College Admissions

College Admissions

Get the "Know how" to get in.

Terms to Know

• Throughout this process, you will hear a lot of terms and acronyms tossed around that you may or may not be familiar with.

• I will post them on "flippity" flashcards for you, but first I want to explain some of them and see what you already know about a few of them.

Poll

This represents the standard high school curriculum or high school classes taken by a student in both a public or private institution.

• Highschool Records

• College Prep Curriculum

• IHL standards

• ACT Composite score

College Prep Curriculum (CPC)

Standard High school core coursework required for college admissions

The Carnegie Unit

EARLY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, the industrialist Andrew Carnegie established the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to create a pension system for the nation’s college professors. The introduction of this pension system proved an ingenious educational reform. At the time, American higher education was a largely ill-defined enterprise with the differences between high school and colleges often unclear. To qualify for participation in the Carnegie pension system, higher education institutions were required to adopt a set of basic standards around courses of instruction, facilities, staffing, and admissions criteria.

More on the Carnegie Unit

The Carnegie Unit, also known as the credit hour, became the basic unit of measurement both for determining students’ readiness for college and their progress through an acceptable program of study. Over time, the Carnegie Unit became the building block of modern American education, serving as the foundation for everything from daily school schedules to graduation requirements, faculty workloads, and eligibility for federal financial aid. 

Understanding the "Rates" of your college selection

Retention Rate

Retention rate is the percentage of a school's first-time, first-year undergraduate students who continue at that school the next year. For example, a student who studies full-time in the fall semester and keeps on studying in the program in the next fall semester is counted in this rate.

Graduation Rate

Graduation rate is the percentage of a school's first-time, first-year undergraduate students who complete their program within 150% of the published time for the program. For example, for a four-year degree program, entering students who complete within six years are counted as graduates.

Transfer Rate

Transfer rate is the percentage of a school's first-time, first-year undergraduate students who transfer to another college within 150% of the published time for the program. For example, a student who is in a four-year degree program is counted as a transfer if the student goes to another college within six years.

As terms surface throughout this week, they will be added to the "flippity" flashcards. Check them out!