Course Numbering

All courses at Cosumnes 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.

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.