Glossary of College Admissions Terms.

Acceptance Rate

The percentage of applicants a college admits. Schools with many applicants and limited spots have lower acceptance rates. You can read more about acceptance rates at the Ivy League schools.

ACT
A standardized college admissions test accepted by every four-year college in the U.S. that requires or considers test scores. It has three required sections: English, Math and Reading. Science and the Writing essay are optional. The composite score is the average of the three required sections, on a scale of 1 to 36. The required sections take about two hours, and the test can be taken online or on paper.

Activities List

The “Activities” section on the Common App, where up to 10 activities, each with a brief description, are listed. Activities can include the arts, athletics, clubs, employment, personal commitments, and other pursuits.

Admissions Interview

A conversation with an admissions officer, a current student, or an alumni volunteer as part of the application process. Some schools offer evaluative alumni interviews, in which the interviewer’s written summary becomes part of the admissions file. Other schools treat interviews as informational only, giving applicants a chance to learn about the school without affecting the admissions decision.

Alumni Interview

An interview conducted by an alumni volunteer rather than an admissions officer, usually after an application is submitted. These interviews are often both informative and evaluative.

AP vs Honors

At many high schools, honors and AP courses are weighted more heavily than regular classes when calculating GPA. Honors classes are often open to all grade levels, while AP courses, designed to mirror college-level work, may be reserved for juniors and seniors. Students who take an AP course are generally expected to sit for the corresponding AP exam.

Campus Interview

An interview conducted on campus, typically with an admissions officer or trained student interviewer. While less common than in the past, some smaller colleges—particularly small liberal arts colleges—still offer or encourage them as part of the admissions process.

Change in Progression Essay

An optional Common App essay. Write it only if you graduated from high school early or late, took time off, or took a gap year, and need to explain your educational progression.

Class Rank

A measure of how your GPA compares to your graduating class, usually expressed as a percentile.

Class Year

Students are often referred to by the anticipated year of their college graduation rather than their high school graduation year. A current high school senior, for example, is named for the year they are expected to finish college.

Coalition Application

Formerly a standalone application platform similar to the Common App. The Coalition has discontinued its standalone portal, and students now apply to Coalition member colleges through the Scoir platform, known as applying Coalition with Scoir.

College

A school that emphasizes undergraduate education. Community colleges, technical schools, and liberal arts colleges all fall under this category.

College Board

A nonprofit organization that develops and administers standardized tests, including the SAT and Advanced Placement (AP) exams.

College Recommendation Letter

A letter from a current or former teacher that helps admissions officers understand an applicant’s academic and personal strengths. These letters carry real weight in selective admissions, because they distinguish students who genuinely love learning and lead in the classroom from those who simply earn high grades.

College Visit / Campus Visit

An official tour of a college for prospective students and their families. Many schools now also offer virtual tours for students who cannot visit in person.

Common App

The Common Application is an online platform that lets first-year and transfer applicants apply to many colleges at once, and is accepted by colleges across the U.S. and abroad. A new edition is released every year on August 1. If you would like expert help navigating the form, see our Common App Intensive program.

Community Essay

A supplemental essay asking how you have contributed to or grown within a community, such as your school, a team, a club, or your neighborhood.

Conditional Admission / Acceptance

Also called provisional admission. It means you will be admitted once you complete certain requirements.

Decile / Top 10%

If you are in the top decile, you are in the top 10 percent of your graduating class. In a class of 100, that means a higher GPA than 90 of your classmates. Many colleges treat decile ranking as a key data point.

Defer

When a student who applies through an Early Decision or Early Action plan is neither accepted nor rejected, but moved into the regular decision pool for a second review. At that point, admissions officers also consider academic performance since the original application. If your student has been deferred, our Deferral Boot Camp helps them strengthen their case for the next round.

Demonstrated Interest

Concrete actions that show genuine interest in a specific college, such as attending an information session, completing an alumni interview, or engaging with the school’s communications. Some schools track these actions to gauge interest.

