The college application process is daunting in its breadth and challenging in its specificities. While working through the process with personalized help is ideal, there’s a certain amount of clarity that can help long before you sit down to brainstorm essay topics. Some of the most basic things to learn before you even search “how to apply to college” online is the terminology surrounding the process. If you learn the language, you’ll be better equipped to study and master the subject.
Acceptance/Admission Rate: The rate at which applicants are accepted relative to the total number of applicants that applied.
Admissions Tests: Also known as college entrance exams, these are standardized tests designed to measure students’ academic aptitude and give colleges guidance on their readiness for university. They are widely required by many, but not all, universities. The most common tests are the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, and the ACT.
Application: The materials collected and created in order to submit to college. Most applications include a section by section breakdown of what information the school needs from you. Other materials include: high school transcript, recommendation letters, admissions test scores, AP test scores, personal statement, and any auditions/portfolios (if applicable for your program). There is typically a cost to submit your application, between $35 and $70. There may also be supplemental essays and if you are applying for financial aid, you’ll need to submit a completed FAFSA.
Application Deadline: The date by which your application is due. There are different deadlines depending on whether you’re applying regular decision (RD), early action (EA/EAII), early decision (ED/EDII), and/or rolling admissions (RA). All of these are defined in our glossary.
Campus Interview: Less like a job interview and more of a one-on-one information gathering session between an applicant and a representative from the school, like an admissions officer, alumnus, or faculty member. These are rarely required, but often helpful for determining best fit.
Campus Visit/Tour: A tour guide from the school’s admissions office leads a tour group around campus to see important buildings, get a feel for campus life, and possibly meet university personnel.
Class Rank: A number that places your GPA in context relative to all other students’ GPAs in your grade. If your class rank is #1, you had the best GPA in your grade. This helps colleges put your GPA into context and gives them a better idea of what kind of student you will be.
College Application Essay // Personal Statement: Required by many colleges, this is an essay written by an applicant that tells an admissions committee who they are and why they deserve to be admitted to their school. Often a very challenging part of the College Application because it is so open-ended. Some schools will ask for additional Supplemental Essays.
College Credit: The credits one receives for completing college-level courses. To earn a degree, colleges will require a minimum number of credits, some of which may be earned in high school by taking college-level courses or testing exceptionally well on AP tests.
College Search: The process of researching and identifying schools that best fit with one’s personal goals, abilities, and interests. These steps help one build a list of schools to which they’ll apply.
Common Application: A standard College Application platform that is accepted by the nearly 900 colleges in the Common Application association. This application can be completed once and submitted to multiple schools which is a time-saver for many applicants.
Deferred Admission // Deferral: If a student has applied Early Action or Early Decision, their admission decision may be deferred, which means they have not been admitted early nor have they been rejected, but that their application will be added to the Regular Decision pool of applicants and will be reconsidered later.
Deferred Enrollment: Once accepted, a student may request permission from the school to defer their enrollment for up to a full year, which typically requires a plan or justifiable reason for the deferral period.
Demonstrated Interest: A common, but not ubiquitous, factor in admissions decisions is evidence of a student’s desire to attend a particular school. This includes campus visits, communication with admissions office personnel, and parts of the college application, especially the frequently-seen “Why Here?” supplemental essay.
Early Action (EA/EA II): The option to apply to schools well before the regular deadline. Students will find out if they’ve been accepted much earlier than if they applied Regular Decision, but their acceptance is non-binding, which means they do not have to enroll if accepted. Some institutions also offer EA II, which is the same thing but at a later date, still before Regular Decision.
Early Decision (ED/ED II): The option to apply to one school well before the regular deadline. Students will find out if they’ve been accepted much earlier than if they applied Regular Decision, and their acceptance is binding, which means they must enroll if accepted and offered a sufficient financial aid package. Some institutions also offer ED II, which is the same thing but at a later date, still before Regular Decision.
Extracurriculars: Anything you do outside of high school courses. These can include things like paid employment, athletics, debate, jazz band, etc that the school sponsors, but also anything you do in your community or on your own, such as independent video production, running a blog, volunteer work, etc.
