A list of terms and definitions you’ll find useful as you research schools and apply.
Academic calendar: How a school year is divided: usually into quarters, 2 semesters, or 3 trimesters
ACT: A standardized test used by college admissions officers to evaluate prospective students. The test has four sections: English, Math, Science, and Reading and an optional essay.
Admission Rate: The percentage of applicants who are admitted to a particular college.
Bachelor’s Degree: A diploma earned after completing a required course of study at a college or university. The degree usually takes four years and is abbreviated B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) or B.S. (Bachelor of Science).
Class Rank: A student’s place based on a rank ordering of students in a class by grade point average (GPA).
Coalition Application: An online application for admission created by the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success (CAAS) that is accepted by over 135 universities in the US.
College List: A list of between 8 and 12 colleges or more that match a student’s academic background, as well as his or her intellectual, personal, social, emotional, financial, spiritual and other needs and desires.
College Representative (college rep): An admissions officer assigned to a particular high school, city or geographic area. This person often is the first admissions official to read a student’s application.
Common Application: An online application for admission that is accepted by over 900 universities in the US, Canada, UK, and more. Some colleges also require a school-specific supplement, which can ask for additional information like essays, short-answer questions, and more.
Community College: A two-year college that offers both terminal vocational programs, as well as transfer programs in which a student may transfer to a four-year college.
Concentration: A specific focus in an area of studies that is a subset of (or is related to) your major.
Consortium college: A group of colleges such as the Five College Consortium and the Claremont Colleges (Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona and Scripps) that offer joint academic programs, cross-registration for classes, and shared, activity, social, athletic and other programs.
Core Curriculum: A group of specially designed courses in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and sciences designed to give students a strong foundation in general education.
Cost of Attendance: What it costs to attend a specific college, including tuition & fees, room & board, books, transportation, personal expenses, and all other necessary expenses associated with going to that college.
Credit (Semester, quarter, trimester hours): A unit representing one hour of class per week for one quarter, one semester or one trimester.
Demonstrated Interest: A student’s level of interest and commitment to attending the institution to which he or she is applying as shown through visits, contact with the admissions office, application essays, and more.
Deferred Admission: An admission outcome wherein a student who has applied for early admission is not accepted or rejected, rather their application is reconsidered within the regular admission pool, and a decision on acceptance or rejection is revealed with other regular decision applications in the spring.
Ear;y Action: An application option that typically allows students to apply by November 1 or November 15 and receive an admission decision by December or January that does not bind the student to attend if admitted.
Early Decision: An application option that typically allows students to apply by November 1 or November 15 and receive an admission decision by December or January that commits the student to attend if admitted.
Elective: A high school or college course that a student may take, but which is not required to graduate.
Extracurricular activities: Any formal or informal involvements pursued by students during high school in addition to their regular classes and homework, including sports, volunteer and/or paid work, hobbies, travel, artistic or musical interests, etc. either in or outside of school.
FAFSA: Abbreviation for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is used to determine eligibility for federal financial aid. Only US students qualify for federal financial aid, however, some colleges may ask international applicants to complete the FAFSA to assess financial need.
Financial Aid: Money given or lent to students by a school or the US government to help cover the cost of college (international students generally are not eligible for financial aid).
Fee waiver: An exemption given by a college to disadvantaged students from paying a college application fee.
Gap year: A break in schooling that some students take between high school graduation and their first year of college.
GPA: Grade point average, which is a number that represents the average value of final grades accumulated over all years of high school completed thus far.
General Education (Gen Ed) Requirements: Courses selected from several divisions required for a college degree. These are usually completed during the first two years of college, before moving on to focused course work in major or minor areas.
Humanities: Relating to courses offered in the study of art, philosophy, foreign languages, religion and literature.
Independent counsellors: Privately paid counsellors who provide high school students with admissions information, advice and coaching.
Informed Interest: A subset of demonstrated interest, which is meant to show how informed a student is about a particular college or degree program. Students can demonstrate informed interest by writing detailed “why this college” essays that mention specific courses, professors, and more. They can also demonstrate informed interest in interviews, supplemental essays, and more.
International student: As defined by colleges, a student who does not hold a US passport or green card, nor is he or she a permanent resident of the US.
Interdisciplinary major: Often created by students, a combined major between similar or dissimilar departments such as a language and business, psychology and math, history and political science.
International Baccalaureate (IB): A highly academic program of courses, similar to AP, offered by some high schools in which students can earn advanced standing in many US colleges and universities.
Language requirement: A requirement by some colleges to take a minimum number of foreign language classes and/or pass a foreign language test in order to graduate from the college.
Legacy: A college applicant whose parents and/or grandparents have attended a specific college, which sometimes gives them an edge in admissions.
Liberal Arts: An academic program that includes the sciences, social sciences, languages, arts, and mathematics, as distinguished from professional or vocational programs that focus on training for careers such as engineering, business, and nursing.
Major: The subject in which a student concentrates to earn a degree. For example, biology majors will have a degree in biology.
Minor: A secondary area of concentration, which may or may not be required by an institution.
Need-Blind/Need-Aware Admission: Colleges that have “need-blind” admissions policies do not take students’ financial needs into consideration when making admission decisions. Colleges that have “need-aware” admissions policies do consider students’ financial needs when making admission decisions.
Pass-fail: An option available at some colleges in which a course may be taken for a pass or fail grade, rather than a letter grade.
Regular Decision: An application option that involves applying by a late fall or early winter deadline in exchange for an admission decision the following spring.
Resident Adviser: A college student personnel officer, graduate or upper-class student who lives in a dormitory to support and advise the dorm residents.
Rolling Admission: An application option by which colleges review and make decisions about applications as they are received. The application cycle usually opens in early fall and may extend into the spring or until the freshmen class is filled.
SAT: A standardized test used by college admissions officers to evaluate prospective students. The test contains three sections: math, reading, and writing, and an optional essay section.
SCEA: Single-choice early action (SECA) is an early application option that is similar to EA in that you are not bound to attend if accepted. However, with the SCEA restriction, you cannot apply early to any other school, be it early decision or early action, until you have heard back from your SCEA school. After you receive the school’s decision of acceptance, deferral, or denial, you may apply to other schools
Student:Faculty Ratio: The number of professors per number of students at a college or university. For example, if a college had 3600 students and 100 full-time professors, the student:faculty ratio would be 36:1.
Teaching Assistant: A graduate student who teaches undergraduate courses at a university, and/or holds small discussion sections for a professor’s large lecture class.
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL): Offered by Educational Testing Service (ETS), an English exam required of foreign students as a part of their admissions application.
Transcript: A copy of a student’s cumulative record, requested by all colleges and universities for admission purposes.
Tuition: The fees charged by a college on a quarterly, semester or trimester basis for academic instruction and some activities and services.
Undergraduate: A college student who has not yet received a Bachelor’s Degree.
Waitlist: A group of students held in reserve after a college makes its admissions decisions. If openings occur, students on the waitlist may be offered admission.
Withdrawal: You may withdraw from courses during a semester, which means you will no longer be registered in that course and will be exempt from coursework and credits without penalties or a failing mark. There are deadlines for withdrawal and you must follow the established procedures, which are specified in the college catalogue and class schedule. Written approval from a university official must be secured, and some fees must be paid.
Work-study: A federally funded program that makes part-time work on campus available to students as a part of their financial aid package.
Yield: The percentage of students offered admission to a college who subsequently enroll.
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