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A college employee (sometimes a staff member and sometimes a faculty member) who helps you choose a major, register for appropriate classes, and complete a degree.
Who is an Academic Advisor?
Money provided to students to help them pay for their education.
What is financial aid?
This two letter abbreviation is the title of a second year student or higher that oversees other students in a dormitory.
Who is an RA (Resident Assistant/Aide)?
The branch of the college or university that oversees student life. This involves creating and implementing programs that promote student well-being, ensuring student safety, enforcing institutional policies related to student life, and serving as resources for students in need. This branch is also referred to by some institutions as student services. Often this part of the institution oversees student housing as well.
What is Student Affairs?
A unit that a college uses to show that you have completed and passed the courses that you need to finish a degree. Each college decides how many and what type of credits a student needs to finish a degree (although there is often a minimum number from state requirements). Every course is given a particular number of “credits,” “credit hours,” or “units.” Traditionally 1 credit hour means 1 hour-long class meeting each week.
What is a credit?
A student working towards an Associate or Bachelor’s degree.
Who is an undergraduate?
A type of financial aid. It is free money that the federal or a state government, a company, a school, or a charity gives to a student. Similar to a scholarship, you do not have to pay it back.
What is a grant?
This five letter acronym is the name of a form completed by current and prospective college students in the United States to determine their eligibility for student financial aid.
What is a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)?
This office assists students and their families by providing information on ways to pay for education. It usually becomes involved after the school has made an offer of admission. They typically assist with learning about different federal and private options for paying for college, understanding deadlines for applications, and obtaining forms and money management guidance.
What is a Financial Aid Office?
The status given to students who do not meet minimum academic requirements in any given term.
What is Academic Probation?
A category of employees at a college whose primary responsibility is curriculum and degree programs; they also usually have input on college policies, conduct research, and engage in service to the community. They are sometimes referred to as professors, instructors, or teachers.
Who are faculty?
A type of financial aid. It is free money that a school, individual, organization, company, charity or government gives to a student. Other types of financial aid are loans and grants.
What is a scholarship?
A three letter acronym, these are standards that ensure students receiving financial aid are successfully completing coursework and can continue to receive financial aid. If students fail to meet these standards, they are placed on financial aid warning or suspension.
What is SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress)?
A department or office at a college that provides students with guidance for their future. This can be anything from career counseling to helping you find an actual job. It helps students through the step by step of figuring out their careers and making it happen.
What is Career Services?
Sometimes referred to as “class level” or “classification”, this two word term is a traditional designation used to define a student's progress toward their graduation goal. Undergraduate students are classified according to the number of credits earned (institutional and transfer credits).
What is Class Standing?
All employees at an educational institution whose primary responsibilities do not include teaching students. Some of these may teach classes, but their primary roles are related to other services and support at the institution.
Who are the staff?
A type of financial aid. It is an amount of money that is given to you for a period of time that you have to pay back later.
What is a loan?
This three letter abbreviation is an estimate of a student's, and for a dependent student, their parent' or guardian', ability to pay the costs of a year of post-secondary education. It is determined by the information you provide in a FAFSA.
What is an EFC (Expected Family Contribution)?
This is a building or specific location on a college campus that is devoted to student activities and that usually contains lounges, auditoriums, offices, and game rooms.
What is the Student Union?
This academic term is a calendar that divides the academic year into 15 - 17 week terms. There are generally two of them per academic year: Fall (beginning in August or September) and Spring (beginning in January). Some also offer a Summer session that is shorter than Fall and Spring and is not a part of the regular academic year.
What is a semester?
An administrator in a university or college. Most commonly, they lead a school or college within a university with primary responsibility related to academic oversight, budgeting, and staffing.
Who is a dean?
A sum of money charged for teaching or instruction by a school, college, or university. This does not include other costs such as fees, room and board, books, or personal costs.
What is tuition?
This five letter acronym refers to a federal law that governs the access to educational information and records by public entities such as potential employers, publicly funded educational institutions, and foreign governments. In college, this law also protects the student’s information from their parents and guardians.
What is FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)?
This office is responsible for the timely dissemination of accurate information relating to a student's financial account. This includes but is not limited to: student financial transactions, bookkeeping, and billing for expenses not covered by financial aid.
What is the Business Office?
This is the other most common type of academic term. Each is 10 weeks in length and there are usually three in an academic year: Fall (beginning in September), Winter (beginning in January), and Spring (beginning in March). Some institutions offer a forth in the Summer, but it is not considered an official term in the academic year.
What is a quarter?