Juniors
We often need to classify undergraduate students by their student "class" status (i.e., freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors).
One simple method we could use is to classify students would be to use the number of years they have attended a college or university. This would be a satisfactory method to use for many of our undergraduates. However, for part-time students and transfer students, this method would not provide useful information.
The University’s SIS computer database calculates a student's “level” based on the cumulative units the student has earned (e.g., level 1 is 0-15 cumulative units, level 2 is 16-29 units). Students in levels 1 or 2 are freshmen, levels 3 and 4 are sophomores, and so on. These levels are not usually meaningful for transfer students, because many of these students transfer courses (i.e., units) here that will not count toward our engineering degree requirements. Thus, their cumulative units are “inflated” and do not represent their true engineering academic level.
The most reliable method we have found to classify our undergraduate students is to use a student’s “anticipated” degree date. A student who plans to graduate this year is classified as a senior. A student who plans to graduate next year is classified as a junior, and so on. Thus, it is very important that we know when each student plans to graduate.