We've created a massive college term glossary to help you navigate the college landscape. You'll find common higher education terms as well as those unique to SMU.
Suggest more terms or edits to our current list by emailing 1stgen@smu.edu. Review them for yourself.
Academic Adviser: College staff or faculty member who assists students (advises) with class selection, developing an academic plan, and providing advice regarding careers and/or graduate school.
Academic Calendar: Provides key dates and deadlines -- by term -- for an academic year, including add/drop deadlines, final withdrawal date, registration dates, mid-term and final exam periods, school holidays, and more.
Academic Degree: Conferred by academic institutions in recognition that a student has completed a specified course of study. See also Bachelor's Degree.
Academic Standing; Educational standing of a student based on his or her grade point average (GPA). Academic standing can be computed at college level, school level, or major level.
Accreditation: The oversight of a university, college, or academic program by one or more outside organizations. Accreditation organizations certify that an institution is following certain guidelines and policies.
Add/Drop: A timeframe at the beginning of the semester in which students may add or drop courses from their schedules without consequences such as the dropped classes showing up on their transcript.
Adjunct Faculty: A professor who teaches on a limited-term contract, often for one semester at a time, and who is ineligible for tenure.
Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center (A-LEC): Provide tutoring services at no-cost to students to assist in achieving better academic success in all academic areas.
Alumni: Graduates of a college or university.
Canvas: The learning management system used for online organization and course materials. Sometimes used to submit assignments, for online learning, and coursework.
Caring Community Connections (CCC): Provides support to students who are experiencing challenges by identifying and linking them to appropriate resources.
Class Schedule: A list of classes a student is enrolled in during a given semester, including course names and sections, instructor, meeting days and times, and classroom location. This can be found on My.SMU.
Class Standing: Refers to a student's official year in school -- first-year (freshman), second-year (sophomore), third-year (junior), or fourth-year (senior) -- based on the number of college credits completed.
Commencement: Graduation ceremony
Community College: Local educational institution developed to provide a broad array of educational opportunities, typically offering both certificate programs as well as tracks leading to associates degrees.
Commuter Student: A student who does not live on campus and instead drives to campus each day they have classes or other commitments.
Concentration: An area of specialization, focusing on a core number of classes in a very specific field. In some majors, students need to choose at least one concentration.
Course Catalog: Official list of programs and courses offered at a college or university that outlines critical information about admissions and academic requirements.
Course Description: Important information and details about a course, from what the course entails to pre-requisites required.
Course Load: The number of credit hours for which a student is enrolled in a given semester.
Course Name/Number: A cataloging system that contains a series of letters and numbers to designate a course by the department that teaches it and the academic level.
Course Section: When the same course is offered multiple times in the same semester, each course is designated with a section number. This is listed following the course name and number.
Credit Hour: A unit of measurement that determines the amount of class time required each week of a term. In a typical semester system, a 3-hour class requires classes to meet in three 50 minute sessions or two one hour and twenty minute sessions.
Curriculum: The subjects comprising a course of study in a school or college that is required to graduate.
Dean: The top administrator and academic officer within a college, school, or department.
Dean's List: A high academic honor that is awarded each semester based on student GPA.
Degree: Credential awarded to a student who has completed all requirements of a course of study/degree program.
Degree Progress Report (DPR): A sequence of courses and academic requirements that a student must complete in order to graduate; intended to keep a student on track and monitor progress towards a degree.
Department: A division within a school or college that offers instruction in a specific subject area.
Department Chair: A faculty member who manages an academic department.
Disability Accommodations and Success Strategies (DAAS): Primary contact for all SMU students with disabilities.
Dr.Bob Smith Health Center: Physical and mental health care center for SMU students and faculty. They offer services such as sick visits, vaccines, and counseling services. They also have a pharmacy.
Elective Course: A course that is not required for any major or minor, but used to fulfill the credit hours required for a degree. Most degree programs allow for at least a few elective courses. These courses allow for students to choose their electives within a given group of possibilities.
Faculty: Instructors or professors who teach college courses.
Faculty-in-Residence (FIR): Live in faculty members that lead and direct residential commons.
FAFSA: Free Application for Federal Student Aid. A form completed by current and prospective college students (undergraduate and graduate) in the United States to determine their eligibility for student financial aid.
FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.
Final Exams: A comprehensive and cumulative (final) exam that often represents all of the topics from a class and takes place the final week of the semester. Some final exams are not comprehensive and cumulative; Your instructor will inform you of which category your exam falls under.
Financial Aid: Money that is given or lent to students in order to help pay for their education.
Freshman/First-Year Student: Undergraduate student who has earned fewer than 30 credit hours.
Full-Time Faculty: The core instructors (professors) of a college or university who are under contract for at least a complete academic year.
Full-Time Student: A student who is enrolled in at least 12 credit hours during a given semester. Note: For graduate school, full time is considered to be enrollment in at least 9 credit hours during a given semester.
Grade Point Average (GPA) – Cumulative: A numeric measure of a student's performance accounting for all credit hours completed.
Grade Point Average (GPA) – Major: A numeric measure of a student’s performance for credit hours that are specific to a student’s chosen major.
Grade Point Average (GPA) – Semester: A numeric measure of a student’s performance for credit hours completed in a single semester.
