Orange Coast College - Academic Profile

Academic Profile

OCC offers associate of arts (2 year) degrees in:

• Accounting
• Agriculture (OCC has agricultural fields)
• Aircraft Maintenance Technician School (FAA-certified programs for airframe/powerplant licenses and avionics)
• Architecture
• Business
• Child Development (OCC has a child-center with an intern program)
• Computer Information Systems
• Construction (OCC Students actually construct structures)
• Engineering
• Electronics
• Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning
• Machining
• Photography
• Welding

OCC also has complete, transferable lower-division undergraduate programs in:

• Acting
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Computer Science
• Dance
• Economics
• English (an emphasis on literature and critical theory is available)
• French
• German
• History
• Interior Design
• Latin and Classics
• Marine Science - OCC Marine Science Department maintains - with student help - a 2000 gallon recirculating, chilled seawater aquarium and tropical marine aquariums as well. The Marine Science Department sponsors the Coastal Dolphin Survey Project - a long-term research project dedicated to the understanding of the population biology and ecology of Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) that utilize the coast of Orange County. Nine different classes in marine science are offered at OCC and all have as a prerequisite the beginning oceanography class - Marine Science 100 (lecture) and Marine Science 100L (laboratory).
• Mathematics
• Music (Opera training is available)
• Painting

• Philosophy
• Physical Education, including athletic teams
• Physics
• Political Science
• Sailing (OCC maintains a sail base in Newport Beach, and teaches a wide range of classes for all levels of sailing, including weather and navigation)
• Sculpting

In December 2002, Rabbit Island, a 38-acre (150,000 m2) island located in the North Gulf Islands of the Georgia Strait 50 miles (80 km) west of the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, was donated to the Orange Coast College Foundation. Since then the OCC Foundation, using funds designated for the Orange Coast College School of Sailing & Seamanship, has refurbished the facilities on the island, made significant capital improvements, and has helped fund the use of the island as a field station to teach summer classes in Island Ecology, Biological Diversity, Vertebrate Biology, Intertidal Ecology, kayaking, and photography. It is now referred to as "Wheeler Station" at Rabbit Island (in honor of the donor, Henry Wheeler). OCC marine science and biology instructors have used the island to conduct research on species diversity, standing stock, species distribution, and oceanography. Plans were underway to find separate funding for the island outside of OCC. Possible funding sources included the National Science Foundation, rental of the island facilities to Canadians, funding from the Associated Students of OCC (ASOCC), and through other foundation grants and private donations. In March 2007, the Orange Coast College Foundation Board of Directors voted to sell the island after determining that keeping and maintaining it was unfeasible. As of July 2007, the island was in talks to be sold to a private party for 2.41 million dollars. However, the sale did not materialize and the island was sold in March 2008 to a privately held Canadian corporation for 2.19 million dollars.

OCC is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. It also has specialized accreditation by American Dental Association (Commission on Dental Accreditation), the American Dietetic Association (Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education), and the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology.