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General Terms

College: An institution at which students study toward two- or four-year undergraduate degrees after completion of secondary school. In the U.S., the terms: college and university are interchangeable.

University: An institution that may be the same as a college, but usually offers graduate degrees in addition to undergraduate degrees.

Associate Degree (A.A., A.S.): A two-year degree that generally prepares the student for further study, but may be sufficient training for certain careers.

Foundation Courses: Students complete a one-year foundation course to help them progress to higher education in the United Kingdom.

Vocational Programs: or vocational education and training (VET) prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation. It is sometimes referred to as technical education as the trainee directly develops expertise in a particular group of techniques or technology.

Bachelor’s Degree (B.A., B.S., B.F.A.): A three or four-year degree in a specified subject.

Undergraduate Degrees: Two-year (Associate’s) or four-year (Bachelor’s) degrees.

Master’s Degree (M.A., M.S., M.F.A.): One or two years of study in a specific subject after completion of a Bachelor’s Degree.

Doctoral Degree (Ph.D., M.D.): Three or four years of highly specialized study after completion of a Bachelor’s and/or Master’s Degree.

Admissions Terms and Processes

Accreditation: Regional, State, or National agencies certify that the institution has met certain standards.

Application: Form questionnaire, in various versions (UCAS, Common Application, etc.), required for entry to most all universities.

Candidate's Reply Date: A college may require an applicant to notify the college by this date as to the intentions of the applicant to enroll in that college.

Class Rank: A system that ranks students independently from the school's grade system. Some schools do not offer a class rank.

Clearing: A system used towards the end of the academic cycle for students who have not secured a place, it enables a student to apply for course vacancies. Please see UCAS website for exact details.

C.W.S. - College Work Study: Provides jobs for students with financial need who must earn part of their educational expenses. Foreign students should check U.S. and Canadian visa regulations before assuming that this is available to them. Visa rules may allow foreign students to take advantage of work options both on and off campus. This is commonly known as ‘Work Study’.

Common Application: This is a single application form that is accepted by a number of different universities in lieu of their own application form. Once filled out, it may be photocopied and sent to any number of the participating institutions. The information sheet attached to the form lists the participating schools, the deadline for each school, and each school’s supplementary requirements.

Cooperative Education Program (Co-Op): A program where a student alternates between periods of full-time study and full-time employment.

Conditional offer: An offer made by a university or college, whereby you must fulfill certain criteria before you can be accepted on the relevant course.

Confirmation: When conditional offers that you have accepted become unconditional or are declined. Confirmation is dependent on your qualification/exam results.

Credit Hours: (US universities) a unit of measurement usually awarded on the basis of one credit per hour of class per week. A course worth 3 credits will generally meet 3 hours a week, hence the term, 3 credit hours.

Deadlines: These are dates that must be met, after which applications may not be considered.

Deferred: An admissions decision given to early applicants. Students who apply early are often deferred to the regular deadline pool for further consideration.

Deferred Entry/Admission: Some colleges allow a student to defer entrance for up to one academic year in order to pursue other interests but not to enter another college or university program. Each college or university makes its own rules on this but those who have deferred entrance programs usually grant permission for a student to travel, work, do volunteer service, or special study opportunities not usually offered by the college (overseas language or cultural studies, for example).

Early Decision: (Binding Commitment) This is a plan under which a student applies to his first-choice university in early November, usually by signing a contract to enter that university if offered admission. Early decision applicants are judged on the basis of their Grade 11 test scores and grades. Decisions are given early in December. A student not accepted under an Early Decision plan will not automatically be deferred into the regular admissions review.

Early Action: (Non-Binding Commitment) This is a plan used primarily in highly selective colleges. Early action follows the same application/notification timetable as early decision but gives the accepted candidates until May 1 to accept or decline the offer of admission. Under Early Action programs, a student may be accepted, deferred into the regular review, or denied admission.

Entry Profiles: comprehensive information about individual courses and institutions, including statistics and entry requirements. Entry Profiles are found on Course Search on the UCAS website: www.ucas.com

Family Contribution: The amount that you and your family should reasonably be able to contribute to the cost of your college education. This is determined by such factors as your parents' income, assets, and debts; your earnings and savings; and the number of children in your family currently in college.

FAFSA - Free Application for Federal Student Aid: This is the College Scholarship Service form that requires information about an applicant's family income, assets, expenses and liabilities. This form is required of all USA Citizens wishing to qualify for federal grants and loans.

Financial Aid CSS/Profile: An aid application form required by all universities in order to gain access to grants from the institution’s own funds.

Financial need: The difference between the cost of education at a college and the student's expected family contribution.

Firm offer: the offer that you have accepted as your first choice.

Grade point average (GPA): A system of evaluating overall student achievement. Avenues does not calculate GPA

Graduate and Professional Schools: Refers to schools offering Master's and Doctorate degrees, and to such schools as law, medicine, etc.

Grant: A financial award, also known as scholarship, which does not have to be repaid.

Individualized Major: A program that allows students to design their field of specialization based on individual interests.

International Baccalaureate (IB): The IB is a program of studies taken in the last two years of high school, which covers a broad liberal arts spectrum.

Internship: An employment opportunity, usually in an area related to academic or career interests, which students may pursue either on or off campus. Some internships are paid positions, but most are opportunities for students to gain valuable experience as unpaid volunteers.

Institution: a university or college offering higher education courses.

Institutional Aid Forms: The U.S. College’s own financial aid application form that must be submitted in addition to the F.A.F.S.A. or the CSS Profile.

Insurance offer: the offer that you have accepted as your second choice, in case you do not meet the requirements for your firm offer.

January Admission: Some universities allow students to begin their course of studies in the middle of the academic year (January) as well as in the fall (August - September).

Liberal Arts: Academic work ranging from Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, to Math and Natural Sciences, as opposed to technical or professional subjects such as Engineering or Architecture.

Major: A student's area of specialization. Generally, major course requirements take up the bulk of a student's undergraduate program and are combined with other general education requirements.

Minor: A student's subordinate specialization.

Need Blind: Colleges with need-blind admissions make admissions decisions by focusing on each student's academic and extra-curricular record without taking into consideration the family’s finances. Whether or not that student will need financial aid does not play into the acceptance decision. In these cases, admissions and financial aid decisions are made independently of each other and do not cross paths. That said, there is one caveat, some “Need Blind” schools may use financial need as a way of evaluating applicants on the waiting list, as well as transfers and international students.

Need Aware: At schools with need-aware policies, schools do consider a family's financial situation when determining the admissibility of students. This means admissions for students who are asking for financial aid will, in most cases, be more competitive than for those who are not. This can be the reason that some students with stronger backgrounds (but who need financial aid) are denied, while relatively weaker students (but who do not need financial aid) are admitted.