Hi
This is my son’s second year applying to CSU (took a gap year) and the academic information from the application didn’t transfer over so he’s redoing it all. The page A-G Matching seems a little confusing this time because of some inconsistencies auto-populated in system. Any idea on these?:
He entered all 12th grade and entered AP Calculus AB. On the A-G Matching page it assigned it “4 Years” under the column years . No other AP class that, is that correct? Is it a cumulative number (although that doesn’t make sense because none of the other subjects follow that pattern?)
For 11th grade, he entered Honors Spanish 3. The system assigned numeric value of “3” under the column years. Also inconsistent with how Spanish was reported in 10th grade.
In 10th grade, he entered “Advanced Spanish 2” and instead of a numeric value in the years column, a green bubble check mark appears and when you hover over it, the message says “because you completed a higher level course, you received credit for this course”. Same for Alg2/Trig honors also in 10th grade…
Lastly on this same page, at the bottom section he has reported “standardized tests” and included 1 AP from 11th grade, AP Comp Sci Principles. (He is NOT reporting his other 2 AP results from Sr. year - senioritis kicked in and he only scored a 2 on those). For AP Comp Sci Principes, the value assigned under years is “O” and it’s populated with letter G.
What the A-G Matching is stating that by taking and passing AP Calculus with a grade of C or higher in the second semester it validates the entire four year Math subject requirement.
The same goes for Spanish where his Spanish 3 validates the entire 3 year FL subject requirement.
You still need to report all the courses but by taking more advanced levels of a subject, the application is just validating the # of years of that subject.
For AP Comp Sci Principes, the value assigned under years is “O” and it’s populated with letter G.
G category can be extra courses beyond the minimum requirements of A-F or specific to the G category. Only 1 year of an approved course is required for G and it looks like he has fulfilled the G Category with several other courses.
I would not worry about the A-G Matching validation unless there is an omission on an A-G course requirement that flags on the application.
From the CSU Apply website:
The A-G Matching page in the application lists the A-G subject totals based on the courses you reported in the High School Coursework and College Courseworksections. The Subject column displays the requirement, and the Years column displays the number of years you have fulfilled. Years are calculated according to your high school’s academic term, such as semester, trimester, etc. Your Total Years calculation and your resulting Calculated GPA appear at the bottom of the table.
Courses without an A-G subject area will not be counted in your GPA or counted toward fulfilling minimum admission requirements. Any courses that you received a D or an F grade in will not be included in your Total Years calculation; however, these courses will still be included in your calculated GPA.
There is no requirement to self-report AP scores so report none, some or all depending upon the score. Once admitted, he will need to send the official score report to the CSU he attends.
Thank you! You are always so helpful on these questions and I truly have appreciated it last year and this year again. I noticed in reviewing this that my son omitted his Pre-Cal class from 11th grade so added that and it changed the number of years in AP Calc from 4 back to 1. Makes more sense now.
Also, one more quick question - since he’s on a gap year, he’s been working full time for a technology company since June. These hours have greatly helped him up the “average over last 36 months” to 21+ hours or more. i don’t think there are any areas he can provide additional detail on that but hopefully it’s apparent that it’s because he’s on a gap year that he’s able to work so many hours. Any idea if this is something he should find a way to explain elsewhere? He’s also going to a coding bootcamp program overseas in January. Wonder if that can be described elsewhere (not for credit).
I am not aware of an additional comment section to explain gap years, extenuating circumstances etc…. Since he does have Senior year grades, there is the assumption of a Gap year. Under Program Materials, there will be some questions regarding EC’s, Leadership, Jobs depending upon campus where some of this information can be answered/presented.
If CPSLO is in his list of CSU campuses, be sure to include all math and foreign language courses (including high school level courses taken while in middle school), since CPSLO’s system appears to count courses rather than use the usual CSU validation to determine bonus points for courses beyond the CSU minimum.