Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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| 2+2 Program | A program offering an associate's degree that will transfer directly toward a bachelor degree in the same field of study.?? These programs may be within the same college or between two colleges. |
| Academic Dismissal/ Suspension | A student who is dismissed is no longer matriculated and, in addition, may not register for any credit courses at the college for one full semester. |
| Academic Probation | A student will be placed on academic probation at the end of a semester in which the student's degree grade point average falls below that which is required. |
| Academic Renewal | You may repeat any course one time in which you receive a 'D' or 'F' grade and have the higher grade used to compute your grade point average. You file an Academic Renewal petition. |
| Academic Standards | College standards that students must maintain, such as a certain grade point average, in order to remain in good standing with the school. |
| Academic Year | The school year. See calendar. |
| Accredited | Colleges and schools must meet specific requirements in academic programs, facilities, etc. to be certified by accrediting agencies. Usually, colleges must be accredited for their students to receive financial aid. |
| ACE | American Council on Education |
| ACE CCRS | American Council on Education College Credit Recommendation Service |
| Add/Drop Period | A period of time before classes begin when schedule changes are made.??A penalty may be charged for changes made after the start of classes. |
| Admission | Acceptance into a college after the student has filed a completed Student Information Form with the Admissions and Records Office and has been admitted according to admissions criteria.??Students who have been admitted are eligible to register for courses. |
| Advanced Credit | Some colleges offer tests for advanced college credit.??Students who receive a high score can earn credit in specific subject areas. |
| Advanced Placement | Tests given at the end of an Advanced Placement course taken in high school.??Students with high scores on these tests can be placed in upper-level college courses and may receive credit for beginning level courses. |
| Advanced Registration | A period of time set by most colleges during with students can register early for classes.See Registration. |
| Adviser | A counselor or designated individual who has been formally trained to assist students with academic information that will enable them to enroll in the classes related to their academic goals. |
| Alumni | People who have graduated from a school. |
| American College Testing (ACT) Program | A company that produces standardized admissions tests. See Standardized Admissions Tests. |
| AP | Advanced Placement |
| Application Fee | A charge to process a student???s application. |
| Apprenticeship | A training program, like carpentry or welding, which results in certified skills for a trade. |
| Articulation Agreement | An agreement between two schools that allows course credit to be accepted or transferred and be applied toward a degree or certificate. This includes formal agreement between a 2-year institution and a baccalaureate degree granting institution. These agreements are established for specific academic programs and assure transfer with junior standing upon completion of appropriate coursework and achievement of a minimum grade average. |
| Arts & Sciences | A grouping of academic studies that may include fine arts, languages, social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. The grouping may be called a division, college, or school, for example, the School of Arts and Sciences. |
| Assessment | Assessment is a way of evaluating students??? present skills in English, reading and math so students may choose courses that match their skills. Assessment is based on scores of placement tests. Scores are used as a guide for proper course placement, which leads to greater success. |
| Associate Degree | Degree awarded after
a student completes a specified number of course requirements
and credit hours.??Types of associate degrees designed for
transfer:
|
| Audit | An option for class registration in which the student pays to attend class but does not want to receive credit.??Students sometimes choose to audit courses in which they do not wish to complete required assignments. |
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| B | |
| Baccalaureate or Bachelor???s Degree | The degree granted by a college after students have satisfactorily completed a four or five year, full-time program of required courses, or its part-time equivalent. |
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| C | |
| Calendar | How a school divides the academic year for classes and grading. School years are usually divided into quarters, semesters, or trimesters. |
| Campus | The grounds, class buildings, and residence halls of a school. |
| Career Plan | A set of steps to be followed over a period of time to get a desired job. |
| Career/Occupational Programs | Programs designed to lead directly to employment or career advancement. |
| Catalog | A book containing course descriptions of all courses, major and general education requirements, college policies, procedures and standards and student rights and responsibilities. |
| CBE | Competency-Based Education |
