Paralegal, AAS

Admission Requirements

• Admission to Arapahoe Community College
• Completion of all general education courses is required before students are allowed to register for paralegal (PAR) courses.
• Students must contact the Program Chair, full-time Faculty member or Program Coordinator for advising and program planning prior to enrolling in any PAR courses. Once this is accomplished students may enroll in PAR classes; enrollment in classes will not be permitted without such Program approval.
• Program approval is required in order to transfer in credit for paralegal classes (PAR) from other institutions; courses may be transferred to the program ONLY if they were taken from an ABA-approved program at a regionally accredited institution, and out-of-state courses may only be transferred in if the law content is not state-specific. A maximum of (nine) semester credit hours of paralegal courses (PAR) may be transferred in to ACC and such courses must be approved by the Paralegal Department Chair.
• The Paralegal Department expects all students in the paralegal program to abide by the code of ethics promulgated by the American Bar Association (ABA) and National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA). The code of ethics may be viewed at www.americanbar.org and www.nala.org

Program Requirements

All general education classes must be successfully completed prior to taking PAR classes. PAR 115  must be taken the first semester a student begins taking paralegal (PAR) classes. All classes, except for PAR 115 , have corequisites or prerequisites; see Course Descriptions. Students who are enrolled in at least one paralegal (PAR) class will be charged a program fee each semester.

Progression and Course Completion

In order to progress through the Paralegal program:

• A student must successfully complete each course in the Paralegal curriculum (general education and paralegal classes) by achieving a grade of “C” or better
• If a student withdraws from a PAR class, this will be treated the same as a failure to successfully complete a course
• If a student earns a grade lower than a “C” in any PAR course, or withdraws from any PAR class, the student will be allowed to retake the course a maximum of one time.
• No more than two PAR classes may be retaken during the completion of the Paralegal program
• If a student is not successful, i.e., a “C” or higher grade on the re-take attempt, the student will be dismissed from the Paralegal program.
• If the student withdraws for reasons other than academic reasons, the student may provide documented proof of reasons and petition the Paralegal Program for an additional one-time opportunity to retake the class. Approval of the exception is strictly the decision of the Program Chair.

Graduation Requirements

• All paralegal and general courses required for the degree must be completed with a grade of “C” or better
• To graduate, students must have a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher
• Students must complete a Paralegal Exit Survey/Interview
• At least 27 (twenty-seven) hours of paralegal (PAR) courses must be taken at Arapahoe Community College
• Paralegal (PAR) courses must be taken within six years of a student’s graduation. General education courses are not subject to this six-year requirement
• Apply for graduation online at www.arapahoe.edu/graduation.
• As a graduate of a Career and Technical Education program you will be contacted by an ACC employee in approximately six months to verify your employment information. This information gathering is a federal requirement to ensure that ACC receives certain federal funding.
• Information regarding occupations, completion rates, placement rates, program costs and median loan debt may be found at arapahoe.edu/gainful.