Application FAQ's

1. You must be 16 years old by the time PCC classes start. Check the PCC calendar for the exact date.​ 

2. Students must have a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA (Weighted or unweighted).

3. When classes start, you must be at least 16 years old and (1) a high school junior or (2-BSD students only) a senior who will not have sufficient credits to be able to graduate on time with their senior class and will carry over into a 5th year.

4. Students must have completed a minimum of 12 high school credits (Fall Application), or 14 credits after transfer grades (Winter Application). If you are applying from a private or homeschooled environment you must have at least 12 transferable credits in order to graduate on time from BSD.  

5. You must live within the Beaverton School District, Tigard-Tualatin, or St Helens School District Attendance Boundaries.

6. Students must complete the PCC Math Placement test and qualify for at least Math 58/60 and have 3 passing terms of high school Mathematics.

7. Students must have 3 passing terms of high school Language Arts. 

8. Complete an application within the application window.   ECHS, application deadlines are not flexible.

Both PCC and ECHS require applicants to take a math placement test before they can apply.  Students do not need to take a reading and writing placement test.

1. The math placement test is called ALEKS. In order to qualify for ECHS, you must place into Math 60 (or higher). PCC allows students to take the ALEKS test off-site on any computer with an Internet connection.

• At the beginning of the ALEKS math placement test, the computer will ask you for your PCC User ID and your PCC Password. It will also ask which math class you plan to take. Most students should select "Math 060". Be aware that ALEKS will test your math abilities to the highest level math class offered at PCC. For that reason don't be discouraged if it seems that you don't know all the answers to questions on the test.​

2.    You can find more information about placement tests and some sample questions and study opportunities at PCC's Placement Test webpage.

3.    It is possible to re-take the placement tests, however, PCC may require a student to complete an online tutorial designed help a student improve their scores before the 2nd attempt.)

4.    After you complete the math placement test, you will be shown your raw numerical score, which you can ignore. Within about an hour, you will receive an email in your MyPCC email account stating your actual placement. Login at my.pcc.edu and click on the mail icon in the upper right hand corner to read your placement test results.

The recommendation is one of the most important factors considered in ECHS admissions!

1. ​Download the "Recommendation Request Form".
2. Complete this form and give it to your high school counselor or AVID elective teacher to complete.
3. Home schooled or applicants not currently enrolled in school may have an adult NOT in the immediate family who is familiar with their educational background complete the recommendation.
4. Note that the Recommendation Request Form does not need to be turned in to ECHS. It is only used as an aid for the person completing the recommendation.
5. Give the person completing the recommendation at least 2 weeks advance notice before the application deadline! 
6. If you provide an accurate email address on the Recommendation Request Form, you will receive an email confirmation when the recommendation is received by ECHS.
7. An application is not considered complete without a recommendation. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that ECHS receives it in a timely manner.

When you apply, you will be required to submit short essays answering the following questions:

1. Write a short narrative introducing yourself to us so that we may get to know you better.  Feel free to include things like your personality, character traits and why you feel you are ready for the college environment.
2. Why are you interested in attending Early College High School and how does ECHS fit in to your future goals?  Please give specific examples.
3. ​Is there anything about you or your situation that you would like us to know or that we should take into consideration?

1. ​Ask your high school counselor for an electronic copy.
2. You will need information on your transcript to answer some questions on the application.
3. You will also be asked to upload a PDF of your transcript.
4. Your high school grades, attendance, credits earned, are important in our evaluation of your application and important in determining your ability for our applicants to graduate on time when joining our program. 

After you submit your application you and the parent/guardian you identify in your application will receive a confirmation email acknowledging receipt of your application. This email will include information about our notification timeline. If you do not receive this application confirmation email within 20 minutes of your submission, we did not receive your application. 

​If admitted, new students must attend two mandatory meetings:

1. Registration Meeting: At this meeting new students learn how to register for classes. Both the new student and a parent/guardian must attend. The following documents must be signed and collected at the meeting. Newly admitted families are encouraged to review these documents in advance. Copies of the latest editions of these forms will be distributed at the meeting, so it is not necessary to sign them in advance.​
   • ​Community Guidelines​
   • Waiver of Liability​
   • Transportation Release
   • ECHS Handbook Review​
   • College Expectations​​
2. Orientation Meeting: This meeting usually occurs the week before classes start. The purpose of this meeting is to connect new students with their ECHS mentor (a current student) and prepare new students for the first days of college. Check the ECHS Calendar​ for the exact dates of these meetings.

​Choosing not to attend either of these mandatory events may result in a student's admission to ECHS being rescinded or deferred.

For applicants residing within the Beaverton, Tigard-Tualatin, and St. Helen's School Districts, if ECHS receives more on-time and qualified applicants than available space in our program we will move to a random lottery to determine Admissions.    

All qualified applicants not selected in the lottery will be placed on a notification list. Should seats open in the program these students will be admitted based on their lottery number and availability of classes at PCC.