Cerro Coso Community College was established in 1973 as a separate college within the Kern Community College District. Cerro Coso has five instructional sites (Eastern Sierra Center Bishop & Mammoth, Indian Wells Valley, Kern River Valley, and South Kern), which together form the largest geographical service area (18,000 square miles) of any community college in California and which serve a population of approximately 85,000. A leader in online education, Cerro Coso has been offering online classes since 1997 and offers 19 Associate degrees entirely online and as many as 160+ classes online each year, with approximately 180 sections per semester.

The Indian Wells Valley Campus, located in Ridgecrest, California, 160 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is situated on a dramatic site overlooking the Sierra Nevada, Coso, Panamint, and Argus mountain ranges. At an elevation of 2,800 feet, Cerro Coso aesthetically emphasizes the rugged beauty of one of America\'s most famous deserts, the upper Mojave Desert. For more information go to http://www.cerrocoso.edu/.