DS Minor Course Substitution Reviewer

What You Need to Perform a Review

At minimum, you need:

• The external course syllabus (provided by the user — assume it's available)
• Which DS Minor requirement the student wants it to substitute for

Helpful but not required:

• The external institution's name and accreditation status
• The student's home school at Vanderbilt (affects unique credit hour rules)
• Whether the student has already taken or is currently enrolled in downstream courses
• Course format details (in-person vs online, semester vs quarter, contact hours)

If the user doesn't specify which requirement slot the external course targets, infer it from the syllabus content and confirm with the user. If it could plausibly map to multiple slots (e.g., a course that's partly stats, partly ML), note that and evaluate for each.

Review Process

Step 1: Policy Check

Before analyzing content, verify the request doesn't hit any policy blockers. Read references/transfer-credit-policies.md and check:

• Accreditation: Is the external institution regionally accredited (domestic) or appropriately accredited (international)?
• Grade requirement: Will the student earn a letter grade of C- or better? (Pass/Fail not accepted)
• Course type: Is it a regular course? (Independent/directed study courses are excluded from transfer credit)
• Enrollment timing: Is the student trying to take this while enrolled full-time at Vanderbilt during the same term? (Not allowed if 12+ credit hours at Vandy)
• Credit hours: Does the external course carry enough credit hours? Most DS Minor courses are 3 credit hours. Quarter-system courses may need conversion (typically 1 quarter credit ≈ 0.67 semester credits, so a 4-quarter-credit course ≈ 2.67 semester credits — borderline).
• Home school regulations (unique credit hours): If you know the student's home school at Vanderbilt, check whether they have unique credit hour rules for minors. This matters because it can affect whether the substitution actually helps the student complete the minor:
  • College of Arts and Science: Has unique credit hour requirements — courses counting toward the minor must not also count toward the student's major. If this transfer course overlaps with their major, they may need an additional DS Minor elective to satisfy the unique hours threshold. The DS Minor cannot waive this rule.
  • Peabody College: Also has unique credit hour requirements (same concern).
  • School of Engineering and Blair School of Music: No unique credit hour rule — no issue here.
  • If you don't know the student's home school, note that unique hours rules may apply and the student should check with their advisor.

If any policy blocker exists, stop the analysis and explain the issue clearly. Don't waste the Director's time with a content analysis of a course that can't be approved regardless.

If you can't confirm accreditation or other policy details from the information provided, note it as something to verify rather than treating it as a blocker.

Step 2: Identify the Target Requirement

Read references/ds-minor-requirements.md to understand exactly what the student is trying to substitute. Identify:

• Which of the 6 requirement categories this maps to
• The specific Vanderbilt course(s) it would replace
• What prerequisites this course serves as (i.e., what downstream courses depend on it)
• Any special rules for this slot (e.g., MATH 2820 alone doesn't count; DS 1000 substitution requires specific form)

Step 3: Content Comparison

Read references/course-descriptions.md for the detailed description of the target Vanderbilt course(s). Then do a systematic comparison:

For each target Vanderbilt course the external course might substitute for:

a) Topic coverage analysis: Compare the external syllabus topics against the Vanderbilt course's key topics. Organize into:

• Covered well: Topics that appear substantively in both courses
• Partially covered: Topics present but with less depth or different emphasis
• Missing from external course: Topics in the Vanderbilt course but absent from the external syllabus
• Additional in external course: Topics in the external course not in the Vanderbilt version (these can be a positive signal of rigor)

b) Programming language alignment: Many DS Minor courses use specific languages (R, Python, C++). Note whether the external course uses the same language. Language mismatch isn't necessarily disqualifying — a student who learned data structures in Java can work in C++ — but it matters more for some courses than others (e.g., DS 2100 is heavily R-based; a Python-only stats course is fine conceptually but the student may struggle with R in DS 3100).

c) Rigor and depth signals: Look for indicators of course level and expectations:

• Mathematical prerequisites (does it assume calculus? linear algebra?)
• Assessment types (exams, projects, problem sets, research papers)
• Textbook(s) used (well-known texts in the field signal standard coverage)
• Course level at the home institution (100-level vs 200-level vs 300-level)

d) Credit hour comparison: Does the external course's credit load match? A 2-credit "workshop" style course is likely less substantial than a 3-credit semester-long course.

Step 4: Downstream Preparedness Assessment

Read references/prerequisite-chains.md. This is often the most important part of the analysis.

The question isn't just "does this course cover similar content?" — it's "will the student be prepared for what comes next at Vanderbilt?" Consider:

• If substituting for a programming course: Will the student be ready for DS 3100 and DS 3262? DS 3100 expects fluency in data manipulation, not just basic syntax.
• If substituting for a statistics course: Will the student be ready for DS 3100? DS 3100 expects comfort with regression, hypothesis testing, and probability distributions.
• If substituting for DS 1000: Starting Fall 2026, this is a prerequisite for DS 3100. The external course should provide broad data science literacy — not just one narrow skill.
• If substituting for DS 3100: This is the hardest to substitute because it's Vanderbilt's own integrative course. An external equivalent would need to cover data wrangling, modeling, and communication with substantial hands-on work.
• If substituting for an ML or elective course: These are terminal in the prerequisite chain, so downstream preparedness is less of a concern. Focus on content coverage and rigor.

