take:

  1. HDFS 229 or PSYCH 212

    2. and

  2. HDFS 311

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 1: (HDFS 229 or PSYCH 212) and HDFS 311

Interpretation 2

A student must take:

  1. HDFS 229

    2. or

  2. both PSYCH 212 and HDFS 311

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 2: HDFS 229 or (PSYCH 212 and HDFS 311)

A statement that uses commas and semicolons instead of "and" and "or" as connectors is easy to misinterpret. It requires the student to understand what the commas and semicolons signify and requires the proposer to use them correctly. The above example could be interpreted in multiple ways. Each of those interpretations is listed below along with the correct statement formatting.

Interpretation 1

A student must take:

  1. PSYCH 100

    2. or

  2. PSYCH 212 and PSYCH 238 and PSYCH 243 and PSYCH 270

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 1: PSYCH 100 or (PSYCH 212 and PSYCH 238 and PSYCH 243 and PSYCH 270)

Interpretation 2

A student must take:

  1. PSYCH 100 or PSYCH 212

    2. and

  2. PSYCH 238 and PSYCH 243 and PSYCH 270

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 2: (PSYCH 100 or PSYCH 212) and PSYCH 238 and PSYCH 243 and PSYCH 270

Interpretation 3

A student must take:

  1. PSYCH 100

    2. and

  2. PSYCH 212 or PSYCH 238 or PSYCH 243 or PSYCH 270

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 3: PSYCH 100 and (PSYCH 212 or PSYCH 238 or PSYCH 243 or PSYCH 270)

Interpretation 4

A student must take all courses listed:

  1. PSYCH 100 and PSYCH 212 and PSYCH 238 and PSYCH 243 and PSYCH 270

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 4: PSYCH 100 and PSYCH 212 and PSYCH 238 and PSYCH 243 and PSYCH 270

Interpretation 5

A student must take only one course listed:

  1. PSYCH 100 or PSYCH 212 or PSYCH 238 or PSYCH 243 or PSYCH 270

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 5: PSYCH 100 or PSYCH 212 or PSYCH 238 or PSYCH 243 or PSYCH 270

A statement that uses commas and semicolons instead of "and" and "or" as connectors is easy to misinterpret. It requires the student to understand what the commas and semicolons signify and requires the proposer to use them correctly. In addition, referencing "junior" or "senior" status as opposed to semester-standing could be misleading to students. For instance, while second-year students might traditionally belong to sophomore status, some may have already attained fifth-semester standing or higher in total credits earned due to AP credits, prior learning, etc. This would technically put those students in junior status or higher. The above example could be interpreted in multiple ways. Each of those interpretations is listed below along with the correct statement formatting.

Interpretation 1

A student must take METEO 494H or have fifth- or seventh- semester standing or higher in the Meteorology and Atmospheric Science major.

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 1: METEO 494H or fifth-semester standing or higher in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science (METEO_BS) major

Interpretation 2

A student must take METEO 494H and have fifth- or seventh- semester standing or higher in the Meteorology and Atmospheric Science major.

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 2: METEO 494H and fifth-semester standing or higher in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science (METEO_BS) major

Interpretation 3

A student must take METEO 494H or be a third- or fourth-year student in the Meteorology and Atmospheric Science major.

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 3: METEO 494H or fifth-semester standing or higher in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science (METEO_BS) major

Interpretation 4

A student must take METEO 494H and be a third- or fourth-year student in the Meteorology and Atmospheric Science major.

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 4: METEO 494H and fifth-semester standing or higher in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science (METEO_BS) major

When a minimum grade requirement above D is included in the statement, it is best to either include parentheses as needed or repeat the grade requirement before each affected course to eliminate potential confusion about which courses require the higher minimum grade. Without those additional guides, the above example could be interpreted in multiple ways. Each of those interpretations is listed below along with the correct statement formatting.

Interpretation 1

A student must take:

  1. IST 302 with a grade of C or better

    2. and

  2. IST 240 with a grade of C or better or IST 242 with a grade of C or better or IST 301 with a grade of C or better

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 1: (C or better in IST 240 or IST 242 or IST 301) and C or better in IST 302

Interpretation 2

A student must take:

  1. IST 302 with a grade of C or better

    2. and

  2. IST 242 or IST 301 or (IST 240 with a grade of C or better)

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 2: [(C or better in IST 240) or IST 242 or IST 301] and C or better in IST 302

Interpretation 3

A student must take:

  1. IST 240 with a grade of C or better or IST 242 with a grade of C or better

    2. or

  2. IST 301 and (IST 302 with a grade of C or better)

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 3: (C or better in IST 240 or IST 242) or (IST 301 and C or better in IST 302)

Interpretation 4

A student must take:

  1. IST 240 with a grade of C or better or IST 242

    2. or

  2. IST 301 with a grade of C or better and IST 302 with a grade of C or better

Correct Formatting for Interpretation 4: [(C or better in IST 240) or IST 242] or (C or better in IST 301 and IST 302)