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Question: If I'm pursuing studies at/in the XYZ department, what is the correct preposition for the following sentence?

I'm a student [at / in / from / of] the XYZ department

There are related questions here on ELL, but they are mostly about whether I'm studying "at" an university, not a department from an university. Googling I could find all of these prepositions being used by students in leading English speaking universities.

Related:
https://ell.stackexchange.com/a/100972/67575
https://ell.stackexchange.com/a/15027/67575
https://english.stackexchange.com/a/7408/229087

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    You are studying at a university. The use of a or an depends on the pronunciation of the letter that follows, not of the letter itself. We don't use an when the following u is pronounced you. So we speak of a uniform but an unfortunate incident.
    – Ronald Sole
    Jun 25, 2020 at 21:16
  • @RonaldSole Thank you! I initially wrote "a university", but edited right afterwards. Good to know this!
    – flen
    Jun 25, 2020 at 21:30

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If the question is:

What department are you in?

The answer could be:

  • I’m a student at the Computer Science Department.

Meaning: this answers the question exactly by quoting the name of the department. The asker gets his answer and is now assured that there is indeed a Department in your college with the name "Computer Science".

Or

  • I'm a student in Computer Science.

Meaning: this tells about the stream of learning. There could be multiple departments under this stream. It's a generic answer. The asker gets a general understanding about what your department is all about. But he doesn't yet know what exactly the name of the department is.

or

  • I'm a student in the ComputerScience department.

The role of in/at changes with the context.

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  • Thank you! But would it also be correct to say "I'm a student in the Computer Science department"?
    – flen
    Jun 25, 2020 at 22:12
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    It certainly would be correct, and what most people would be likely to say.
    – Ronald Sole
    Jun 25, 2020 at 23:03
  • @flen yes,thts also correct.
    – Aditya Patnaik
    Jun 26, 2020 at 5:05
  • @AdityaPatnaik could you please edit your answer to include this? Then I can mark it as the answer to my question
    – flen
    Jun 27, 2020 at 14:45
  • done @flen, hope the answer helped you.
    – Aditya Patnaik
    Jun 27, 2020 at 15:09

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