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Core Courses

The NCAA core-course requirement ensures you’re taking high school courses that prepare you for the academic expectations in college.

What are core courses?

Not all high school courses are NCAA-approved core courses and may not count toward your 16 core-course credit requirement. A core course must meet the following requirements to be used in your academic certification:

  • Meet high school graduation requirements in one or more of the following subject areas:
    • English
    • Math (Algebra I or higher)
    • Science (Including one year of lab, if offered)
    • Social Science
    • World Language
    • Comparative Religion
    • Philosophy
  • Be on your high school’s list of NCAA-approved core courses.
  • Be completed in alignment your high school’s policies related to instruction, pacing, etc.
  • Be completed at a high school with a “Cleared” or “Extended Evaluation” Eligibility Center account status.

Core-Course Credits

You can earn credit for a core course only once. If you take a course that repeats the content of another core course, you earn credit for only one of these courses. (The higher grade counts toward your core-course GPA).

Dual-Enrollment Coursework

Dual-enrollment coursework may be used to satisfy NCAA core-course requirements if the course appears on your official transcript with grade and high school credit and meets all requirements for an NCAA-approved core course.

Courses Taken Before High School

High school courses taken before ninth grade may be used to satisfy NCAA core-course requirements if the course appears on your official transcript with grade and high school credit and appears on your high school’s list of NCAA-approved core courses. For example, if you take a high school class such as Algebra I or Spanish I before high school, the class may count toward your 16 core-course credits requirement as long as the course title is on the high school’s list of approved NCAA courses.

Courses Taken After High School

A college course taken after high school graduation may be used toward your initial eligibility and awarded 0.5 units from your college transcript (unless awarded one full unit on your high school transcript). It must appear on your official transcript with grade and high school credit and meet all requirements for an NCAA-approved core course.

For Division I, only core courses completed in the first eight semesters from your initial start of ninth grade will be used in your academic certification. If you graduate from high school on time (in eight semesters) with your incoming ninth-grade class, you may use one core-course unit completed in the year after graduation (summer or academic year) and before enrolling full time at any college or university. You may complete the NCAA-approved core course at a location other than the high school from which you graduated as long as the course is taken before full-time enrollment at any college or university.

  • An additional core-course unit taken after on-time high school graduation cannot replace a course used to meet the core-course progression (10/7) requirement, but an additional core course after on-time graduation may replace one of the remaining six core-course units necessary to meet core-course requirements.

For Division II, you may use an unlimited number of core courses completed after graduation (summer or academic year) and before enrolling full time at any college or university. You may complete the NCAA-approved core course at a location other than the high school from which you graduated.