Hold: A hold (or registration hold) can be placed on a student’s account due to academic dismissal, not fulfilling required faculty advising, a disciplinary problem, money owed to the University, failure to return library books and/or other supplies, or non-compliance with housing and health center regulations. Details on a registration hold can be found on My.SMU.
Hughes-Trigg Student Center (HTSC): The main hub for student activities; dining, study rooms, Parking and ID Services, community engagement and more.
Incomplete Grade: A temporary grade that faculty can assign a student for reasons outside of their control (illness, death in family, etc.) cannot complete all coursework and assignments in a given term. Students have one semester following the incomplete to complete the course requirements. Consult your advisor and professor for more details.
Internship: An opportunity for students to obtain real-world hands-on experience in their chosen field of study.
Junior: An undergraduate student who has earned between 60 and 89 credit hours.
Laboratory (Lab) Class: Learning environment in which hands-on work is completed, typically in science and foreign languages. Often tied to a lecture portion of a course and indicated by a total of 4 credit hours for a single class instead of the typical 3 credit hours.
Lecture: A class in which the instructor speaks on a specific topic or topics during a scheduled class period.
Major: A concentration of courses that is a student's primary course of study. Students must major in a subject while in college.
Mid-Term Exams: An exam given toward the middle of the term that covers material from the first half of class.
Minor: An optional secondary course of study, typically with a concentration smaller than a major, that a student chooses to enhance their major or simply to pursue a subject of interest.
My.SMU: A portal with information tailored to students, faculty, and staff. My.SMU is where students register for classes, manage personal information, access financial information and are informed of tasks that may need to be completed. My.SMU should be checked regularly, especially prior to registration periods.
Office Hours: The days and times that college faculty set aside to meet with students enrolled in their classes. Traditionally these take place in the instructor’s office. Office hours information can be found on syllabi.
Orientation: A program that introduces newly admitted students to SMU and the academics, customs, and opportunities of the university.
Outlook: The email and calendar platform used by students, faculty, and staff at SMU. Your outlook account should be checked on a regular basis.
Part-Time Student: A student enrolled in fewer credit hours in a given term than the college considers as full-time. Part-time status typically affects things such as financial aid.
Pass/Fail Option: Some colleges offer an option to take a small number of courses to be taken as pass/fail (instead of granting the typical letter grades).
Postsecondary: Refers to all educational programs after high school, including technical schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities.
Practicum: A course designed to provide students with supervised practical experience in which students apply the materials learned in their coursework in real life.
Prerequisite: A course that is required to be taken and passed prior to registering for another course. A number of upper-division courses often have prerequisites.
Probation: The academic status of a student when their GPA falls below the university required GPA.
Professor: Typical term for faculty teaching at a college.
Provost: The senior academic officer of a college or university.
Registrar: An administrator and office on any college campus who oversees such things as registration, storing academic credit records, maintaining academic audit sheets, and dealing with transfer credits from other colleges.
Registration: When students enroll (register) for classes for an upcoming academic term.
Residence Life and Student Housing (RLSH): Housing office for students living on-campus.
Residential Community Director (RCD): Lead and direct residential commons.
Rubric: A scoring guide used to define what is expected and what will be assessed to evaluate an assignment, often found in syllabi.
Scholarship: Monetary awards (that do not need to be repaid) presented to college students based on various criteria, such as need-based, academic excellence, leadership, community service, and extracurricular activities.Semester: The academic terms during which courses are taught. Typical fall and spring semesters last 15 weeks, plus exam week. Summer semester varies in length.
Senior: An undergraduate student who has earned 90 or more credit hours.
Social Change and Intercultural Engagement Office (SCIE): Multicultural, diversity and community engagement office.
Sophomore: An undergraduate student who has earned between 30 and 59 credit hours.
Student Handbook: A student’s primary resource on SMU’s policies, procedures, student expectations and other informational resources.
Study Abroad: College coursework that students take outside the U.S., providing a great opportunity to experience foreign cultures and travel.
Syllabus: A document (which some students and faculty see as the binding agreement for a course) provided at the beginning of a term that outlines the key elements of a course, including things such as learning objectives, assigned readings, any assignments, tests/quizzes, and other requirements or expectations of the course.
Transcript: Official record of a student's academic work showing courses taken, grades earned, and credits received.
Transfer Credit: College credit earned at one college and accepted for credit at a different school.
Transfer Student: Student who attended one college but decided to leave that school and apply for admission to a different college or university. The student then transfers some (or in rare cases, all) credits from the old school to the new school.
Undecided Student: A student who enters college with an undeclared major.
Undergraduate Student: College student who is pursuing an associates or baccalaureate degree.
University Advising Center (UAC): Advise pre-major students.
University Bursar: Financial department that answers questions, informs students of payment plans and more.
Waitlist: Often referring to a status that is neither an offer nor rejection from the university; students in this category may be admitted at a later time. This can also refer to being on a list for a specific class that means you are waiting to be enrolled. If a student drops the class, then students on the waitlist will be enrolled in numerical order.
Withdrawal: Typically refers to the dropping of a course (or all courses) for which a student is registered in a given term. These courses will show up as a “W” (withdraw) on the students transcript if the class is dropped after the “drop” period.
Work-Study: A federal financial aid program providing part-time employment to students based on the financial need of students and available jobs within the university.
The Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center is home to the Writing Center, tutoring, HDEV classes, the Disability Accommodations and Success Strategies staff, the Student Athlete Academic Services counselors, learning specialists and workshops.