Early Decision (binding)

A binding plan with a deadline usually on November 1 or 15 and a decision around mid-December. Students may not apply Early Decision elsewhere but may apply to non-binding plans. If accepted, they must attend and withdraw their other applications.

Early Decision II (binding)

Like Early Decision, but with a later deadline, usually in January. Students cannot apply to another binding program, and if accepted, must attend and withdraw their other applications.

First-Generation

A student whose parents did not complete a four-year degree.

Fraternity

A historically male society on a college campus. Most recruit new members who complete a probationary period before initiation, and members often live together in a privately owned house. Fraternities may set standards, such as GPA requirements or service commitments, to maintain membership.

Freshman Year

The first year of high school, ninth grade. Students are generally 14 to 15 years old.

GPA

Grade Point Average, a benchmark of overall academic performance based on cumulative scores. Systems vary: GPA may use letter grades, a 4.0 scale, or a 100-point scale. An unweighted GPA does not account for course difficulty, while a weighted GPA does, so that an A in an honors or AP class may count for more than an A in a regular class.

Grade Inflation

The practice of awarding students higher grades than their work merits.

HBCU

Historically Black colleges and universities, institutions established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the principal mission of serving the African-American community.

High-Impact

Original, distinctive activities that highlight genuine academic passion, as opposed to low-impact or run-of-the-mill extracurriculars. See our tips for selecting high-impact activities.

Ivy Day

The day the Ivy League schools (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale) release their regular admissions decisions, usually in late March or early April.

Junior Year

The third year of high school, eleventh grade. Students are generally 16 to 17 years old.

Legacy or Legacy Applicant

A student with family ties to an institution, usually a parent who graduated from that school.

Letter of Continued Interest

A letter to an admissions officer expressing continued interest after a deferral or waitlist decision. It should include updates on grades, awards, test scores, and activities, and explain why the school is your first choice. Our Waitlist Analysis and Guidance program provides hands-on support with this letter.

Letter of Intent

A letter signed by a recruited student-athlete to commit to a Division II college.

Liberal Arts College

A college that emphasizes broad general knowledge rather than vocational or professional training, typically offering a Bachelor of Arts and focusing on the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.

Likely Letter

A message sent to a student before official acceptances are announced. Not every school sends them, and they generally go to top applicants, recruited athletes, and other strongly favored candidates.

MCAT

The Medical College Admission Test, a computer-based exam required for admission to most medical schools, assessing problem solving, critical thinking, and knowledge of scientific concepts. We offer preparation through our Graduate Test Tutoring.

Naviance Scattergram

A tool within Naviance, a popular admissions software, that displays historical outcomes based on a school’s historical data. Scattergrams plot SAT or ACT scores against GPA, letting students see how applicants from their high school have fared at a given college.

Need-blind Admission

An admissions process in which an applicant’s financial need is not a factor in the decision.

Nonrestrictive Early Action (non-binding)

An application plan with an earlier deadline, usually in November, and an earlier decision. Students applying Early Action may apply to as many other schools as they like under any plan, and are not obligated to attend if accepted.

Personal Statement
The essay required by almost every standard college application, often called the personal essay. On the Common App, it is a 650-word response to a specific prompt. Our Essay Guidance Program supports students through every stage of the writing process.

Pre-Application

A preliminary form some schools use to gauge interest in applying later. At some colleges it is a required first step.

Pre-College Program

A program, often held during the summer, that gives high school students the opportunity to explore academic subjects, experience college-level coursework, and learn from faculty, instructors, or visiting scholars.

Private University

A privately funded institution, supported by tuition, endowment, and donations.

Public University

A college or university that receives funding from a state government and typically offers lower tuition rates to residents of that state. Public universities range from large research institutions to smaller regional campuses and generally enroll more students than private colleges.

