Academic Abbreviations
124 abbreviations · part of Education & Academic Abbreviations
Abbreviations used in colleges and universities: grades and transcripts, faculty ranks and campus jobs, research administration, citation styles, types of institutions, admissions, financial aid, international student status, accreditation and campus life. Most are American, with British and Commonwealth equivalents noted where usage differs. Admissions and financial aid rules change frequently, so dates and requirements should be checked against current official sources.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AACSB | Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business | Global accrediting body for business schools, founded in 1916 by a group of US universities including Harvard, Yale and Columbia. |
| AAU | Association of American Universities | Invitation-only association of leading research universities in the US and Canada, founded in 1900, that lobbies on research funding and higher education policy. |
| ABD | All but dissertation | Informal status of a doctoral student who has completed coursework and qualifying exams and advanced to candidacy, leaving only the dissertation. |
| ABET | ABET (formerly Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) | Nonprofit that accredits college programs in engineering, computing, applied and natural science and engineering technology, in the US and in dozens of other countries. |
| ADT | Associate Degree for Transfer | California community college degree, created by a 2010 law, that guarantees admission to the California State University system, though not to a particular campus or… |
| AO | Admissions officer | Staff member at a college admissions office who reads applications, interviews or visits high schools, and recommends decisions to a committee. |
| AP | Associate professor | Mid-level faculty rank between assistant professor and full professor, usually reached with the award of tenure in the US. |
| APA | American Psychological Association style | Author-date citation and formatting style, now in its seventh edition (2019), used in psychology, education, nursing, business and other social sciences. |
| APC | Article processing charge | Fee that an open-access journal charges authors, their institutions or funders to publish an accepted article, replacing subscription revenue. |
| Assoc. Prof. | Associate professor | Faculty rank between assistant and full professor, normally granted with tenure at US research universities after a successful review of scholarship, teaching and… |
| Asst. Prof. | Assistant professor | Entry-level rank for faculty on the tenure track in the US, typically held for about six years before review for tenure and promotion. |
| AY | Academic year | School year used in university calendars, catalogs and budgets, usually running from late August or September to May or June and written with both calendar years, as in… |
| BS/MD | Combined bachelor's and medical degree program | Program that admits high school seniors to both an undergraduate college and a partner medical school, usually with conditional guaranteed admission to medical school… |
| CAEP | Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation | Accreditor for teacher preparation programs at colleges and universities, formed in 2013 by consolidating NCATE and TEAC. |
| CAO | Central Applications Office | Organization that processes applications for undergraduate courses at Irish universities and colleges. |
| CAPS | Counseling and Psychological Services | Common name for a university's mental health center, offering short-term counseling, crisis support, group therapy, psychiatric services and referrals to students. |
| CAS | College of Arts and Sciences | Common name for the undergraduate liberal arts division of a university, housing departments in the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences. |
| CBE | Competency-based education | Approach in which students progress by demonstrating mastery of defined skills and knowledge rather than by accumulating seat time, often at their own pace. |
| CC | Community college | Public two-year college offering associate degrees, certificates, transfer pathways, workforce training and adult education, usually with open admission and low tuition. |
| CCNE | Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education | Accreditor for baccalaureate, graduate and residency programs in nursing, operating as an autonomous arm of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. |
| CFP | Call for papers | Announcement inviting researchers to submit abstracts or full papers for a conference, journal special issue or edited volume, with topics, deadlines and submission… |
| CGPA | Cumulative grade point average | Overall GPA covering every course in a program, as opposed to a single term's GPA. |
| CHEA | Council for Higher Education Accreditation | National nonprofit, founded in 1996, that recognizes accrediting organizations and advocates for self-regulation through accreditation. |
| CMOS | Chicago Manual of Style | Names the style guide published by the University of Chicago Press, used widely in book publishing, history and the humanities. |
| Co-PI | Co-principal investigator | Researcher who shares leadership of a grant-funded project with the principal investigator, often contributing specialized expertise and supervising part of the work. |
| COA | Cost of attendance | Total estimated cost of one year at a college, set by each school, covering tuition and fees, housing and food, books and supplies, transportation and personal expenses. |
| CPT | Curricular Practical Training | Work authorization for F-1 students for internships, co-ops or practicums that are an integral part of their degree program. |
| CRN | Course reference number | Unique number that identifies a specific section of a course in a given term, used to register in student information systems such as Ellucian Banner. |
| CSS Profile | College Scholarship Service Profile | Online financial aid application run by the College Board and required by about 200 colleges, mostly private, plus some scholarship programs, to award their own… |
