Its crazy how true this really is.. What's your take on it? 100 levels trying to be hardasses or weed out the slackers? Maybe those are generally required courses so they think people will actually learn where the 500 are so degree specific no one will question if you learned anything or not. My thermo class was a fucking joke as was advanced material...but African studies nearly got me thrown out of school
Close; 100 level is introductory and presents the subject "do you really want to get involved?". By the time one gets to 500, one knows what's entailed, has the interest, is more mature and doesn't need to be babied/handheld. I've taken 100-500's and later taught them as well, and it always was like that. Also, generally lower levels are taught by new, green profs who think they must be hardasses to attain tenure. I think alot of factors are in play but the generalization is pretty accurate