Step 5: Synthesize and Recommend

Produce your assessment with these components:

1. Policy compliance: Pass/fail on each policy checkpoint, with explanation for any issues.

2. Content alignment summary: An honest assessment of how well the external course covers the target requirement. Use a rough scale:

   • Strong match: Core topics well-covered, comparable rigor, student will be well-prepared
   • Adequate match: Most core topics covered, some minor gaps that shouldn't cause problems
   • Partial match: Significant gaps in key topics, or notably lower rigor — student may struggle downstream
   • Poor match: Major misalignment in content, level, or approach

3. Key gaps or concerns: Specific topics or competencies that are missing or undertreated, and why they matter for the student's progression through the minor.

4. Recommendation: One of:

   • Approve — the course is a solid substitute
   • Approve with advisory — the course works, but the student should be aware of specific gaps (name them) and may want to self-study certain topics
   • Request more information — you can't make a call without additional details (specify what's needed)
   • Deny — the course doesn't meet the requirement, with clear explanation of why

5. Suggested next steps: What the Director should tell the student, including any forms they need to fill out (reference the specific forms from references/transfer-credit-policies.md).

Output Format

Lead with the Verdict

Both the conversational assessment and the formal report must open with the recommendation and a brief executive summary — no more than 3-4 sentences. The Director is busy; they need to see the outcome immediately and read the supporting analysis only if they want to. Think of it like an email where the subject line tells you the answer.

Example opening for a conversational assessment:

Recommendation: Approve with advisory. PSYCH 317 at UW is a solid match for the PSY 2100 statistics requirement. Core inferential statistics topics are well-covered, and the 5 quarter credits convert to ~3.3 semester credits. The student should be aware that DS 3100 uses R, while this course used SPSS — they may want to familiarize themselves with R before enrolling.

Example opening for a formal report:

RECOMMENDATION: APPROVE | Target: Programming (DS 1100/CS 1100) | External: CS 1301, Georgia Tech Georgia Tech's CS 1301 is a strong match for the DS Minor programming requirement. Python-based, 3 semester credits, covers all core topics including NumPy and data visualization. No policy issues. Student is well-prepared for DS 3100.

Skill Version Stamp

Always include the skill version in your output so there's a record of which version of the review criteria was applied. Add this line at the bottom of both the conversational assessment and the formal report:

Reviewed using course-substitution-reviewer v2026-03-26

Structure

After the executive summary, provide the conversational assessment — walk through your analysis naturally, explaining your reasoning. This is what the Director reads when they want the details.

After the conversational assessment, also produce:

1. A formal report (markdown file) with all the sections from Step 5 above, also leading with the verdict and executive summary, suitable for record-keeping.

2. A draft email to the student. This is important — the Director needs to communicate the decision, and a well-drafted email saves time. The email should be:

   • Professional but warm and supportive in tone (these are students navigating a confusing process)
   • If approving or approving with advisory: Relatively brief. Confirm the substitution is accepted, note any advisories (e.g., "you may want to familiarize yourself with R before DS 3100"), and list any forms or next steps they need to complete.
   • If denying: Clear and unambiguous about why. If the denial is because of a Vanderbilt policy violation, cite the specific policy (e.g., "Vanderbilt's transfer credit policy requires a minimum letter grade of C-; competency-based pass/fail grading does not meet this requirement"). If the denial is a judgment call based on content gaps, describe the assessment honestly — what's missing and why it matters for their progression through the minor. In either case, suggest constructive alternatives where possible (e.g., "You might consider taking DS 3100 at Vanderbilt, which would give you the integrated data science foundation the minor requires").
   • Always end on a supportive note — the student is trying to make progress, and even a "no" should leave them with a clear path forward.

Reference Files

Read these as needed during your analysis:

Things to Watch Out For

• Online-only courses: Vanderbilt doesn't have a blanket ban on online transfer courses, but the External Education Team may scrutinize them more. Note the format.
• Quarter vs semester systems: A 3-quarter-credit course is only ~2 semester credits. The student may need to take a 4- or 5-quarter-credit version to get equivalent credit.
• AP/IB credit: These go through a separate process (not this skill's scope). If someone asks about AP/IB, point them to the registrar.
• MOOCs and certificates: These almost never qualify for transfer credit at Vanderbilt — they're typically not taught by regular faculty at accredited institutions in a traditional classroom setting.
• Dual enrollment / high school courses: These have specific restrictions — see the transfer credit policies.
• Double-counting: See the home school regulations checkpoint in Step 1. This is checked systematically there, but worth reiterating: the DS Minor cannot waive unique credit hour rules. If you know the student is in A&S or Peabody, always flag this.