| CEEB | College Entrance Examination Board |
| Certificate | Certificates are 9 to 30 semester credits in length and may be awarded for successful completion of a specialized program of study. Certificates are typically not designed for transfer and need to be identified as such in college information. Specific exceptions must be noted in college publications where formal written transfer agreements, if any, exist. Any Minnesota Transfer Curriculum courses within a Certificate must transfer to any MnSCU college or university. |
| Chancellor | Chief administrator of a college campus. |
| Class Schedule | A listing of all of the classes offered during the semester, along with other useful information such as how to register, support services, career planning sessions, etc. |
| Class Section | A group of students meeting to study a particular course at a definite time.??Sections are identified by specific section numbers. |
| CLEP | College Level Examination Program |
| Closed Class | A limit is placed on the size of each class section. When this is reached, it is closed to further enrollment unless a student drops.??Check with Registration. |
| Coeducational | Both men and women being included in a facility, for instance being able to attend the college or living in the dormitory. |
| College | A school offering studies that lead to an academic degree.??A college can be independent or part of a larger university system. |
| College Orientation | A session during which new students are introduced to academic programs, facilities, and services provided by a college. |
| College Scholarship Service | This service processes a supplemental financial aid application called The Profile. Some colleges and universities require The Profile in addition to other financial aid forms. |
| College Work-Study Program | A form of financial aid in which students earn money by working part time at their college.?? Students apply for work-study by filling out the FAFSA.??See Free Application for Federal Student Aid. |
| Commencement | Graduation ceremony to recognize students who have completed degree requirements. |
| Community College | Colleges that offer programs (usually two years or less) that prepare students for immediate employment, or for transfer to a four-year college. |
| Commuter Student | A student who lives at home or somewhere off campus. |
| Competitive Admission Policy | An admission policy where a school only admits students who meet certain requirements. |
| Conditional Admission | A college may admit students who have not met all the admission requirements. To remain, these students must fulfill specified requirements before or during their enrollment. |
| Consortium | Arrangement between schools that enables students who attend one school to go to class and use resources at another school. |
| Contact Hours | The total hours of class and lab required per week in a course. |
| Continuing Education | The Continuing Education Division is designed to offer students a viable and flexible alternative to the traditional full-time college degree.??Additionally, high school refresher classes and a wide variety of special non-degree vocational, leisure, remedial, and professional courses are offered through this division of the College. |
| Continuous Enrollment | The process of registering for and completing courses during consecutive semesters, which may include summer sessions.??Determines catalog year for graduation. |
| Cooperative Education (Co-op Education) | A program in which a student combines employment and study in a career field. |
| Core Classes | Classes that all students in a major program are required to take. |
| Corequisite | Course which must be taken during the same semester as the course that specifies the corequisite. |
| Correspondence Course | A class where students receive lessons in the mail and send completed assignments to instructors.?? Correspondence is an example of independent study. See Independent Study. |
| Counselor | A professionally trained staff member who helps students with educational, career, or personal concerns. |
| Course | A specific subject studied within a limited period of time, such as a semester, and taught by a faculty member. Also called course offering or class. |
| Course Description | A course description tells the student what is taught in the course, what the objectives are, and what one should be able to do upon completion.??It also describes the required classroom hours, lab hours, clinic or co-op hours, credit hours, and indicates if a prerequisite/corequisite is needed. |
| Course Evaluation | A survey usually given at the end of a semester. Students give their opinions about the instructor and the course. |
| Course Fee | A charge for services, supplies, and/or materials for a course, in addition to tuition and registration fees for the course. |
| Course Load Status | Regardless of matriculation status, a student who carries 12 or more credits during the Fall or Spring semester is considered a full-time student. An anything less than 12 credits is part-time. |
| Course Number | Numbers assigned to courses to show their level of difficulty or depth/breadth of study.??For example, 1000 level courses are less difficult or broader in scope than 2000 level courses. |
| Course Prefix | A three or four-letter code that identifies the subject area of a course (e.g., ENG in ENG 1011 indicating a course in English). |
