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High School Graduation and
College Admission Requirements
Graduation Requirements
To receive a high school diploma, students must fulfill state and district graduation
requirements. State-mandated graduation course requirements, which are the state
minimums, are as follows: three years of English; two years of mathematics (including
Algebra I); three years of social science (including U.S. history and geography; world
history, culture, and geography; one semester of American government; and one
semester of economics); two years of science (including biology and physical science);
two years of physical education; and one year of foreign language or visual and
performing arts. Students successfully completing Algebra I in middle school must still
complete a minimum of two years of mathematics in high school. Recognizing that
these 13 years of preparation are state minimums, local school boards often set local
graduation requirements that exceed these state-mandated requirements. Beginning in
the 2005-06 school year, students are required to pass the California High School Exit
Examination to receive a California high school diploma. (Please refer to the Testing
section for information on this requirement and two methods of earning a high school
diploma or its equivalent: the California High School Proficiency Examination and the
General Educational Development test.)
College Admission Requirements
Students planning to apply to a four-year California public university are required to
complete course work that exceeds the state-mandated requirements for high school
graduation.
High school students applying to a campus of the California State University (CSU)
system or the University of California (UC) must complete four years of college
preparatory English; three years of mathematics, including algebra, geometry, and
intermediate algebra; two years of history–social science; two years of laboratory
sciences; two years of the same foreign language; one year of visual and performing
arts; and one year of academic electives.
The University of California recommends that students applying for freshman admission
complete three additional years of advanced study, one each in mathematics, science,
and foreign language. The list of courses at each California high school certified by the
UC system as meeting its freshman admission course requirements is located on the
University of California Web site at https://doorways.ucop.edu/list. For additional
information about the specific courses approved for admission by CSU and UC, review
the admissions requirements for each system on the California Colleges Web site at
http://www.californiacolleges.edu. The site also has extensive resources on planning for
college.
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