California Publics will count the middle school courses as long as they are high school level. It seems if a person actually looks at the transcript they will see the courses were high level but a computer program might just disregard the application as not meeting the requirements. Maybe they can take any sort of math class at a community college for a semester senior year just to make sure.
They have a validation policy, where passing (with a C or higher grade) a more advanced course creates the assumption that the prerequisite material was known, even if the prerequisite course is absent from the record, or has a D or F grade.
- Algebra 2 validates algebra 1.
- Statistics, precalculus, or calculus validates algebra 1 and algebra 2.
- Precalculus or calculus validates missing geometry for CSU only. (UC applicants must list geometry courses, even if taken before high school.)
- Higher level foreign language validates all lower levels of the same foreign language.
- CPSLO requires all high school level math and foreign language courses taken before high school to be included in the application in order for them to be counted for the rigor bonus points.
https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/csu-uc-a-g-comparison-matrix.pdf
University of California Counselors (page 19)
Note that the minimum math requirement for frosh applicants to UCs and CSUs is only “3 years” (algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, or integrated math 1, 2, 3), although more competitive applicants will have more.
Obviously, other colleges and universities may have different policies.
To be clear, for UCs, there is no validation (or any other work around) for geometry; one must take the course.
My daughter applied to a range of colleges this year and I will say it depends of the school and major.
Prospective STEM majors will usually take more than the 4 HS math courses. High schools with 8 semesters over their 4 years have more options than high schools with yearlong classes. The colleges understand this and receive info about the applicants high school from the school counselor.
Some highly selective colleges are clear to state that the Middle school courses are not counted in their 4 high school years and that most of their applicants would have those credits from middle school in addition to at least 4 in high school.
The middle school credits will show up on the transcripts and will most likely be calculated into their high school GPA. I do not think this is shared with families enough. In the common app and other applications, some schools choose to have the applicants list out their courses with further detail than their transcript. This is helpful for some applicants at schools with some unique course names.
The colleges know the next few cohorts of applicants will have varied pathways due to COVID. There will be a place to explain this in the applications and the school counselor recommendation letter should note this. Foreign language is one they know was a struggle with school changes, virtual instruction, etc… Even pre-COVID they were more flexible with foreign language than math. Many students show up on college campuses needing remedial math courses and that is their bigger concern.
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