| Course Title | A phrase descriptive of course content.??For example, the course Psychology 1020 has a course title of General Psychology. |
| Course Withdrawal | If a student is unable to complete a course, for whatever reason, the student must withdraw from the course or risk receiving a grade of "F" for the course. |
| CPE | College Proficiency Exam |
| Credentials | A certificate, diploma, or other type of evidence that a person has completed specific requirements determined by a provider. |
| Credit | The numerical unit earned for the completion of a specific course.??For example, three credits may be earned for successful completion of Psyc 2310. Registered Credit- The total number of credits for which a student is officially enrolled at the end of the registration drop period each term.Earned Credits- Successfully completed credits, includes only A, B, C, D, P (used by Financial Aid to calculate percent of completion).Completed Credit- A, B, C, D, P, F (eligible for retroactive payment of financial). |
| Credit Transfer | The acknowledgement by a college or university of student credit earned at a different institution. |
| CTC | Abbreviation for Community and Technical College. |
| Curriculum | A planned sequence of courses aimed at an academic or occupational goal; also referred to as a program of study. |
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| D | |
| DANTES | Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support |
| Dean | The highest officer of a division, college, or school, such as Dean of Education. |
| Declare a Major | Officially tell a college your major, or area of study. See Major. |
| Deferred Admission | A college may accept a student but then allow the student to delay coming to the school for one year. |
| Degree | After finishing a program of study at a college, students receive an academic title, for example, an Associate of Arts (AA) or a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. |
| Department | A specific area of study in a larger college of school.??For example, French is a department in the School of Arts and Sciences. |
| Diploma | Diplomas are 30 to 72 semester credits in length and may be awarded for successful completion of a program intended to provide students with employment skills. Diplomas are typically not designed for transfer and need to be identified as such in college information. Specific exceptions must be noted in college publications where formal written transfer agreements, if any, exist. Any Minnesota Transfer Curriculum courses within a Diploma must transfer to any MnSCU college or university. |
| Discipline | A field of study.??See Major. |
| Discussion Section | Some classes have two types of meetings. One is when the professor lectures.??The other, the discussion section, is when a small group of students meets to discuss the lecture. |
| Dismissal | Students can be dismissed for expelled for consistently poor grades or breaking rules. |
| Distance Education | Classes taught over satellite or local television, through the Internet, by video tape or CD ROM, and by correspondence.??Some may be regularly scheduled; others may be taken when most convenient for the students schedule. Describes instruction and learning that occur when the instructor and learner do not physically meet in the same place or at the same time.??Instructor and learner convey information via technology, which may include mail, telephone, audiotape, videotape, satellite, and the Internet-singly or in any combination. |
| Distributive Requirements | See General Education Requirements. |
| Division | A group of faculty who teach classes in related subjects, such as Communication, English, Natural Science, Mathematics, and Social Science in the General Education Division. |
| Doctorate | The highest university degree, also called a doctorate or doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.). Physicians receive a Medical Doctorate (M.D.), while lawyers receive a Juris Doctorate (J.D.). |
| Dorm | Dormitory.??See Residence Hall. |
| Double Major | Meet requirements for two majors.?? See Major. |
| Drop | Discontinuing a class within the drop/add period. A drop is not recorded in the student???s transcript. |
| Dual of Concurrent Enrollment | Some colleges enroll high achieving high school students in college courses which may fulfill both high school and college graduation requirements. Students need the permission from the high school principal or guidance counselor and admission to a college. |
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| E | |
| Early Admission | Students can take the necessary standardized tests and apply early in their senior year for admission to some colleges/universities. |
| Elective | An optional class, instead of required. |
| Emeritus Faculty | Honored faculty members, usually retired from teaching. |
| Enroll | To officially select classes. |
| Equivalency | A course from one college may be equivalent or equal to a similar course at another college.?? The Transfer Specialist on your campus will be able to evaluate your credits and give you a course equivalency report. |
| Exemption | A course requirement which is fulfilled by passing an exam in the subject. |
| Extracurricular Activities | Also known as cocurricular.??Activities, clubs, or organizations students may participate in above and beyond their academic courses. |
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