NCAA Division I Eligibility

The NCAA has specific course credit requirements in order for a student to participate in collegiate athletics. Therefore, if you aspire to play Division I athletics, you should be mindful of the NCAA course requirements below. Since these course requirements must be satisfied in the first four years of high school, Division I-minded students who have repeated a year of high school should be extra vigilant and review the information below. The College Office and Dean of Academic Life will look through your transcripts, but please try to review your credits and courses before contacting us so that our discussions can be more focused and efficient. Most questions about eligibility are answered in the 2011-2012 Guide for the College Bound Student Athlete.

Overview

In order to be eligible to compete in Division I College Athletics, a student must have over a 2.0 GPA in sixteen Core Courses and have the minimum SAT or ACT scores for that GPA (see the NCAA Clearinghouse website for the NCAA GPA/Testing Sliding Scale). Below are the sixteen Core Courses:
4 years of English
3 years of mathematics (Algebra I or higher)
2 years of natural/physical science (one must be a lab science)
1 year of additional English, math or science
2 years of social studies
4 years of additional core courses (from any area listed above, or from foreign language, nondoctrinal religion or philosophy)

N.B. Visual and performing arts courses and computer science courses are not NCAA approved core courses.

In short, if you aspire to play Division I or II athletics and:

Have been at Hotchkiss for four years, then you need to meet these core courses (show the 16 core courses);
Came to Hotchkiss after ninth grade, then consult with the coach and the Academic or College Offices;
Repeated a year of high school, then consult with the coach and the Academic or College Offices;
Graduated from your previous high school (e.g. new upper mids from Quebec),

then see the Academic Office or College Office.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Q How do I know which courses count as core courses?: A
Students should go to the NCAA Clearinghouse website and find the link for “List of NCAA Courses,” (https://web1.ncaa.org/hsportal/exec/hsAction) then type in the Hotchkiss’s high school code (070335) or simply search for Hotchkiss. They will then find a list of Hotchkiss courses approved by the NCAA. This list is updated annually. If an approved course that was offered when your child was a Prep is no longer offered when your child is a Senior, for example, then the NCAA may archive it, which means that it may not appear on the list of approved courses even though it will indeed still count. Please contact the Dean of Academic Life if you have questions about this.
Q How Long Does a Student Have to Meet NCAA Initial-Academic Requirements?: A
If you plan to go to an NCAA Division I school and play a sport, here are some guidelines:

• In order to qualify, a student must earn sixteen core-course credits and attain the required grade-point average in four years (eight semesters). The four years (eight semesters) are based on when you started grade nine (freshman year). For example, if you started your freshman year in the fall of 2009, the you would need to graduate in the spring of 2013 – i.e., in eight semesters – as illustrated below:
• 2009-10 (freshman year);
• 2010-11 (sophomore year);
• 2011-12 (junior year); and
• 2012-13 (senior year).

• If a student graduates "on time" in eight semesters and still need a core course, he or she may complete one core course in the year after graduation (summer or academic term). S/he may complete the core course at a location other than the high school from which she graduated. S/he may enroll full time at a Division I school at any time after completion of the core course. Graduation "on time" means that if his or her high school graduation takes place on June 1, s/he graduated June 1. If s/he doesn’t graduate on June 1 with the rest of his or her high school class, then s/he has not graduated "on time."

• If s/he doesn’t graduate "on time" in eight semesters, then any core courses taken after the eighth semester will not be counted toward his/her NCAA academic eligibility requirements.

• Students should follow an academic path that allows them to complete sixteen core courses in eight semesters. They should not rely on being able to take or use a post-graduation core course.

• If a student repeated a grade in high school, this rule still applies. The student will need to work with the Division I college or university s/he plans to attend to see if a waiver is possible. The college or university would file the waiver on her behalf. Waivers usually are for students who have had circumstances impact their ability to meet the requirements. The events surrounding the circumstances are beyond the student's control. For example, a student who couldn't attend high school for a long period of time because of an illness or hospitalization may be a candidate for a waiver.

• For new 11th graders from Quebec: please consult with the College Office since you technically may have graduated from your previous school.

