School Types
School Characteristics
Admissions 101
Financial Aid
Schools 101
100
An institution of higher education not supported by taxes.
What is a private school?
100
An academic period of a period of about 16 weeks. Two of these make up an academic year.
What is a semester?
100
A process by which colleges review and make decisions about applications as they are received. The application cycle usually opens in the early fall and may extend into the spring or until the freshman class is filled.
What is rolling admissions?
100
Money that needs to be repaid with interest.
What is a loan?
100
This institute of music is located in Pennsylvania.
What is the Curtis Institute of Music?
200
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 specific careers such as engineering, business, and nursing.
What is the liberal arts?
200
A set of required courses that give undergraduates a background in all major academic disciplines: natural sciences, social sciences, mathematics, literature and language, and fine arts.
What is general education requirements?
200
The practice of reviewing an applicant’s file and making an admissions decision without regard to the student’s ability to pay.
What is need-blind admissions?
200
A financial aid award that does not need to be repaid or earned through work.
What is a grant? (also Gift Aid or Scholarship)
200
This famous public research university's nickname is "Cal."
What is UC Berkeley?
300
The joining of several colleges and universities within close geographical proximity to share resources.
What is a consortium?
300
An academic calendar period of about 3 weeks, where students study one course at a time, full time.
What is the block plan?
300
The policy of some colleges of admitting certain students who have not completed high school—usually students of exceptional ability who have completed their junior year. These students are enrolled full-time in college.
What is early admissions?
300
Financial aid given on the basis of merit, not financial need.
What is merit aid?
300
This school has the most comprehensive co-op program in the world, and the founders of Blackberry are major benefactors.
What is the University of Waterloo?
400
A school where all students work, regardless of their academic program or their financial need.
What is a work college?
400
A program of study that normally requires the first 3 years of undergraduate study at one institution and the last 2 years of study at another institution in order to attain a bachelor's degree.
What is a 3-2 program?
400
An application process that typically allows a student to apply by November 1 or November 15 and receive a decision by December 15 that does not bind the student to attend if admitted.
What is Early Action?
400
Admissions process that considers a student’s ability to pay in the final admissions.
What is need-sensitive (or need-aware) admissions?
400
This well-regarded liberal arts college in Massachusetts is a member of the Five Colleges Consortium.
What is Amherst College?
500
A educational program or school where work experience (which are paid and set up as sequential, ongoing experiences) is integrated into the academic curriculum.
What is cooperative (co-op) education?
500
A program of study based on the philosophy that great thought from the past is useful for understanding the present and is based upon a set list of texts.
What is a Great Books program?
500
An application process that typically allows a student to apply by November 1 or November 15 and receive a decision by December 15 that commits the student to attend if admitted.
What is Early Decision?
500
A component of need-based financial aid in which the student works part-time; a campus or other job that is supported by government or institutional funding.
What is work-study?
500
Tuition is free at this liberal arts college located on a cattle-ranch and alfalfa farm.
What is Deep Springs College?
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