Students and Their Lifestyle

Useful Vocabulary

Contents

1. What is a student?

2. Admission to a college/ university

3. Tuition fee

4. Accommodation

5. Student’s rights, duties and responsibilities

6. Academic year

7. Scholarships

8. Extracurricular activities

9. Degrees

10. Some quotations by students

1. What is a student?

Traditionally, the term "student" is reserved for people studying at university level in the United Kingdom. Children studying at school are called "pupils" or "schoolchildren" (or "schoolboys" or "schoolgirls"). Large increases in the size of student populations in the UK and the effect this has had on some university towns or on areas of cities located near universities have become a concern in the UK since 2000. A particular problem in many locations is seen as the impact of students on the availability, quality and price of rented and owner-occupied property.

University students are generally classified as first, second, third, or fourth-year students, and the American system of classify them as "freshmen", "sophomores", "juniors", and "seniors" is seldom used or even understood in Canada. In some occasions, they can be called "senior ones", "twos", "threes", and "fours".

First year

The first year of college or high school is referred to as Freshman year. A freshman is a first-year student in college, university or high school.

Second year

In the U.S., a sophomore, also called a "soph," is a second-year student. Outside the USA the term Sophomore is rarely used, with second-year students simply called "second years". Folk etymology indicates that the word means "wise fool"; consequently "sophomoric" means "pretentious, bombastic, inflated in style or manner; immature, crude, superficial".

Post-second year

In the USA, a Junior is a student in the penultimate (usually third) year and a Senior is a student in the last (usually fourth) year of college, university, or high school. A student who takes more than the normal number of years to graduate is sometimes referred to as a "super senior. The term Middler is used to describe a third-year student of a school (generally college) that offers five years of study. In this situation, the fourth and fifth years would be referred to as Junior and Senior years, respectively, and the first two years would be the Freshman and Sophomore years.

Graduate Students

A Graduate student is a student who continues their education after graduation. Some examples of graduate programs are: law school, medical school, veterinary school. Degrees earned in Graduate programs are the Master’s degree or a Doctorate degree.

2. Admission to a college/ university

University admission or college admission is the process through which students enter universities and colleges. Systems vary widely from country to country, and sometimes from institution to institution.

In many countries, prospective graduates from school and colleges apply for admission during their last year of high school or community college. In some countries, there are independent organizations or government agencies to centralize the administration of standardized admission exams and the processing of applications.

The United Kingdom has a centralised system of admissions to higher education at undergraduate level which is managed by UCAS - the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

In general, students are not admitted to universities and colleges as a whole, but to particular courses of study.

In the United States of America, high school students apply to four-year colleges and universities. Students may apply to many institutions using the Common Application. There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a student may apply, though an application must be submitted for each. Fees are generally charged for each admissions application, but can be waived based on financial need.

Students apply to one or more colleges or universities by submitting an application which each college evaluates using its own criteria. The majority of colleges admit students to the college as a whole, and not to a particular academic major. The system is decentralized: each college has its own criteria for admission, even when using a common application form (the most widely used is The Common Application). Common criteria include ACT (an abbreviation of American College Testing) or SAT (a standardized test for college admissions in the United States) scores, extracurricular activities, Grade Point Average, and a general college admissions essay.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 752