American River College
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Home Catalog Programs of Study Description of Courses Course Numbering

Course Numbering

All courses at American River College are comprised of a subject code (sometimes called a course prefix or course designator), course number, and course title. Some courses also have a course type identifier and/or a course specialty identifier. Here are descriptions of each component:

Subject Code/Course Prefix/Course Designator
The subject code is an alphabetical abbreviation for the subject area, between two and five characters long. For example, ENGL is for English, and ENGCW is for English - Creative Writing.
Course Number
Course numbers are standardized two-, three-, or four-digit numbers. For example, 90, 300, and 1000 are course numbers. Course numbers can tell you important information about the course:
  • Courses numbered 1 to 99 are developmental or basic skills courses. These courses are for credit but are not degree-applicable nor transferable to four-year institutions.
  • Courses numbered 100 to 299 are degree-applicable1 but are not transferable to four-year institutions.
  • Courses numbered 300 to 499 are transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements.
  • Courses numbered C1000 and above are transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements.
  • Courses numbered 1000 and above (without a "C" in front of the course number) are not degree-applicable nor transferable to four-year institutions.
Course Type Identifier
Courses that have a "C" in front of their course number belong to the Common Course Numbering (CCN) system. For example, COMM C1000 is a CCN course, while COMM 302 is a local course.
Course Specialty Identifier
Some courses have additional characters at the end of their course number, such as:
  • E = Embedded support
  • H = Honors course
  • L = Lab-only course
  • S = Support Course
  • 1 Courses numbered 200 to 299 that were taken between fall 1989 and spring 2003 are not degree-applicable.

Example Courses
Example Course Subject Code Course Number Course Type Identifier Course Specialty Identifier
ENGL C1000H ENGL = English 1000 = transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements C = Common Course Number H = Honors
STAT C1000E STAT = Statistics 1000 = transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements C = Common Course Number E = embedded support
COMM C1000 COMM = Communications 1000 = transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements C = Common Course Number None
PSYC 330 PSYC = Psychology 330 = transferable to four-year institutions, meeting general education, major, and/or elective credit requirements None None
ENGWR 299 ENGWR = English Writing 299 = degree-applicable but not transferable to four-year institutions None None

Common Course Numbering

Starting in Fall 2025, California community colleges began adopting a Common Course Numbering (CCN) system (per AB 1111). This system assigns common course numbers for comparable courses across all community colleges in the state. The goal of CCN is to facilitate a smoother transfer of credits between colleges and four-year institutions.

ARC CCN Comparison Table

Compare old course data to new CCN course data for ARC. (Column headers with buttons are sortable).
COMM 301 COMM C1000 Fall 2025
ENGWR 300 ENGL C1000 Fall 2025
ENGWR 302 ENGL C1001 Fall 2025
ENGWR 480 ENGL C1000H Fall 2025
ENGWR 482 ENGL C1001H Fall 2025
POLS 301 POLS C1000 Fall 2025
POLS 481 POLS C1000H Fall 2025
PSYC 300 PSYC C1000 Fall 2025
PSYC 480 PSYC C1000H Fall 2025
STAT 300 STAT C1000 Fall 2025
STAT 480 STAT C1000H Fall 2025
ARTH 302 ARTH C1100 Fall 2026
ASTR 300 ASTR C1001 Fall 2026
ASTR 400 ASTR C1001L Fall 2026
BIOL 303 BIOL C1000 Fall 2026
COMM 321 COMM C1004 Fall 2026
HIST 310 HIST C1001 Fall 2026
HIST 311 HIST C1002 Fall 2026
HIST 483 HIST C1001H Fall 2026
HIST 484 HIST C1002H Fall 2026
ECON 302 ECON C2002 Fall 2026
ECON 304 ECON C2001 Fall 2026
ENGWR 303 ENGL C1003 Fall 2026

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