University Undergraduate Advising Handbook

CARNEGIE UNITS
(Senate Statement of Basic Academic Admissions Policies)

Carnegie units (defined by the Carnegie Foundation) are secondary-school units, each of which represents one year of work in a subject. At Penn State, these units are used to determine admissibility to the University (at the associate and baccalaureate levels), to particular colleges, and to some college-level courses.

ADMISSION

The Undergraduate Admissions website provides high school course requirements for admission to associate and baccalaureate programs.

Compensating for an Admissions Carnegie Unit Deficiency

High school graduates who do not have the required Carnegie units for admission may be considered for admission as provisional students. Under this circumstance, students must take college-level course work to remediate this deficiency and qualify for degree status. Contact a DUS adviser for approved course substitutions.

COURSE PREREQUISITE

On occasion Carnegie units (referred to as "units") are listed as a prerequisite for a course, as in the following example:

STAT 200 (GQ) Elementary Statistics (4) Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, probability, binomial and normal distributions, statistical inference, linear regression, and correlation.
Effective: Summer 1988
Prerequisite: 2 units in algebra

Compensating for a Prerequisite Carnegie Unit Deficiency

Course work may be taken at the University to compensate for a Carnegie unit prerequisite. Contact the department offering the course for a recommendation.

The University may make changes in policies, procedures, educational offerings, and requirements at any time. Please consult a Penn State academic adviser for more detailed information.

This page is part of the University Undergraduate Advising Handbook, which is maintained by the Division of Undergraduate Studies, DUS@psu.edu.

Reviewed: April 2012
Last Update: October 2007