Admission of First-Time Freshmen

Any student who is a graduate of an accredited high school or has achieved a high school equivalency diploma and has met curricular requirements and performance criteria listed below is eligible to enroll at Science & Arts. The high school equivalency diploma recipient’s high school class must have graduated for him/her to be eligible for admission.

High School Curricular Requirements

Units/Yrs	Course Areas
4	English (grammar, composition, literature; should include an integrated writing component)
3	Lab Science (biology, chemistry, physics, or any lab science certified by the school district; general science with or without a lab may not be used to meet this requirement.)
3	Mathematics (from algebra I, algebra II, geometry, trigonometry, math analysis, pre- calculus, statistics and probability, calculus, Advanced Placement statistics), must have completed geometry and algebra II.
3	History and Citizenship Skills (including one unit of American history, and two additional units from history, economics, government, geography, or non-western culture)
2	Electives (additional units from subjects previously listed or selected from foreign language, computer science, any Advanced Placement course except applied courses in fine arts)
15	Total Required Units

While these curricular requirements will normally be met by students in grades 9-12, advanced students who complete these courses in earlier grades will not be required to take additional courses for purposes of admission.

Students must meet all basic academic requirements (English, mathematics, and science) to be admitted as a regular admission student. Students with a deficiency in a non-basic course (excludes English, mathematics, and sciences) who present an ACT reading sub score of 19 or higher may be admitted as a regular admission student. These students will be required to complete an additional three-hour collegiate course in the relative subject area to make up for the high school deficiency.

The 15 high school units are required for admission. In addition, the following subjects are recommended for college preparation:

2 additional units: Fine Arts (music, art, theatre arts, speech)

1 additional unit: Lab Science (as described above)

1 additional unit: Mathematics (as described above)

4 recommended units

Computer science courses (one or more units) that meet the State Regents’ guidelines for high school curricular requirements may satisfy the postsecondary systemwide computer proficiency graduation requirement.

High School Performance Criteria

“Performance criteria” refers to the grades a student earns in required courses, class rank, and standardized test scores.

One of the following performance criteria is required for admission:

Option 1: a minimum composite ACT score of 24 or combined critical reading and mathematical scores on the SAT of 1160 and 3.00 or top 50% of high school class, or
Option 2: a GPA of 3.00 or higher on a 4.00 scale in four years of high school study and scholastic ranking among the top 25% of the members in his or her high school graduation class, or
Option 3: a GPA of 3.00 or higher on a 4.00 scale in the 15-unit high school core curriculum required for university admission, and an ACT composite score of 22 or a SAT score of 1100, or
Option 4: First-time freshman students with an ACT score of 20 and one of the following three criteria: 2.7 cumulative GPA; 2.7 core GPA; upper 50% class ranking will be reviewed by the Holistic Admissions Review Committee (HARC). Students must also complete at least two of the following: interview with HARC or the committee’s designee, letters of recommendation from high school instructors, counselors, etc., a writing sample, resume, or other acceptable evidence of likelihood to persist. Students both in-state and out-of-state are selected based on a review by the HARC. Students who are accepted and enrolled under the Option 4 criteria will be required to participate in the Drover Achievement Program (DAP).

The ACT score required is the composite score without the writing component. The SAT score required includes the combined evidence-based reading and writing and math portion.

The high school GPA used for admission purposes in option 2 is the unweighted average of all grades (“A” equating to 4.00 and “D” equating to 1.00) taken in the 9^th through 12^th grades. The GPA used for admission purposes in option 3 shall add a standard weighting (1.00) to the College Board’s Advanced Placement courses and the International Baccalaureate Organization’s higher-level courses (an “F” remains zero).

While the State Regents strongly support the initiation of honors courses, honors weighting will not be used in the calculation of either high school GPA because there is no equitable mechanism to include the honors premium.