Degree Requirements
General Education
All students receiving degrees from Arapahoe Community College should achieve a general education component to their education. ACC has determined that the following list reflects the expected outcomes of this general education component:
Preparing learners for life success is an important commitment at Arapahoe Community College. These learning outcomes address the knowledge, skills and values that are fundamental to the personal and professional growth of our students, employees and community.
Communication — Construct, deliver, and engage in effective, knowledgeable communication for a variety of audiences and purposes.
Information Management — Identify, retrieve and synthesize information in order to think critically, reason creatively and make informed judgments.
Personal Development — Identify and continually develop one’s aptitudes and abilities in pursuit of goals.
Responsibility and Accountability — Employ personal and social accountability, recognize ethical issues, practice ethical behavior, and balance personal freedom with the interest of the community.
Quantitative Reasoning — Retrieve, interpret and evaluate information and numerical concepts to determine trends, make predictions, and develop informed opinions.
Cultural Awareness — Identify, distinguish, or express a diversity of aesthetic, cultural, and historical perspectives.
Through its college-wide assessment activities, Arapahoe Community College is constantly working to ensure that its graduates have all of these skills required by the degree program.
Customized Articulation
In addition to our transferable Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees, the College has established customized transfer articulation agreements for the following “normal” nontransferable programs. This allows students to transfer directly into public four-year degree programs. Please meet with an Advisor to ensure correct course selection to meet transfer agreement requirements. CCCS articulation agreements can be found at https://highered.colorado.gov/Academics/Transfers/Students.html.
The Community Colleges of Colorado are approved to offer one Associate of Arts degree, one Associate of Science degree, and one Associate of General Studies degree. All degrees have a generic major of liberal arts. While the Catalog may indicate areas of emphasis for the A.A., A.S. and A.G.S degrees, all official documents and diplomas issued by the College will only indicate the awarding of an A.A., A.S. and A.G.S. degrees, without any indication of an area of emphasis.
Your A.A. or A.S. Degree May Transfer to all Colorado Public 4-Year Colleges and Universities (Statewide Transfer Articulation Agreements/Degrees with Designation)
The agreement among Colorado public colleges and universities guarantees that when you complete your A.A. or A.S. degree with at least 60 credit hours of gtPathways (GT – Guaranteed Transfer) coursework and a grade of “C” or better in every course, your work will transfer to Colorado public colleges and universities.
If you complete the appropriate courses for your major, you may be able to finish your bachelor’s degree in an additional 60 credits. The A.A./A.S. transfer agreement applies to courses completed at ACC; the transfer of credits from private, non-accredited, out-of-state institutions or the awarding of credit from non-credit bearing courses, or courses that are over 10 years old, or credit earned for prior learning, Advanced Placement, correspondence courses, CLEP and other tested-only credit, may transfer to the four-year school, but are not guaranteed to transfer. The institution you wish to transfer to will evaluate these credits according to its own policies; contact the four-year institution for more information. To finish within two years at Arapahoe Community College depends on the number of credits you take each semester, the course sequencing in your major and course availability. This agreement does not apply to Nursing, Teacher Education or Engineering. These majors have statewide articulations with specific lower division requirements.
Numerous Statewide Transfer Articulation Agreements/Degrees of Designation (DWD) exist, allowing certain A.A. and A.S. degrees in such areas as A.A. in Anthropology, Art History, Business, Communication, Criminal Justice, Economics, Early Childhood Teacher Education, English, Elementary Teacher Education, French, Geography, History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Studio Art, Sociology, and Spanish and A.S. in Biology, Chemistry, Fermentation, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, and Psychology . Students who complete the prescribed curriculum and graduate with one of these A.A. or A.S. degrees of designation at ACC are guaranteed to complete the designated baccalaureate degree program at any public four-year college and university that offers that program within the minimum number of credits designated by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education at https://highered.colorado.gov/Academics/Transfers/Students.html. Certain limitations and restrictions apply; contact the Advising Office for more information. Save time by seeing your Transfer Advisor as soon as possible for “transfer guides.” The guides will show you which lower division courses are required for articulation programs. They will also show which lower division courses are best suited for your intended major and you can be sure to complete the prerequisites for sequenced coursework before transferring to a four-year school.
Great Books Program
ACC is honored to be one of only five community colleges in the University of Chicago’s Great Books Consortium. The program encourages students to engage in conversation about the most influential ideas contained in western civilization’s masterpieces of literature, history and philosophy.
In Great Books sections at least half the readings are by authors recognized by the Encyclopedia Britannica’s great authors list as primary voices in their fields. For instance, in psychology, in addition to reading about the meaning of Sigmund Freud’s dream symbolism, you might read some of Freud’s own Interpretation of Dreams. In math you might read some of Newton’s or Euclid’s writings, while in Economics you might read from the work of the economist Thorsten Veblen.
If you complete four Great Books classes with a B or better in each class, you will receive a Great Books Achievement Certificate and be honored at the College’s Arts and Letters Awards ceremony in the spring. Your certificate, like any other academic honor, can help you with transfer and eligibility for scholarships.
You can find out more about ACC’s Great Books Program, faculty, and Student Club through ACC’s Website at https://www.arapahoe.edu/academics-programs/resources/academic-experiences/great-books or by picking up a brochure at the College. Great Books classes are identified as such in the College Schedule of Courses
