The Vocabulary of College

Campuses can be big, small, or anywhere in between. They vary in appearance based on location. For example, a rural school's campus may be surrounded by trees and greenery, while an urban campus may consist of skyscrapers and busy streets.

While the term implies some sort of square shape, a quad is generally just an area of greenery where students gather. It is in the middle of campus, making it a common area for the university.

A student is matriculated when he or she officially begins classes at a given university and is working toward a degree.

This is the common term used for a college graduation ceremony.

This is the numerical value that is attained by each class that a student takes. Classes vary in their amount of credits, and these values add up to create a number that the school deems necessary in order to graduate. This number varies from school to school.

The bursar's office is where tuition, room and board, and almost anything else associated with the college are paid.

This honor is denoted on students' diplomas when they graduate.

The registrar is in charge of maintaining students' transcripts and progress. If there is a problem with credits, students will often need to visit the registrar's office.

This is essentially a list of all that a student has accomplished in college so far. It lists the classes that the student has taken in the past and is currently taking, how many credits each is worth, and what their GPA is. Other information may include withdrawn classes or leaves of absence.

This is specific type of financial aid that a student receives to attend college. It is usually for either exceptional academic or athletic performance.

This style of teaching is done by the professor giving the class information and asking questions here and there, but is mainly focused on what the professor has to say.

This style of teaching is usually discussion-based, and the professor encourages questions and debates between students to stimulate different viewpoints of a given topic.

While this term is also used outside of the context of college, in this context, it describes the clubs and activities that a students participates in that are outside of their regular academic classes. These entail athletics, Greek life, community service, and almost anything else that is connected to the school that is not directly associated with a class.

This term gets tossed around in college when participating in community service activities. It is the giving of one's time to others, whether it be monetary or physical time.

In this context, registration refers to the time in a given semester when a student can officially enroll for classes for the upcoming semester. It is usually in a school's online system where the student can select which classes they would like to take based on time, professor, credits, and location.

A student's major is what he or she decides will be the main focus of his or her academic career at that school.

A student's minor is what he or she decides will be of focus in his or her academic career, but is not the main concentration. It usually requires completion of fewer classes than a major.

An advisor is an academic counselor. Their purpose is to assist students in their academic careers and help with any problems that come along with accomplishing those goals. Each student is assigned an advisor, usually based on which school the student is in within the university or what specifically they are studying.
Note: The alternate spelling of this word is "adviser." These are generally interchangeable.

Prerequisites are classes that must be taken before other classes that are meant to prepare the student for more advanced work. It is usually noted during registration if a course requires a prerequisite. For example, an introductory chemistry course is almost always a prerequisite for organic chemistry.

This is usually received during the first week of classes. It is a summary of what will be covered through the duration of the class. It often consists of policies related to grading and attendance as well as a tentative calendar for homework assignments.

Many colleges have liberal arts as part of students' degree requirements in order to expand their realms of knowledge. For example, if a student wants to be a doctor, instead of just studying biology and chemistry, he or she may also be required to take classes in the humanities, arts, history, or social sciences.

This term is used to describe what will be covered during a given class. It is usually highlighted in the course syllabus.

A student's department is the office that contains faculty, administration, and information specific to that student's major. For example, if a student needs information on what classes he or she is required to take specifically for his or her major (let's say it's Anthropology), then that department will have administrators there to answer those questions. This is also often where professor's offices are.

Not all schools have classes that require recitation. For ones that do, this is class time that's usually shorter than the class it's for, and it's used to discuss difficult material with the teacher's assistant. It's designed so that the number of people who can enroll in each recitation section is smaller than the amount of people enrolled in the class. So, here, the students can get more one-on-one time with the teacher's assistant than they can during the regular class time with the teacher.