NCAA Guidelines for Course Registration

NCAA has specific requirements for eligibility. If you have aspirations to play NCAA athletics at a Division I or Division II college, you must meet their core course requirements by the end of your fourth year of high school, which can be tricky if you have repeated a grade or gone to an International high school.

Core Courses Required

There are 16 core course requirements for Division I and 14 for Division II colleges.

Course	Division I	Division II
English	4 years	3 years
Math (Algebra I or higher)	3 years	2 years
Natural/Physical Science (1 year of lab if offered by high school)	2 years	2 years
Additional English, Math, or Natural/Physical Science	1 year	2 years
Social Science	2 years	2 years
Additional Courses (from any area above, foreign language, or non-doctrinal religion/philosophy)	4 years	3 years

Repeating a Grade

From the time you first begin ninth grade, you have four years (eight semesters) to complete your core-course requirements. THIS IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT: if you repeated a grade, your window for completing all requisite courses closes at the end of your junior year.

Further, when repeating a grade upon entering Deerfield, you may lose NCAA credit for one or more classes—often in English, occasionally in Math—taken at your previous school. If NCAA deems that two courses duplicate each other, they will deny credit for one. Hence, if two English courses could be deemed duplicative, we recommend you double up in English in your junior year by adding a senior-level English.

One way to avoid doubling up is to request an early determination by the NCAA. The NCAA will consider this only in your junior (or third) year (see “Juniors” below). Overt interest from a college can be a powerful catalyst. If a college is interested in you, please let the NCAA know as soon as possible. The college can then act on your behalf, in facilitating an early determination of eligibility, which could obviate the need for doubling up on a course (i.e. English). Final approval is based on a completed transcript.

What You Need to Do

(more detailed information can be found on the NCAA website):

Freshmen and Sophomores

• Start planning now!
• Work hard to get the best grades possible.
• Choose NCAA-approved classes.

Juniors (or students in their third-year of eligibility)

• At the beginning of their third year, log on to the NCAA Eligibility Center website at eligibilitycenter.org and register.
• Register to take the ACT, SAT or both and use the NCAA Eligibility Center code “9999” as a score recipient. (Test score requirements are listed on the website.)
• Double-check to make sure that you are taking NCAA-approved courses.
• Request that your high school official transcript be sent to NCAA Eligibility Center after completing your third year of high school.  (No faxes; go to NCAA Transcript Request Form.)
• Prior to registration for your fourth year of high school, check with the Academic Dean’s office and the NCAA Eligibility Center to determine the number of core courses that need to be completed that year (i.e., before your window of eligibility closes).

Failure to meet requirements could result in your not being able to play Division I or Division II sports in college. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to ensure you have met the NCAA eligibility requirements.