This four-page report from the Winter 1995 Communication: Journalism Education Today provides an explanation of how initial eligibility and the NCAA clearinghouse work, a first-hand account of dealing with the NCAA, and some tips on how to make your courses acceptable. Changes to this process have occurred since 1995, however. Here’s a site that might be useful.

Under Core-Course Information, the pdf of “definition of a core course”

https://web1.ncaa.org/hsportal/exec/links?linksSubmit=ShowActiveLinks