Prerequisites

Napa Valley College strives to guide students into courses in which they will have the greatest chance for academic success. To achieve this goal, the catalog listings include statements concerning prerequisites, co-requisites or other limitations on enrollment.

  1. A “prerequisite” means a course that a student is required to have taken prior to enrolling in a specific course or program.
  2. A “corequisite” means a course that a student is required to take at the same time as another course.
  3. An “advisory” or “recommended preparation” means a condition of enrollment that a student is advised, but not required, to meet before enrolling in a course or program. 

The Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges adopted a new and revised Title 5 regulation affecting these limitations on enrollment. Accordingly, the Academic Senate and the Board of Trustees of Napa Valley College jointly approved a general policy to conform to the new state regulations concerning prerequisites and other limitations on enrollment.

The College has developed procedures to ensure that such limitations be established, reviewed, and enforced in a fair and consistent manner.  As these procedures are adopted and implemented, students will be informed in the Schedule of Classes and in other campus publications.

Beginning in the fall of 1998, students will be required to follow the new prerequisite policy with selected courses.  Each semester courses will be added to the new policy.  Until the policy is fully implemented for all courses, current practice regarding prerequisites remains in effect for those courses not yet transferred to the new policy:

  1. if a course has no condition on enrollment listed, none is required.
  2. generally, courses listed together numerically (SPAN 120, 121) comprise a sequence, and unless specifically designated, must be taken in order.
  3. no student may receive credit for a course which is a prerequisite to a course he/she has already completed.
  4. in order for a course to count as a prerequisite, a minimum grade of “C” must be earned.  (Exceptions may be made only by instructor assessment of relevant background experience.)

High School Students: Students who have completed Integrated MATH III, who have earned a grade of C are eligible to enroll in courses with the prerequisite of MATH-90.  Students who have earned a grade of B or better are eligible to enroll in courses with the prerequisite of MATH-94.

Complete a Prerequisite Equivalency Petition located on the forms page.

Challenging a Prerequisite
Prerequisites may be challenged for the following reasons:
  1. You have the knowledge or ability to succeed in the course or program despite not meeting the prerequisites.
  2. You have not completed the health and safety prerequisite, but can demonstrate that you do not pose a threat to yourself or others.
  3. You will suffer undue delay (a semester or more) in attaining your degree or certificate, as specified in your educational plan, because:
    • a course has not been made reasonably available or
    • the course has a limitation on enrollment due to intercollegiate competition or public performance or
    • enrollment has been limited to a set group of students.
  4. The prerequisite or condition on enrollment is a violation of Title 5.
  5. The prerequisite has not been established in accordance with the district’s process for establishing prerequisites and corequisites.
  6. The prerequisite is either unlawfully discriminatory or is being applied in an unlawfully discriminatory manner.
Contact a counselor for information regarding challenging a prerequisite.
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