Running Start Eligibility

To qualify for Tacoma Community College’s Running Start Program, students must meet the following requirements:

• Be enrolled in a Washington State public high school.
  Homeschool and private school students can dual enroll through their local public high school or district.
• Junior or Senior status according to high school.
• Display college-level English skills.
• Be at least 16 years of age by the start of classes.

English Qualifying Measures

Students will be considered at college level English if they meet any of the criteria below:

• One semester of 10th or 11th grade English grade of B- or better
• 10th grade Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) score of 3 or 4
• SAT English score of 460 or higher
• ACT English score of 19 or higher

If none of the criteria is met, we do offer an alternative English Portfolio option. Please reach out to Andrew Brottlund at abrottlund@tacomacc.edu or the English department for more information.

Math Qualifying Measures

Math placement is not a requirement to be accepted into the Running Start program. However, a math placement will be needed for courses that require a math prerequisite.

For placement, one of the criteria below must be met. Please email proof of your math qualifying measure to Math Advising Resource Center at marc@tacomacc.edu. Please include ctcLink ID in your message.

• High school transcript with Advanced Algebra or higher course work.**
• Math SAT (not the PSAT) score of 550 or higher
• ACT score of 23 or higher

**Students must have a full-year of Advanced Algebra or a first semester transcript along with second semester progress report at least 10 weeks into the semester.

Homeschooled student or students with an out-of-state high school transcript cannot be placed using their high school transcript. Students must take the ALEKS Math Placement Assessment. For more information, please contact runstart@tacomacc.edu.