Simple advice on prerequisites and overrides…

It’s that time in the semester when you all are registering and planning out your path towards a degree or technical certificate. It’s the most wonderful time in the semester, right?! Hopefully for most of you it is, however, we’ve heard from a number of you lately about registration issues, specifically concerning prerequisites and overrides. Barbara has been contacted by over 20 of you about some of these concerns and I imagine there will be more to follow. But please STOP right now and read the advice I am about to offer BEFORE you contact us regarding prerequisites and overrides. It’s likely you’ll get the answer to your questions now.

So here’s the deal, the graphics program has prerequisites in place to help prepare you for more advanced courses. In prerequisite courses you will learn the skills and knowledge you are expected to possess in advanced courses. Prerequisite courses also help you build that portfolio which is a crucial factor in getting hired in the creative industry. Only in very rare exceptions will overrides be granted. So let me offer our philosophy on this topic so you understand why many of you are being denied overrides:

• First, overrides are NOT favors. In fact, often times they do more harm than good. I have seen first hand students who have been given overrides into more advanced courses. What often happens is they end up struggling due to the fact that they do not know the fundamental skills which should have been learned in the prerequisite course.
• You will NOT be granted a prerequisite override unless you can demonstrate your competency in the prerequisite skills & knowledge will need for advanced courses.
• If you are pursuing a technical certificate you will NOT be granted an override into a intermediate or advanced course unless you can again demonstrate competency in the prerequisite skills & knowledge. This means you will have to complete prerequisite courses in ADDITION to courses required in a technical certificate.
• You will NOT be granted an override into a class that is full if there are sections open on other campuses. In addition, it is up to the professor teaching the course whether or not they agree to grant a capacity override. Many times this is not possible due to limited space and computers.

So if you are in the process of registering, keep this in mind. You can also check out our FAQ section on prerequisites and overrides. We also highly suggest you take some time to review our suggested sequence to take courses available in our curriculum planning grid.

If after reviewing all this material you still feel you are in a unique situation which merits an override please contact Barbara Peterson at bpeterson@valenciacc.edu. Overrides will be granted on a case by case basis. For Barbara’s sake please remember – we will NOT grant overrides for all the points noted above.