By Ethan Guevin
Last time, we continued our community college mini-series, with a focus on academics. We left you with a lot of unanswered questions about the importance of becoming an NCAA Qualifier and doing well academically out of high school. This week we pick up where we left off, starting with a discussion on what it means to be an NCAA Qualifier and the implications it has on transferring. It’s no surprise, having better grades and test scores will always give you more options and make things easier.
Becoming an NCAA Qualifier
In order to go to an NCAA 4-year school out of high school at the D1 or D2 level, you must register with the NCAA Eligibility Center and become a qualifier.*
To become a qualifier, you must satisfy two conditions:
- You must certify that you have maintained your amateur status.
- You must meet the minimum NCAA academic qualifications.
The academic qualifications have 3 basic components:
- You need to take a certain number of core courses (A minimum of 16 core credits are required, fulfilling several categories).
- You need to meet GPA/Test Score minimums on a sliding sale. The sliding scale is based on your Core GPA and SAT/ACT test scores. (The better you do on one, the more wiggle room you have on the other.)
- You need to graduate from high school with a diploma or its equivalency.
Instead of breaking down the academic requirements more, the NCAA provides a great overview that summarizes everything you need to know. You can see it here. Additionally, use this link to make sure you are in NCAA approved core courses. If you take the wrong courses, you won’t qualify, so make sure you are in the right classes.
Now that you know whether or not you are an NCAA Qualifier, let’s take a look at what this means for transferring from a community college to a 4-year school. Take a look at the rules below. Non-Qualifiers out of high school are mandated to meet many more requirements than Qualifiers when they transfer from a community college to a 4-year school, especially a D1 school. To keep your options open, let’s compare the different D1 requirements for Qualifiers and Non-Qualifiers. It should be noted that D2 requirements are similar, but slightly more relaxed.
Qualifiers:
- At least one full-time semester or quarter at a Community/Junior College
- An average of 12 transferable credits per term
- A minimum GPA of 2.5
Non-Qualifiers:
- Need to complete their AA Degree (2-year degree)
- Need to have 48 semester hours (72 quarter hours) of transferable credit
- Need to have 3 semesters or 4 quarters at the Junior College
- Need to have 6 transferable semester hours (8 quarter hours) of English, 3 semester hours (4 quarter hours) of Math and Science
- Only 18 semester hours (27 Quarter hours) may be earned over the summer
- Only 9 semester hours (13.5 Quarter hours) may be earned the summer before enrolling at the 4 year school
- Make progress towards a bachelors degree
College of the Desert has a great summary of 2-4 transfer regulations for every division. You can see the requirements for every division here, broken down into Qualifiers and Non-Qualifiers.
As you can see, GRADES ALWAYS MATTER, especially when it comes to transferring. Now that you know what it takes to be a qualifier, and what it means for your transfer options and limitations, you can see why doing well in school should always be priority number 1.
We conclude our 4 part community college baseball mini-series by stepping away from academics and looking into the differing levels of play at community colleges, be sure to check it out HERE!
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*D3 qualifications are less strict and are based mainly around the chosen institution’s entry requirements. A summary of all D3 eligibility rules can be seen here.