Financial Aid (Package) // FAFSA: If you apply for financial assistance to pay for college, the grants and loans you receive are referred to as your financial aid package. Students who wish to apply for need-based financial aid must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Fit // Best Fit: We use these terms to represent the overall goodness of fit between a prospective student and the school they’re applying to. It’s not just a matter of grades or prestige. Best fit is a holistic approach to finding a school where a student will thrive and reach their full potential.
Gap-Year Programs: Year-long programs targeted at recent high school graduates who are deferring their college enrollment to take part in enrichment activities such as community service, meaningful travel, alternative academics, etc. and combinations of the former.
Grade Point Average (GPA): A numerical representation of overall academic performance, based on the individual point values of course grades. Cumulative over all four years of high school, the GPA is to be considered very important freshman through senior year.
Leaps // Super Leaps // High Targets // Realistic Targets: These are the categories that we use to give students an idea of what schools they can expect to get into based on their academic performance, extracurriculars, school record, and other factors. From most likely to least likely, in terms of acceptance, the categories go Realistic Targets, High Targets, Leaps, and Super Leaps.
Legacy Applicant: An applicant who has a close relative who graduated from the college to which they are applying. Some schools give preference to legacy applicants.
Need-Blind Admission: A school policy of not considering applicants’ needs for financial aid when making admissions decisions.
Notification Date: This is the date by which accepted applicants have to respond, indicating their intent to enroll. A monetary deposit is also typically required. This is generally around May 1 for regular decision.
Placement Tests: Subject-specific tests administered to newly admitted applicants to assess their academic skills. Common at two-year colleges, public four-year colleges, and community colleges, but also sometimes given at private institutions. Scoring exceptionally well may place you into a higher course level whereas scoring poorly may require additional coursework before starting the college’s introductory classes.
Recommendations: Written letters of endorsement typically included with the college application. You almost always need two of these from teachers and you could include additional recommendations from folks like mentors, employers, or coaches.
Registrar: The school employee responsible for registering students for classes. This is often the same person who has access to your college transcript and student records.
Regular Decision: This is the standard deadline to apply to a school, ignoring any early action/decision/admission options. Deadlines range anywhere from November to March, but the majority of them are in January and February. You can apply to as many schools as you please and acceptance is non-binding.
Restrictive Early Action // Single-Choice Early Action: The same basic principle as Early Action, but you are limited to apply only to one private school. Usually, you can still apply to other public schools EA, but no other private school REA or ED. For example, you could apply REA to Yale (private) and EA University of Michigan (public), but not EA to University of Chicago (private).
Rolling Admission: Some schools choose to operate with no set admissions deadlines and accept applications over an extended period, reviewing applications and notifying applicants as those applications are received. The earlier you apply, the better your chances of being accepted.
School Profile: An overview of your high school covering things like course offerings and grading system, as well as other features that might interest colleges. This profile is submitted to colleges alongside your transcript and those colleges in turn use it to place your transcript and GPA in context.
Supplemental Essays: Many colleges ask for school- or program-specific essays separate from the personal statement. These are generally shorter than the personal statement. A common supplemental essay is the “why here?” essay, which asks applicants to tell them why they’d like to attend their school in particular.
Test-Optional: This is the option, rather than requirement, to send standardized test scores to colleges when applying for admission.
Transcript: The official record of a student’s academic performance, issued by the school. The transcript is a key part of the college application.
Waiting List // Waitlist: Whether a student has applied early or regular decision, being waitlisted means that their application has been reviewed and the admissions office is keeping it as a backup. Admissions letters have been sent, but the schools keep waitlist applications on their radar in case any students elect not to enroll, allowing them to then offer admission from the waitlist.
Weighted Grade Point Average (GPA): A specific kind of GPA that also takes into account the difficulty of classes along with grades. While a traditional GPA is scored on a scale of 0.0-4.0, a weighted GPA may go as high as 5.0 to account for more difficult honors, IB, or AP classes.
Yield: A metric that measures the percentage of students who enroll compared to total acceptances at a given college. Many colleges seek to maintain a high yield rate and thus are more likely to accept students who they think are likely to enroll.