| CV | Curriculum vitae (course of life) | A detailed record of a person's education, work history, publications and achievements submitted with job and academic applications. |
| DSO | Designated school official | University staff member authorized by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program to maintain international students' SEVIS records, issue I-20 forms, approve CPT and… |
| EA | Early action | Non-binding early application round, usually with a November 1 or November 15 deadline and decisions in December or January. |
| EC | Extracurricular activity | Activity outside the classroom, such as sports, music, clubs, jobs, volunteering or family responsibilities, listed by college applicants to show interests and… |
| ED | Early decision | Binding early application round in which a student applies to one first-choice college, typically by November 1 or 15, and agrees to enroll and withdraw all other… |
| EFC | Expected Family Contribution | Former index calculated from FAFSA data that measured a family's ability to pay for college and determined need-based federal aid eligibility. |
| F-1 | F-1 student visa | US nonimmigrant visa for full-time academic students at colleges, universities, high schools and language programs. |
| FAFSA | Free Application for Federal Student Aid | Form from the US Department of Education that students complete each year to apply for federal grants, loans and work-study, and that states and most colleges also use… |
| FE | Further education | British term for education after age 16 that is not university study, including A levels, vocational courses, apprenticeships and adult learning, typically delivered in… |
| FGLI | First-generation, low-income | Label for students who are the first in their families to attend college and come from low-income households, used by universities that run dedicated support programs… |
| FSA | Federal Student Aid | Office of the Department of Education that runs the FAFSA, awards Pell Grants and federal student loans, and oversees a loan portfolio of about $1.6 trillion owed by… |
| FSEOG | Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant | Campus-based federal grant of $100 to $4,000 a year for undergraduates with exceptional financial need, with priority given to Pell Grant recipients. |
| FTE | Full-time equivalent | Unit expressing workload in terms of full-time employees: 1.0 FTE is one person working a full schedule, often 40 hours a week or 2,080 hours a year, and two half-time… |
| FWS | Federal Work-Study | Federal program that funds part-time jobs for undergraduate and graduate students with financial need, either on campus or with nonprofit and public agencies, helping… |
| GA | Graduate assistant | Umbrella title for graduate students employed by a university in teaching, research or administrative roles, typically 10 to 20 hours a week. |
| GE | General education | Set of required breadth courses, in subjects such as writing, mathematics, sciences, arts and social sciences, that all undergraduates must complete regardless of major. |
| GPA | Grade point average | Numerical summary of academic performance, calculated by converting letter grades to points (usually A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 0), weighting each by credit hours… |
| GSI | Graduate student instructor | Title used by the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan and a few other universities for graduate students who teach sections or courses… |
| GTA | Graduate teaching assistant | Graduate student employed to support or independently teach undergraduate courses, typically as part of a funded assistantship. |
| HBCU | Historically Black college or university | US institution established before 1964 whose principal mission was the education of Black Americans, as defined by the Higher Education Act of 1965. |
| HE | Higher education | Education at universities and colleges beyond secondary school, leading to degrees, diplomas and other qualifications at level 4 and above in the UK framework. |
| HEI | Higher education institution | Formal term, especially in the UK, Europe and international policy documents, for any university or college that awards degrees or other higher education qualifications. |
| HLC | Higher Learning Commission | Largest US institutional accreditor, covering degree-granting colleges and universities in 19 states across the Midwest, Great Plains and Southwest, from Arizona to… |
| HSI | Hispanic-Serving Institution | US college or university at which Hispanic students make up at least 25 percent of full-time-equivalent undergraduate enrollment, making it eligible for federal grants… |
| I-20 | Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status (Form I-20) | Document issued by a SEVP-certified US school to an admitted international student, confirming enrollment and finances. |
| IACUC | Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee | Committee that reviews and oversees research and teaching involving vertebrate animals at a university or research institution, approving protocols and inspecting… |
| IDR | Income-driven repayment | Family of US federal student loan repayment plans that set monthly payments as a share of discretionary income, with any balance left after 20 to 25 years forgiven. |
| IFC | Interfraternity Council | Governing council for the general social fraternities on a college campus, usually those affiliated with the North American Interfraternity Conference. |
| IRB | Institutional review board | Committee that reviews and monitors research involving human participants to protect their rights and welfare, approving protocols, consent forms and recruitment… |
| ISIR | Institutional Student Information Record | Electronic record of a student's processed FAFSA data that the US Department of Education sends to each college listed on the form. |
| J-1 | J-1 exchange visitor visa | US visa for participants in State Department-designated exchange programs, including students, research scholars, professors, physicians in training, au pairs and… |
