I wonder if something like being on course, is influencing your opinion on this.
No, I don't think that has anything to do with it.
To me, "course" in the OP basically means program/class.
To me:
program can be treated similarly in use and meaning to
course, yes. So with respect to appropriate preposition, I would say that
I'm on a program (not
in). The word
class,however, is treated differently in use and meaning. To me (and I'd say to all British English speakers I know), one can't be
on a class. British English speakers don't tend to use the word
class to mean
course. That is being
on a course and being
in a class are not exactly synonymous. They have similar but essentially different meanings.
Thus, "in the class" and "in the program" are natural.
As I've suggested, for me only
in the class and
on the program are natural.
Yes, in an academic setting, the word "course" heavily overlaps in meaning with the word "class".
There's some overlap, yes, but it's the nature of the overlap that we view differently.
So "I took three math courses last semester" means the same thing as "I took three math classes last semester."
Well, the former sounds wrong to me. You
did (not
took) three math courses last semester. Doing a course and taking a class are not synonymous.
"He earned top grades in my course" = "He earned top grades in my class".
I don't agree with this equation because for me,
class and
course are not synonymous.
This is further complicated, though, by the word "class" also meaning "graduating class"; i.e., all the undergraduate students in the university who are scheduled to graduate in the same year. So "He graduated ranked first in his class" would refer to the entire graduating student body that year.
Okay, that makes sense. This is the 'normal' use (the use that I'm using) of the word
class. In fact, I think it shows the basic sense of
class as referring to the members of a differentiated group very well.
There is clearly a varietal difference of use here. It seems that in US English, there is not such a clear boundary between
class and
course as there is in British English.
