College Admissions
This is a quantitative measure of a student's grades. It is cumulative, and starts freshman year of high school.
What is your GPA or Grade Point Average?
A four year institution of higher learning which grants a bachelor's degree in liberal arts or science, or both.
What is a college?
The decision by a college or university to offer a student the opportunity to enroll in their school.
What is acceptance?
A student's concentrated field of study. A student usually declares this by end of freshman year.
What is a major?
Term refers to a group of people that graduated from a particular college or university.
What is alumni?
This is the official school document containing the record of a student's academic performance, testing history, and extracurricular activities.
What is a transcript?
What are community colleges or junior colleges? (Also acceptable is technical college)
What is a waitlist?
A student's secondary field of study.
What is a minor?
Statement or letters written on a student's behalf during the college application process.
What is a recommendation?
This consists of academic records, personal essays, letters of recommendation, and a list of extracurricular activities.
What is a college application for admission?
Usually within Universities, these schools offer degree programs beyond the bachelor's degree.
What is a graduate school?
What is early decision?
Enrollment in classes.
What is registration?
A college or university that you have a chance of getting into, but your test scores, grades, and class rank are on the lower side when compared to the school's acceptance standards.
What is a "reach" school?
This two hour and 55 minute test measures a student's knowledge and achievement in four subject areas: english, math, reading and science reasoning.
What is the ACT?
A degree granting institution where the academic focus is on developing the intellect, and instruction in the humanities and sciences.
What is a liberal arts college?
This is a practice used by some colleges/universities to review and complete applications as they arrive rather then according to a set deadline.
What is rolling admissions?
A course that must be taken prior to enrolling in another more advanced course.
What is a prerequisite?
An event at which colleges, universities, and other organizations related to higher education present themselves in an exposition atmosphere for the purpose of attracting potential applicants.
What is a college fair?
This is a widely used college entrance exam. It is a 3 hour exam measuring verbal, math, grammar, and writing skills. Students may earn up to 1600 points.
What is the SAT or Scholastic Aptitude Test?
A post-secondary institution that consists of a liberal arts college, a diverse graduate program, and usually two or more professional schools and is able to award degrees in many fields of study.
What is a university?
Similar to early decision, this involves a student applying well before the admission deadline, but having no obligation to attend if accepted.
This is often referred to as a "semester hour" and is given for attending one lecture hour of class each week for 15 weeks or equivalent.
What is a credit?
The degree to which a college/university admits or denies admission based on the student's record of academic achievement.
What is selectivity?