Question: What is the difference between taking MA403 for 3 or 4 credits. The 4 hours option is intended for graduate students taking our upper level undergraduate courses for graduate credit, which is measured at credit hour units. But lately, the University allows undergraduates to contract for the 4th credit hour too, at the discretion of the instructor. The latter works best with honors students, and worst with seniors trying desperately to make up for earlier sophomoric dissipation in order to graduate on time. In my course (and that differs by instructor), the fourth credit hour is for a substantial geometrical termpaper/termproject. Our grade management system is incapable of separating the grade into 3 and 1, so there's a risk if the student fails to do the extra work. 4 hours of B is much worse than 3 hours of A. In all of my courses students master master basic LaTeX and learn to prepare decently composed and illustrated math, including their homework. The documentation of the this termpaper/term project is therefore in proper LaTeX. All other specifications are negotiated with the students and may range over a wide spectrum of geometrically relevant topics.