• If you want to see the requirements, please visit https://web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/hs/d1_standards.pdf.
Q How are core-course GPAs calculated?: A
A student’s core-course GPA is the average of his/her best grades achieved for all required core courses. If s/he has taken extra core courses, then those courses will be used in his/her GPA, if they improve his/her GPA.
Q How is the NCAA core GPA different from a student's overall GPA?: A
The NCAA core-course GPA is calculated using only NCAA-approved core courses in the required number of core units. High school GPAs generally include the grades from most or all courses attempted in grades nine through twelve.
Q Will courses taken after my senior year meet core-course requirements?: A
For Division I, maybe. Only courses completed in grades nine through twelve will qualify as core courses for Division I. If you graduate from high school on schedule (in eight semesters) with your incoming ninth grade class, then you may use one core course completed in the year after graduation (summer or academic year) prior to full-time collegiate enrollment. You may complete the core course at a location other than the high school from which you graduated and may initially enroll full time at a collegiate institution at any time after completion of the core course.

For Division II, yes. All core courses completed before your full-time enrollment at any college may be used by the Eligibility Center.
Q What about students with diagnosed disabilities?: A
• For Division I only, beginning August 1, 2010, a student must graduate "on time" in order to use up to three (3) additional approved core courses taken before full-time enrollment in college.

• For Division II only, students may use any approved core courses taken before full-time enrollment in college.

• For Divisions I and II, students may use courses for students with education-impacting disabilities that are designated on the high school's List of NCAA Courses.

For more information regarding education-impacting disabilities, click on the Students with Educating-Impacting Disabilities link (http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Student_Resources/EID_FAQ.pdf) under the FAQ section of the Resource tab on the NCAA Clearinghouse website, http://web1.ncaa.org/ECWR2/NCAA_EMS/NCAA_EMS.html#.
Q How does the NCAA treat courses similar in content?: A
Some approved core courses might be considered duplicates. That is, the content of one course is the same as that of another, even though the classes might have different titles. If a student has taken two classes considered to be duplicates, then s/he will receive only one core-course credit (typically for the course with the higher grade). Please ask your high school counselor if you have questions about duplicate courses.
Q What about students who have repeated a year?: A
If you repeated a year, then you are still held to the eight-semester rule and have to complete sixteen required core courses by the end of eight semesters or you do not meet initial eligibility requirements. Students who repeat a year of high school have to plan on completing their core course requirements within that eight-semester window to avoid any potential problems. However, even if repeating a year, a student who carries five courses that meet core course standards in the first eight semesters, should be able to meet the sixteen-core course requirement.

Repeat Courses: As stated above, a student who repeats a year and takes courses that are similar in content needs to understand that in many cases, only one of the courses will count as a core course. With repeat students, this issue often arises in mathematics and foreign language.

Example 1: Sam attends his local public school and takes Math 1 and Math 2 in the 9th and 10th grades. After being admitted to Hotchkiss, he is placed in Algebra I and places out of geometry. The NCAA will assume that Math 1 was also Algebra or perhaps something less rigorous (Pre-Algebra). In this case, a student will only have two NCAA math credits (Math 1 or Algebra and Math) by the end of the third year of high school. This student should take math as a junior (4th year of high school) to meet the 3-core math course requirement.
*In this case, the student would need a third of science (and fourth year of science to be safe) to meet the “1 Additional Year of Math, Science or English” Requirement.

Example 2: Jane attends her local day school for 9th, 10th and 11th grades. She took French I, French II and French III. She comes to Hotchkiss as a repeat upper-mid, and places into Second Year French. This repeat year will be her fourth year in high school, and as such, her last year to meet the 16 core course requirement. She has only 3 of the four additional core courses, and her math, English, science and history courses at Hotchkiss will be used to meet other parts of the 16-core course requirement. Second Year French will not be viewed by the NCAA as a core course because it will be viewed as being similar in content to the courses taken at her day school. Jane would gain a fourth additional course by dropping French and taking another language (Spanish I, German I, etc.) or by taking any other approved course (in philosophy, history, science, creative writing, etc).
Q What about English? By repeating a year, won’t a student have only three years of English by the end of eight semesters (four years)?: A
This question is quite common, but history has shown that the NCAA has not counted our English courses as similar in content; so, to date, our students have not encountered any problems.

Example: Samantha takes English 9 and English 10 at her public school, and then she enters Hotchkiss as a repeat lower-mid, and takes “Lower-Mid English” and “Upper-Mid (AP) English”. At the end of her upper-mid year, her four years of high school have concluded. Hotchkiss has not experienced a problem in this area, and students such as Samantha have been viewed by the NCAA as having four distinct, core English courses.

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