Wondering if SDSU and other California state schools look at freshman grades? My son has better grades since 10th and not so great 9th. He is currently a junior. Thank you.
The CSU GPA is calculated by using 10th-11th a-g course grades only and with a max of 8 honors points. So no freshman grades are considered for most CSUs including SDSU. Cal Poly SLO is one exception that also uses freshman grades but that may be the only CSU exception.
Freshman grades are reviewed to make sure all a-g courses are completed with a passing grade of C- or higher but they are not used in the CSU capped weighted GPA calculation as stated above. The exception is SLO as stated by @Banker1. You are required to complete and pass 11 of the 15 a-g course requirements at time of application in the Fall of Senior year.
Can someone help me figure out my son’s CSU GPA? I’m not quite sure how to calculate:
Freshman:
Eng A- A-
World Hist/Geog B B +
SPanish2 B+ B+
Algebra B- B
Biology C- B
PE A A
Wood Tech A A
Soph:
Eng B A-
Spanish A- A-
Human Dev (1 sem) A
P E (1 sem) A
Geometry A- A
Chemisty B- B
Wood Tech A A
Digital Design B+ A-
Junior:
AP Environ Science A
Sports Medicine A-
Algebra2 B-
Physiology A
English B
AP US History B-
Thank you so much!
You need 2nd semester grades from Junior year to have an accurate calculation. You count up # of A’s, B’s, C’s received for a-g courses taken 10-11th grades only. Freshman grades only used by Cal Poly SLO.
He gets 1 extra honors point for each semester of UC approved Honors/ AP/IB or Dual enrollment classes taken 10-11th grades. The honors points are capped at 8 semesters.
You can look up your son’s HS a-g courses and which are UC approved honors courses using this link. A yellow star designated course is Honors.
Just enter HS name : https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist
Then take this information and plug into the linked GPA calculator and Eligibility index calculator below.
https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/eligibility-index
CSU’s admit based on eligibility index and major with the exception of Cal Poly SLO.
If your son took Spanish 2 as a freshman, I believe Spanish 1 from before HS should also be included for Cal Poly slo. Listed under 9th grade. CalPoly has instructions to include accelerated courses in math and foreign language from Middle School in the 9th grade section of the app.
Correct ^^^ since SLO uses rigor points in their MCA point calculation to determine admissions.
If his grades are the same for next semester, I get around a 3.73 CSU GPA. +/- are reported but not used in the calculation. ACT or SAT scores are needed for the EI calculation.
Thank you so much for the responses!
Gumbymom - thank you! I got the same GPA as well. So far he has a 24 on his ACT but of course he is taking it again. I think I have seen that you need a 1050 EI for SDSU? …which means he would need a 30 on his ACT?! I don’t think that is in the cards for him 
I don’t quite understand the EI because my daughter is a freshman currently at SDSU and she was accepted with a 3.65 and 29 ACT. which would only be a 1020 EI score.
Also one last question - does Human Development count as an A-G class? It was only one semester.
Regarding EI, the threshold increases yearly plus it is major dependent even though SDSU does not publish their EI thresholds. The more popular majors with a high # of applicants will be more competitive than some of the less popular majors.
I like to gauge the EI threshold based on the averages for each in-coming Freshman class so for 2018 the average CSU was 3.93 and ACT was 27 so the average EI was 1056. Yes, applicants below the thresholds are admitted but there is no way to know how they compare within each major.
You can look up the a-g courses for his HS on the link I posted in #4. If so, then the grade would be included in the calculation.