| JIF | Journal Impact Factor | Metric published annually by Clarivate in its Journal Citation Reports, calculated as citations in a given year to a journal's items from the previous two years… |
| LAC | Liberal arts college | Small, usually residential undergraduate college that emphasizes broad education in the humanities, sciences and social sciences, small classes and close contact with… |
| LCME | Liaison Committee on Medical Education | Accrediting body for programs leading to the MD degree in the United States, sponsored jointly by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical… |
| LLC | Living-learning community | Residence hall program in which students with a shared academic interest or theme, such as engineering, honors, sustainability or a language, live together and take… |
| LMS | Learning management system | Software that hosts, delivers and tracks training, from compliance courses and onboarding modules to certifications, and reports completion data to managers and auditors. |
| LOCI | Letter of continued interest | Letter sent by a waitlisted or deferred applicant to a college or graduate program to confirm continued interest, update accomplishments and, if true, state that the… |
| LOR | Letter of recommendation | Letter from a teacher, counselor, professor or supervisor assessing an applicant's abilities and character, required by most selective colleges, graduate programs… |
| MLA | Modern Language Association style | Citation style used in literature, languages and the humanities, especially in US high schools and colleges. |
| MOOC | Massive open online course | Online course open to large numbers of learners, often free to audit, offered through platforms such as Coursera, edX and FutureLearn by universities and companies. |
| MPN | Master Promissory Note | Legal agreement in which a student or parent promises to repay federal student loans and agrees to their terms. |
| MSCHE | Middle States Commission on Higher Education | Institutional accreditor for colleges and universities in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands… |
| MSI | Minority-serving institution | Umbrella term for US colleges that receive federal designation because of their history or the share of minority students they enroll, including HBCUs, Hispanic-Serving… |
| MWF | Monday, Wednesday, Friday | A common US college and high school schedule pattern for courses that meet three times a week, typically in 50-minute periods. |
| NECHE | New England Commission of Higher Education | Institutional accreditor for colleges and universities in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, including Harvard, MIT and Yale. |
| NPC | Net price calculator | Online tool, required on the website of every US college that participates in federal student aid, that estimates what a particular family would pay after grants and… |
| NPHC | National Pan-Hellenic Council | Umbrella organization founded in 1930 at Howard University for the nine historically Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities, known as the Divine Nine. |
| NTT | Non-tenure-track | Faculty positions without eligibility for tenure, including lecturers, instructors, clinical faculty, professors of practice, research faculty and adjuncts. |
| NWCCU | Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities | Institutional accreditor for colleges and universities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. |
| OA | Open access | Publishing model in which research articles are freely available online to anyone, rather than behind journal subscriptions. "Gold" OA publishes openly in journals… |
| OER | Open educational resources | Teaching and learning materials, such as textbooks, courses, videos and assessments, that are freely available and openly licensed so others can reuse, adapt and… |
| OOS | Out-of-state | Tuition rate and residency status for students attending a public college outside their home state, usually far higher than the in-state rate. |
| OPT | Optional Practical Training | US work authorization for F-1 students that allows up to 12 months of employment related to their field of study, usually after graduation. |
| ORCID | Open Researcher and Contributor ID | Free, persistent 16-digit identifier for researchers that links them to their publications, grants and affiliations, distinguishing people with similar names. |
| P&T | Promotion and tenure | Review process in which a faculty member's record of research, teaching and service is evaluated by department, college and university committees to decide on tenure… |
| P/F | Pass/fail | Grading option in which a course is recorded only as passed or failed, with no letter grade, so it does not affect the GPA unless failed under some policies. |
| PG | Postgraduate | British and Commonwealth shorthand for study after a first degree, such as master's degrees, diplomas and doctorates, and for the students undertaking it. |
| PI | Principal investigator | Scientist or scholar who leads a research project and holds primary responsibility for its design, conduct, budget, compliance and reporting to the funding agency. |
| PLA | Prior learning assessment | Process by which colleges award credit for college-level learning gained through work, military service, training or independent study, using exams, portfolios or… |
| PLUS | Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students | Federal loan program allowing parents of dependent undergraduates (Parent PLUS) and, historically, graduate students (Grad PLUS) to borrow up to the cost of attendance… |
| PS | Personal statement | Admissions essay in which applicants describe experiences, motivations and character, such as the Common App essay of up to 650 words for US colleges or the personal… |
| PSLF | Public Service Loan Forgiveness | Program that forgives remaining federal Direct Loan balances, tax-free, after 120 qualifying monthly payments made while working full time for a government agency or… |
| PWI | Predominantly white institution | Informal term for a US college or university where white students have historically made up the majority of enrollment, used mainly in contrast with HBCUs and other… |
