Upon Lincoln's re-opening, all students were required to fulfill the "A-G" subject area requirements for admission to the University of California, two years before San Diego Unified codified an "A-G for all" policy under then-superintendent, Terry Grier. Due in part to the uneven diaspora of its middle school students to charters and bussing to schools north of the I-8, Lincoln was privately criticized within the district for being "too ambitious" in its academic aspirations in 2007, because data indicated many incoming first-year students to Lincoln were often under-prepared in comparison to their grade-level peers in key academic disciplines such as English and math. The rationale was that the "A-G" requirement (the mandatory number and scope of college-prep classes), thrust upon students unused to such daunting expectations, would lead to grade inflation or lowered standards of instruction in college-prep classes in order to avoid massive amounts of Ds and Fs. As such, early on Lincoln High earned a reputation among parents and students for the difficulty of its core content area classes, particularly among students used to straight-As in middle school. The high expectations are most pronounced in Lincoln's Advanced Placement program, as well as in its AP-preparatory 9th and 10th grade math, science, and English courses; there are a correspondingly high number of Ds and Fs, mostly among first-semester 9th grade and 10th grade transfer students unused to such demands. Incoming Lincoln students can expect homework 3-5 nights a week in each of these core classes and must have an attendance rate of 95% in order to be successful. Lincoln partly addresses parents' and students' concerns over student sustainability in the staff recruiting parameters, which emphasize a commitment to supporting students to meet high but attainable academic goals.