Bemidji State University       Prerequisite* Chart       Department of Physics/Science

• All courses required to graduate with a major offered by the Department or offered to satisfy the Liberal Education Science graduation requirements are included in the chart below.**
• Generally, the higher and further right a course is placed in the chart, the more prerequisites it has, the higher the level of its subject, and the more demanding it is to study.**

* The meaning of prerequisite(s) for courses and degree programs in the Physical Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Geology, and Astronomy, as well as Engineering) is quite different than that used for non-science programs. Here, for example, when Course B requires Course A as a prerequisite, that means a student must have taken and passed Course A before enrolling in Course B. If, upon occasion, the Instructor of Course B waives the prerequisite of Course A for a student, the burden of keeping up with the class rests with that student. More often than not, such a student fails the course or drops out because she did not have the necessary background. Because of their nature, Physics and Engineering programs have the strictest and most extensive prerequisite hierarchies of all programs at any undergraduate institution. Above, for example, you will find that Optics has eight prerequisite courses, and Theoretical Physics has ten.
** Courses and programs are constantly being updated or modified. Consult your advisor or another member of the Department before making your academic plans.

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Last Updated October 3, 2009.
© 2009 S F Johnson and the Dept. of Physics/Science, Bemidji State University. All rights are reserved unless explicitly stated otherwise.