Learn the Lingo!

This is a list of common terms used by the Academic Advising Center. This list is adapted in part from Ralphie's Guide to Student Life. You can access Ralphie's Guide on-line.

• Academic Advisor. Faculty or professional staff member who assists students with course selection and academic decision making appropriate to personal, professional, and academic needs and goals.
• Bursar's Office. Coordinates the billing and collection of payments from university students, including tuition, fees and residence hall expenses.
• Catalog. The University of Colorado at Boulder Catalog provides definitive information to university academic and administrative policies, degree requirements, and course descriptions.
• Chancellor. Chief executive officer of each CU campus.
• Confirmed registration. Process of enrolling for the next semester, used by all continuing students.
• Continuing Education. Separate division of the university that offers credit and noncredit courses scheduled for evenings and weekends. Continuing Education courses have tuition separate from the tuition for Boulder day classes.
• Core curriculum. Requirements in the college of Arts and Sciences in various skill and content areas. See the University of Colorado at Boulder Catalog for details.
• Drop/add. Period after registration a student can add or drop courses and change credit designations without instructor signatures.
• Elective Hours. Hours students can choose out of interest or toward a minor or certificate program. Elective hours are simply hours that students need toward graduation that are not used to fulfill core or major requirements.
• Financial Aid. Works with students to help pay for college through a combination of scholarships, grants, loans, and work study.
• FERPA Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. A federal law designed to protect the privacy of education records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their education records, and to provide guidelines for the protection of inaccurate and misleading data through informal and formal hearings.
• Honor Code. The honor code at the University of Colorado at Boulder exists to secure for students an environment in which all individuals have responsibility for, and are appropriately recognized for, their individual academic and personal achievements.
• Honors. Distinction achieved through general honors courses or a departmental honors program (requires special courses and testing).
• Incomplete. A grade given to a student who is unable to complete a course due to reasons beyond the student's control and when approved by the instructor. If an incomplete is not completed within one year it will automatically become a grade of F.
• Major. A specific area of concentrated study, usually within one department. Required major credit hours vary from 30 to 45. See the University of Colorado at Boulder Catalog for details.
• MAPS (minimum academic preparation standards). Admission requirements for all students graduating from high school. MAPS deficiencies must be completed after starting at CU-Boulder through coursework or equivalency tests.
• Ombuds. A specially trained staff member who helps students, staff and faculty resolve conflicts.
• Open option. Major category for freshmen and sophomore students who have not yet declared a major.
• Pass/fail. A grading option that may be chosen for a maximum of 6 elective credit hours.
• Personal Look-up Services (PLUS). Allows students to access billing, grade and course records. Requires student ID and PIN.
• Probation. The College of Arts and Sciences places students on academic probtion whenever their cumulative GPA falls below 2.00. If a student's cumulative GPA remains below 2.00 for two consecutive terms, the student is dismissed. For more information on academic probation and dismissal policies, consult the University of Colorado at Boulder Catalog.
• Reasonable academic progress. To remain eligible for financial aid at CU-Boulder, the student must make reasonable progress towards her/his degree.
• Recitation. A small discussion class, usually led by a teaching assistant, that clarifies lecture information and offers individualized attention.
• Registrar's Office. Assists students in the processes of registration, orientation, and many specialized services such as transcript distribution, enrollment verification, and withdrawal.
• Registration time assignment. Time designated for student to start registering for courses. Generally designed so that seniors register first, followed by juniors, sophomores and freshmen.
• Syllabus. Course outline provided by professors that lists course requirements, grading criteria, course content, expectations, and other relevant course information.
• Time Out Program (TOP). A planned leave from the university for a semester or year. No readmission application is required.
• Wait Lists. Throughout the registration and drop/add periods, if a student is eligible to take a course but finds it is full, s/he may be able to put her/his name on a computerized wait list. As spaces open in a course students may be automatically rolled into the class. It is the student's responsibility to monitor if s/he has been enrolled in a course from the wait list. If the student does not attend a course s/he has been enrolled in, s/he will receive an F for that course. See the Registration Handbook and Schedule of Courses for details.
• Withdrawal. A formal leave from the university.