High School Principals and College Counselors
District Curriculum Coordinators
Dear Colleagues:
As the University of California (UC) does annually at this time of year, we are requesting that you update the list of courses offered by your school to meet the UC/California State University "a-g" subject requirements for University admission. As you know, the courses on your school's "a-g" course list are used by your students to establish eligibility for freshman admission to the University of California and the California State University. Course lists should be updated annually and reflect the courses that are offered for the current year.
The course review process is a tremendous undertaking for us, as we know it is for you, and we are committed to implementing a high-quality review process that is effective for both schools and the University. Last year, staff in the UC Office of the President reviewed more than 7,000 proposed new courses and 14,000 proposed course revisions. Please take a moment to read the information in this packet to familiarize yourself with essential background information related to your course list and the course review process.
Below are the three most critical items related to the current course review cycle. Additional information on University of California admissions policy updates as well as course update procedures can be found in the attachment.
Course List Accuracy Is Important! An inaccurate course list - that is, a list containing outdated courses or omitting current courses - can disadvantage your students. UC Admissions Officers refer to the course lists when reviewing the applications of students who are applying for undergraduate admission. In addition to verifying the accuracy of the self-reported academic information a student provides in the application, they are seeking to understand how the applicant has taken advantage of the courses that are offered at the student's high school. In considering each applicant in light of his or her local educational environment (versus a statewide standard), we are able to provide a fairer review of the applicant's achievements "in context." Therefore, accuracy of the course list is essential to the review of applicants from your high school. When schools leave courses on the course list that are not offered in a particular year, or fail to list completely the courses available to students, we are unable to obtain the most accurate understanding of an individual applicant's achievement(s). Please see the attachment for additional information on the course list update process that addresses this particular concern.
Changes to the Course Update Cycle
Schools are required to complete subject-specific templates. These templates will ask for detailed information about each course in an effort to reduce the number of follow-up questions necessary to make course approval decisions.
Effective with the 2009-10 update cycle, UC will hold to a September 20th deadline for updates to high school course lists.
Ongoing Collaborations. UC continues to collaborate with a broad range of secondary school constituents in order to stay abreast of current trends in high school education and promote smooth transitions to post-secondary institutions. The online learning and independent/home study policies described in the attachment represent just a few of these efforts. UC faculty and staff also continue to work with career-technical educators (CTE) to promote the "a-g" approval of CTE courses. You may be surprised to learn, for example, that UC/CSU has approved more than 6,900 CTE-related courses since 2000-01. And UC continues to work with charter schools, early/middle college high schools, small schools, and others in the course approval process. We look forward to continued collaborations so that together we may support an increasing number of California's students to successfully transition from high school to post-secondary education and training.
To submit updates, please use the University's submission web site at:
The site will be available for use beginning March 7, 2009, and remain open for updates through September 20, 2009. We will process your course outlines in the order received. We encourage you to submit as early as possible.
We also wish to remind you that state law (SB 1339) emphasizes the "importance of making readily available to each high school pupil the list of courses certified by the University of California as meeting admission requirements." Your most current UC-approved course list can be downloaded and printed from the Doorways web site at https://doorways.ucop.edu/list.
We thank you for your continued cooperation and urge you to forward your comments and questions. If you have questions about the status of your list, feel free to contact High School Articulation Help at
. Throughout the year, please check the Doorways web site at https://doorways.ucop.edu for updates and information. We will continue communicating with you via our UC Notes publication and e-mail lists. We encourage you to share this information broadly among your school staff.
Sincerely,
Susan A. Wilbur, Ph.D.
Director of Undergraduate Admissions
cc: UC Admission Directors
James Blackburn, Associate Director, California State University Chancellor's Office
Don Daves-Rougeaux, Coordinator, UC Office of the President
Annual Update Letter (pdf)