Degree and Certificate Curricula   Degree Curricula   Certificate Curricula - Credit   Certificate Curricula - Noncredit General Information   Course Information Programs and Courses

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Degree and Certificate Curricula

Degree Curricula. A degree curriculum requires completion of 60 or more semester units (normally two years of full-time work) in conformance with the requirements of a particular department of instruction. (Students who have not satisfied course prerequisites may need more than two years to complete a degree curriculum.) Students who satisfy these requirements receive the degree of Associate in Arts or Associate in Science, and also the Award of Achievement if they have maintained a specified grade-point average. The College offers some 46 degree curricula on the semiprofessional level.

Degree curricula, because they are offered for a two-year period, with training in theory, related practice, and general education, offer students broad opportunity for employment. These curricula are therefore recommended for those desiring preparation for employment in any of a wide variety of capacities on the semiprofessional level.

Certificate Curricula--Credit. A credit certificate curriculum generally requires completion of 12 to 30 semester units in conformance with the requirements of a particular department of instruction. The College offers certificate curricula in some 64 areas.

The College offers certificate curricula for two groups of students:

1. those who desire to prepare for entry-level employment in a period shorter than two years and hence in more limited fields than those normally open to graduates of semiprofessional degree (two-year) curricula; and
2. those who have had previous training or experience, or both, and desire to add to their occupational competence. All credit that students earn in a certificate curriculum may also be used toward satisfaction of the requirements for graduation from the College with the degree of Associate in Arts or Associate in Science.

Students who have completed courses equivalent to any required in semiprofessional curricula, or who have otherwise satisfied the requirements for such courses, are exempt from taking them. The Office of Admissions and Records or department heads and program advisers will advise students regarding matters of equivalency.

Certificate Curricula--Noncredit. The noncredit offerings of City College include many certificate programs, some of which meet required guidelines for student financial assistance. Some programs are vocationally oriented. They provide training in entry-level, promotional, and new technological areas. Students may receive a Certificate of Completion upon successful completion of all required courses.

Students should check the time schedules, published separately, for the times when courses are offered. The schedules also identify the locations at which the courses will be taught. The Time Schedule is available at the College Bookstore; the Office of Admissions and Records, Room 107, Conlan Hall; the Registration Center, Room 104, Smith Hall; and San Francisco Public Libraries.

All credit courses offered by City College of San Francisco are graded courses as defined by Title V, California Administrative Code.

In choosing courses, students who desire to be graduated from City College should consult the College graduation requirements elsewhere in this catalog. When choosing courses to satisfy "Additional requirements" listed for a curriculum, students should consult their program adviser or counselor.

Course Information
Courses are identified by a subject and a number (for example, MATH 97) or by a subject and a letter (for example, ENGL W).

In some instances course numbers are followed by letters to indicate that the course is one of a closely related series of courses more than one semester in length: for example, English 1A-1B (a two semester series) and Art 170A-170B-170C (a three semester series).

In such a series of courses, each course is prerequisite to the succeeding part unless there is a statement to the contrary.

The number or numbers in parentheses following the title of a course indicate its semester unit (s.u.) value. Note that the semester unit is not equal to a quarter unit (q.u.). (2 s.u. = 3 q.u.)

The letters "fa," "sp," or "su" appearing after the course title indicate that the course is offered only during the fall, the spring, or the summer term (semester) respectively.

Courses that have no term-designating letters associated with them still may not be offered every semester. Also the indication of the semester or term during which the course is offered is subject to change without notice. Check with the department head to see when the class will next be offered.

The number of weekly meetings (lecture hours (lec), conference hours (conf), laboratory hours (lab), field trips, work hours (work)) is given for each course. For example, "Lec-3" means that the class meets three hours each week (a college hour is 50 minutes long); "lab-3" means that three hours of laboratory work are required each week of the semester. The average number of hours of study per week is given for independent study (ind st) courses. Note that patterns of course delivery other than the semester-long pattern may be chosen by a department. Other patterns include, but are not limited to, one-half semester (about eight weeks), one-third semester (about 6 weeks), or a ten-week summer session. The length and number of meetings for these different patterns is determined by the required number of contact hours needed to satisfy the semester-unit value of the course.

Some courses may be taken on a pass/no pass or a letter grade basis. Others may be taken only on a pass/no pass basis. This is indicated by "P/NP available" and "P/NP only" respectively on the same line as the delivery pattern. In this symbolism "avail." means the "P" (pass) or "NP" (no pass) grades are available for the course instead of the regular grades of "A" through "F" if the election to take the course for pass/no pass is made at registration or by the end of the first 30% of the term of offering of the course. If no notation occurs regarding pass/no pass, the course is a "letter grade only" course.

Other pertinent information about the course including prerequisites (Prereq.:), corequisites (Coreq.:), advisories on recommended preparation (Advise), repeatability (Rep.:), and exclusions follow the delivery pattern. Sometimes a course listed as a prerequisite may be taken concurrently with the course being described; in which case, "concur." in parenthesis following the course number indicates that.

A basic description of the course content generally concludes the course announcement. At the end of this description, the abbreviation CSU indicates that the course satisfies a general education (breath) requirement for any California State University, and campuses of the University of California.

If recently the course had a different CCSF course number or if an equivalent CCSF course exists, that information will be the last item in the announcement, for example "Formerly ENGL 5A" or "SPAN 2A-B = SPAN 2". If the course has been taken under its former number and a grade of C or better or of "P" has been earned, the newly numbered course may not be taken because the two are really the same. In addition, if two courses are listed as equivalent, only one of the two may be taken.