Lesson 3 of 7
Your GPA and the junior-year deadline
Division I requires a 2.3 GPA in those 16 core courses. Not your overall GPA — your *core-course* GPA. And there’s a deadline buried in here that ends more dreams than the GPA does:
The 10/7 rule
You must finish 10 of your 16 core courses by the end of your junior year — and 7 of those 10 have to be in English, Math, or Natural/Physical Science. Once junior year ends, those grades are locked. You cannot go back and retake a class to raise that 10-course number for eligibility.
Why this matters
A kid who slacks freshman and sophomore year and plans to “lock in” as a senior has already lost. By the time most kids get serious, the junior-year gate is closing.
Coach Fite
Freshman grades feel like they don’t count because nobody’s recruiting a freshman yet. They count. They’re the foundation the whole thing sits on. Start strong and you never have to dig out.