R&C courses are marked with an “R” prefix in its numbering. For instance, English R1A and Anthro R5B. The ones with an “A” suffix will satisfy the first half of the requirement, whereas those with a “B” suffix will satisfy the second half. As a rule, R&C courses may NOT be applied toward the 7-course breadth for L&S, with the exception of Classics R44, which will satisfy either half of R&C plus any one of three breadths: arts & lit, historical studies, or social & behavioral sciences. Your R&C requirement must be completed by the end of your sophomore year, or you will be subject to a registration block. This is in part because R&C needs to be treated as a prerequisite to upper division social sciences and humanities courses, as it provides the basics that you need to succeed in those classes.

How You May Have Satisfied R&C in High School
Many students opt out of one or both semesters of R&C using exam or community college credit. In the College of Letters and Science, a score of 4 or higher on either AP English exams will satisfy the first half of R&C, whereas a 5 on AP English Literature will satisfy both halves. A score of 5 or higher on IB English (A1 or A2) HL will also meet both halves of the requirement, as will a grade of A, B, or C on the A-level English exam. Other colleges follow pretty much the same policies, with the exception of the College of Engineering, which only lets you opt out of the first half of R&C with a 4 or 5 on either AP exam.

If you believe you may have taken an equivalent course at a college or university, checkassist.org for articulations if you took it at a California community college. Select for GE/breadths. If you took at a different college or university, you will want to check with your college or school to see if they can accept the course you took. Again, neither half of R&C is dependent on the other. So it does not matter if you enroll in a “B” course without satisfying the first half of R&C. Similarly, you are allowed to take “A” courses even if you have satisfied R&C. This is what most premed students do to meet their premed English requirement.

General Info about R&C Courses

• All R&C classes are coordinated in such a way that they all have the same amount of reading, writing, and research projects. They are preset in the number of readings you need to do, number of short essays, long essays, and research papers that you will have to write, the library resources that you will have to know, etc. “A” courses are going to have you write a series of shorter papers, whereas “B” courses are going to have you write two slightly longer papers plus a research paper, with an emphasis on research skills.
• Most R&C classes are taught by advanced graduate students and/or recent PhD’s who are staying behind as lecturers for a couple of years. And they will be teaching a topic related to their own research interest. This means that for the most part, they have not taught the same course before, and there will be very few students who have taken their class before.
• For the above reason, there is no data saying which instructors are better and which classes are easier. And the topic will always differ from section to section and from semester to semester even within the same department. Some departments are more popular than others, but mostly, it has very little to do with it being “easy” or “hard” or who is teaching. Sometimes departments are rumored to be easy. It is debatable as to how true this is.

In addition, we all have different interests and writing styles. Some students (like me) can stink at literary analysis and excel in ethnographic research papers. And don’t forget that if you really enjoy what you’re doing, it won’t feel like work. So when choosing an R&C class, look at the topic and ask yourself some questions.

Do you enjoy reading this style of literature? And I mean literature in the scholarly sense as well (studies, critiques, research). Do you enjoy reading about this subject matter? Is the style of writing expected in this discipline suited to your own writing style? These are some questions to guide you. If you don’t know the answer, it’s not a big deal. Classes can often surprise you. Some of the best classes I’ve taken have been ones that I never expected to enjoy. And by going out of your comfort zone, you might just discover a new area of interest, a new strength that you never knew about.

Another resource is the departmental website. Professors, lecturers, and graduate students often have their research interests posted, and that will tell you which direction their course is likely to take. Some departments will also have detailed course descriptions, reading lists, and even course syllabi posted under “courses.”