SENIORS INFORMATION

Eligibility Requirements

If you want to participate in athletics or receive an athletics scholarship during your first year, you must:

• Graduate from high school.
• Complete these 16 core courses:
  • 4 years of English;
  • 3 years of math (Algebra 1 or higher);
  • 2 years of natural or physical science (including one year of lab science if offered by your high school);
  • 1 extra year of English, math, or natural or physical science;
  • 2 years of social science; and
  • 4 years of extra core courses (from any category above, or foreign language, comparative religion or philosophy);
  • Note: Courses with similar content may be deemed duplicative by the NCAA Eligibility Center.
• Earn a minimum required grade-point average in your core courses; and
• Earn a combined SAT or ACT sum score that matches your core-course grade-point average and test score sliding scale (for example, a 2.400 core-course grade-point average needs an 860 SAT score).
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• You must complete the 16 core-course requirement within four consecutive academic years (i.e., eight semesters) from the start of ninth grade.
• Students graduating early (in less than eight semesters) must still meet core-course requirements.
• If you graduate on time from high school within four consecutive academic years (i.e., eight semesters) from the start of ninth grade:
  • Prior to full-time collegiate enrollment, you may use one additional core-course unit that was completed within one year after high school graduation but prior to your first full-time collegiate enrollment.
  • You may complete the additional core course at a location other than the high school from which you graduated.
    • You will be required to provide a transcript with grade and credit from this school.
• If you have taken more than 16 core courses, the NCAA allows you to use your best 16 core courses when calculating your core GPA (as long as you use four English, three math, etc.).
• FOR 2016 GRADUATES: The NCAA initial eligibility requirements are increasing beginning in 2016. In addition to the current requirements that are stated above, you must complete 10 of your core courses by the completion of your junior year. Seven of those 10 core courses must be in the subject areas of English, math and science. When calculating your final core course GPA after high school graduation, you must use at least 10 of the core courses you completed prior to your senior year in the calculation, even if your grades improved your senior year and you could have replaced some of your lower grades under the old system outlined above.
  • In addition to the core course changes, beginning in 2016 the sliding scale is increased as well. For example, under the old standard, a 2.5 core course GPA required a 820 SAT whereas under the new standard, a 2.3 GPA requires a 1000 SAT.