| QPA | Quality point average | Alternative name for the grade point average used by some American universities, such as Carnegie Mellon, and many high schools. |
| R01 | Research Project Grant (NIH R01) | Flagship investigator-initiated grant mechanism of the US National Institutes of Health, typically funding a project for up to five years. |
| R1 | Doctoral universities with very high research spending and doctorate production (Carnegie Classification) | Top research category in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. |
| R2 | Doctoral universities with high research spending and doctorate production (Carnegie Classification) | Second-tier research category in the Carnegie Classification. |
| RA | Resident assistant | Student, usually an upperclassman, who lives in a college residence hall and supports residents by building community, enforcing policies, mediating conflicts and… |
| RCR | Responsible conduct of research | Training in research ethics, covering topics such as data management, authorship, peer review, conflicts of interest, mentoring and research misconduct. |
| RD | Regular decision | Standard admissions round, with deadlines usually between January 1 and January 15 for selective colleges, and decisions released in March or early April. |
| REA | Restrictive early action | Non-binding early application plan in which students apply early to one private college and agree not to apply early to other private schools, though public… |
| ROTC | Reserve Officers' Training Corps | College program that trains students to become commissioned officers in the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force while they earn a bachelor's degree. |
| RSO | Registered student organization | Club or group officially recognized by a university, giving it access to campus rooms, funding, websites and recruitment fairs. |
| SACSCOC | Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges | Institutional accreditor for degree-granting colleges and universities in 11 southern states, from Virginia to Texas, and some institutions abroad. |
| SAI | Student Aid Index | Number calculated from FAFSA information that colleges use to determine eligibility for need-based federal aid, replacing the Expected Family Contribution starting with… |
| SAP | Satisfactory Academic Progress | Federal requirement that students maintain minimum standards to keep receiving financial aid, typically a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0, completion of about two-thirds… |
| SAR | Student Aid Report | Summary of FAFSA information that the US Department of Education sent to students after processing, showing their eligibility index and any problems. |
| SCEA | Single-choice early action | Early application plan used by Yale and Princeton that is non-binding but limits applicants to that single private early application, with exceptions for some public… |
| SEVIS | Student and Exchange Visitor Information System | US Department of Homeland Security database that tracks international students and exchange visitors in F, M and J status, including enrollment, address, employment and… |
| SGA | Student Government Association | Elected student body that represents students to the administration, allocates student activity fees to clubs and advocates on campus issues. |
| SIS | Student information system | Software that schools and colleges use to manage enrollment, registration, schedules, grades, transcripts, attendance and student records. |
| SLAC | Small liberal arts college | Informal term, common in academic job markets and college admissions forums, for a selective undergraduate-focused liberal arts college with a few thousand students or… |
| SOP | Statement of purpose | Essay for graduate school applications that explains an applicant's academic background, research interests, career goals and reasons for choosing a particular program… |
| TA | Teaching assistant | Graduate student, or sometimes an advanced undergraduate, who helps run a course by leading discussion or lab sections, grading, holding office hours and answering… |
| TAG | Transfer Admission Guarantee | Agreement offered by six University of California campuses (Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz) that guarantees admission to California… |
| TCU | Tribal college or university | College chartered by a federally recognized American Indian tribe or created by Congress to serve Native American students, usually located on or near reservations. |
| TT | Tenure-track | Faculty position that carries eligibility for tenure after a probationary period, usually about six years, culminating in a review of research, teaching and service. |
| TTh | Tuesday and Thursday | Course schedule code for classes that meet on Tuesday and Thursday, usually in 75- or 80-minute blocks. |
| UCAS | Universities and Colleges Admissions Service | Charity that runs the central application system for undergraduate study in the UK. |
| UG | Undergraduate | Shorthand, common in British, Indian and international university documents, for undergraduate (bachelor's-level) study or students. |
| URM | Underrepresented minority | Term used in US higher education for racial and ethnic groups whose share of students or faculty is smaller than their share of the population, typically Black… |
| VAP | Visiting assistant professor | Temporary full-time faculty appointment, usually one to three years, often held by new PhDs before landing a tenure-track job or by schools covering sabbaticals and… |
| VLE | Virtual learning environment | British and European term for an online platform such as Moodle, Blackboard or Canvas through which a school or university provides course materials, assignments… |
| WSCUC | WASC Senior College and University Commission | Institutional accreditor for four-year colleges and universities in California, Hawaii and the Pacific islands, including Stanford, the University of California… |
| WUE | Western Undergraduate Exchange | Tuition savings program run by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) that lets students from participating western states and territories… |