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. Effective in the 2005-06 school year, students will also be 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.)
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) for fall 2003 or later 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 total number of years of preparation for students applying to CSU or UC is 15.
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 at http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/list/. For additional information about the specific courses approved for admission by CSU and UC, review the admissions requirements for each system at http://www.californiacolleges.edu. The site also has extensive resources on planning for college.