The UC and CSU admissions allows for certain flexibilities when evaluating whether a student has completed a particular subject and gained the requirements necessary to enter college.
One process is called Course Validation and there are two different types of Course Validations.
- Validating within a single year:
- If a student receives a “D” during the Fall semester in a course that can be validated, then a passing grade of “C” or higher in a following term of the same academic year can validate the credits from the original “D”.
- The student will receive a full year’s worth of credits even though normally the first semester would not have been eligible to count towards the A-G requirements.
- This type of validating is only applicable for certain courses. The published UC/CSU documentation identifies that Mathematics, Chemistry, and Foreign Language courses can be validated in this manner.
- Validating an entire subject area and a process of validating individual courses is not considered:
This validation accounts for students in Mathematics and Foreign Language that never took or received a "D" in lower level classes. This would mean that only upper level classes show on the student’s transcripts as passing with a "C" or better.
The amount of validation directly corresponds to the year level of the course. For example, a student took Spanish in elementary and/or middle school. The student went directly into Spanish 3 in high school, which would be the only foreign language course on the student’s transcripts. So that one course would validate three years worth of Foreign Language requirements. The same applies to Mathematics courses beyond Algebra 1.
Course Validation Level
Each Course record in the Course (CRS) table has a UC/CSU Course Validation Level (CRS.VL) field. The UC/CSU Course Validation Level (CRS.VL) is located on the California Specific Fields tab.
Update UC/CSU Validation Level
To update the UC/CSU Validation Level on a course, navigate to the California Specific Fields tab and click the mouse on the Change button. The Subject Area, Elective, Honors and Validation fields need to be populated for CSU Entrance and UC Entrance.
The following are full descriptions of Validation Levels:
Validation Levels | Description |
| Level 1 | If a student receives a “D” mark in a Level 1 course, this course can be validated by a subsequent Level 1a course in the same UC/CSU Subject Area that is taken and passed with a C or better in a following term of the same academic year. For Example: Algebra 1 Fall semester course would be setup as Level 1 and Algebra 1 Spring semester course would be setup as Level 1a.
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| Level 1a | Level 1a course can validate Level 1 or Level 1a courses according to the rules defined for a Level 1 course.
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| Level 2 | Level 2 course will fulfill 2 years worth of the appropriately tagged A-G subject area.
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| Level 3 | A Level 3 course will fulfill 3 years worth of the appropriately tagged A-G subject area.
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| Level 4 | A Level 4 course will fulfill 4 years worth of the appropriately tagged A-G subject area.
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The chart example displayed below has only been created for suggestions for data entry. Questions regarding the specific rules governing course validation should be referred to the CSU Counselor Resources or UC Admissions.
The following are examples of Course Validation Levels according to the UC/CSU descriptions:
Course Title | CSU Subject | CSU Elective | UC Subject | UC Elective | Validation Level |
| Algebra 1 Fall | C | G | C | G | 1 |
| Algebra 1 Spring | C | G | C | G | 1a |
| Algebra 1 Year Long | C | G | C | G | 1a |
| Algebra 2 | C | G | C | G | 2 |
| Geometry | C | G | C | G | 2 |
| Trigonometry | C | G | C | G | 3 |
| Pre-Calculus | C | G | C | G | 3 |
| Calculus | C | G | C | G | 4 |
| Chemistry Fall | D | G | D | G | 1 |
| Chemistry Spring | D | G | D | G | 1a |
| Chemistry | D | G | D | G | 1a |
| Spanish 1 Fall | E | G | E | G | 1 |
| Spanish 1 Spring | E | G | E | G | 1a |
| Spanish 1 Year Long | E | G | E | G | 1a |
| Spanish 2 | E | G | E | G | 2 |
| Spanish 3 | E | G | E | G | 3 |
| Spanish 4 | E | G | E | G | 4 |
From the Subject Area dropdown, select the appropriate subject area for course.
If the course is also an elective, from the Elective dropdown, select G for Electives.
If the course is an honors course, from the Honors dropdown, select H for Honors.
From the Validation dropdown, select the appropriate validation for the course.
After all the corresponding fields have been populated, click the Save button.
In the example below, Algebra 1 # 607, which is a semester course, has a UC/CSU Validation of Level 1.
In the example below, Algebra 1 # 617, which is a semester course, has a UC/CSU Validation of Level 1a.
UC/CSU Validation Level 1a can also be used to validate Year Long courses but the year long courses can only be designated as Level 1a. A course designated as Level 1a can validate another course designated as Level 1a.
The student below has received a "D+" mark for course # 607 in the first semester. Normally this course would not qualify for UC/CSU eligibility, however it is designated with a validation. This student has also taken course # 617 in the second semester and received a "C" mark, which enables course # 607 to count towards the UC/CSU eligibility as completing Algebra 1.
The UC/CSU Validation Level 1a can also be used for a Year Long class. If a student has taken a Level 1a course and wants to repeat the course to improve a grade mark, the Repeat tag be must be used.
In the example below, a student has taken Course # 617 Algebra 1 in three different terms and all apply towards UC/CSU eligibility. Since the College Entrance Requirements require 10.00 credits to be completed in Algebra 1, the lowest mark in Algebra 1 is flagged with a Repeat tag. The Repeat tag excludes the course from being counted in the College Entrance Requirements table.