Regular Decision

An application plan with a firm deadline, usually in early January, generally marking the final opportunity to apply. Applicants may apply under any plan elsewhere, have no obligation to attend if accepted, and typically receive decisions in early spring.

Restrictive Early Action (rEA) / Single-Choice Early Action (SCEA)

A hybrid of Early Decision and Early Action. Students apply and receive a decision early and are not obligated to attend if accepted, but are restricted from applying to other schools early and may not apply Early Decision anywhere. Restrictions vary, so applicants must review each college’s current policy.

Rolling Admission

A plan in which students may apply any time within the application period and typically receive a decision within a few weeks. There is no obligation to attend, and students may apply elsewhere under any plan.

Rushing

The process of exploring and seeking membership in a fraternity or sorority, typically through a series of social and recruitment events. Students participating in the process are often called potential new members (PNMs).

SAT

A standardized college admissions test administered by the College Board and accepted by all U.S. colleges that require or consider test scores. The test is fully digital and is taken on the College Board’s Bluebook app. It has two sections, Reading and Writing, and Math, each scored from 200 to 800, for a total score of 400 to 1600. The test is adaptive: how a student does on the first part of each section decides how hard the second part is. It takes 2 hours and 14 minutes, plus a short break.

School Change Essay

An optional Common App essay. Write it only if you attended more than one high school and need to explain the change.

School Profile

A document a high school submits alongside a student’s application, giving colleges a quick sense of course offerings, rigor, average test scores, and matriculation data.

Scoir

A college admissions platform that students and families use with their high school counselor to manage and request application documents and to search for colleges. Coalition applications are now submitted through Scoir.

Self-study

Preparing for a standardized test, such as an AP exam, without taking the corresponding class. Self-studying lets you set your own pace and demonstrates initiative.

Senior Year

The final year of high school, twelfth grade. Students are generally 17 to 18 years old.

Senioritis

The drop in motivation many seniors feel in the spring before graduation. It is tempting to coast once you are accepted, but colleges reserve the right to rescind an offer if a student’s academic record drops significantly, so it pays to finish strong.

Single Choice Early Action (SCEA)

Similar to Restrictive Early Action, this plan may prohibit a student from applying Early Action to other schools, unless the other school is a public institution.

Sophomore Year

The second year of high school, tenth grade. Students are generally 15 to 16 years old.

Sorority

A historically female society on a college campus. Most recruit new members who complete a probationary period before initiation, and members often live together in a privately owned house. Sororities may set standards, such as GPA requirements or service commitments, to maintain membership.

SSAT

The Secondary School Admission Test, taken as part of the application process to independent or private elementary, middle, and high schools. We offer SSAT preparation through our Test Prep program.

Supplemental Essays

Additional essays most selective colleges require beyond the Common App, on topics such as civic engagement, activities, academic interests, and leadership. Our Essay Guidance Program guides students through every stage of brainstorming and writing so these essays strengthen the application.

Test-blind

Schools that do not consider standardized test scores at all.

Test-optional

Schools that let applicants decide whether to submit standardized test scores. See our list of test-optional schools.

Transcript

Your official record of courses, grades, and credits, which may also include GPA and class rank.

UGPA

Unweighted GPA, which does not account for the difficulty of a student’s courses.

University

An institution offering both undergraduate and graduate degree programs, typically larger than a college.

Waitlist

A list of applicants who may or may not eventually be offered admission. Waitlisted students are neither rejected nor accepted. If your student has been waitlisted, our Waitlist Analysis and Guidance program helps them make the strongest possible case.

WGPA

Weighted GPA, which can demonstrate the rigor of a student’s courses, often accounting for honors or AP classes.

Why Essay

A supplemental essay asking why you want to attend a specific college. It should describe what draws you to the school and how you would contribute to its community.

Yield Rate

Also called the enrollment rate, the percentage of admitted students who choose to enroll. Highly selective schools tend to have very high yield rates, often well above 80 percent.