Glossary
College search & admissions glossary
Plain-English definitions for every college-search and admissions term — from sticker price and net price to FAFSA, Common App, holistic review, and IPEDS. Each definition links back to its primary federal source where applicable, and explains how CampusPin uses the field on school profiles.
Cost & affordability
Tuition, net price, COA, and the dollar concepts that drive the actual price of college.
Sticker price
The published total cost of attendance (tuition, fees, room, and board) before any financial aid is applied.
Net price
What a family actually pays out-of-pocket after grants and scholarships are subtracted from the sticker price.
Cost of attendance (COA)
The federal government's standardized estimate of one academic year's total cost at a college, including direct and indirect expenses.
Tuition
The annual fee a college charges for instruction itself — separate from room, board, fees, and other costs of attendance.
In-state tuition
The lower tuition rate that public universities charge residents of the state in which the school is located.
Out-of-state tuition
The higher tuition rate public universities charge students who are not legal residents of the school's state.
Admissions
How colleges decide who gets in, when decisions release, and what selectivity numbers mean.
Acceptance rate
The percentage of applicants admitted to a college in a given year, calculated as admitted students divided by total applicants.
Yield rate
The percentage of admitted students who actually enroll. A high yield signals strong perceived value relative to alternatives.
Demonstrated interest
A signal a school tracks to gauge how likely an admitted student is to enroll — visits, emails, info-sessions, and application-essay specificity.
Holistic review
An admissions process that weighs essays, recommendations, activities, and context alongside grades and test scores instead of using a strict numeric formula.
Early Decision (ED)
A binding early-application option: if admitted, the student must withdraw all other applications and enroll.
Early Action (EA)
A non-binding early-application option that lets students apply early and hear back early without committing to attend.
Restrictive Early Action (REA / SCEA)
A non-binding early option that restricts where else the applicant can apply early — typically barring other private-school early applications.
Regular Decision
The standard application timeline: apply by January 1–15, hear back by late March or early April, choose by May 1.
Rolling admissions
An admissions process where applications are reviewed as they arrive and decisions are released continuously — usually within 4–8 weeks.
Test-optional
An admissions policy under which applicants choose whether to submit SAT or ACT scores. Scores still help when strong but don't hurt when omitted.
Test-blind
An admissions policy under which SAT/ACT scores are NOT considered, even if submitted. The University of California system is the largest test-blind block.
Test-required
An admissions policy that requires SAT or ACT scores from every applicant. After the COVID-era pause, several elite schools reinstated this in 2024–2025.
Financial aid
FAFSA, grants, loans, work-study, and the path from sticker price to net price.
FAFSA
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid — the U.S. government form every undergraduate must file to access federal grants, loans, and work-study.
CSS Profile
A more detailed need-based aid form, separate from FAFSA, used by ~250 selective private colleges to award their own institutional aid.
Expected Family Contribution (EFC) / Student Aid Index (SAI)
A federal calculation of how much a family is expected to pay for one year of college. Replaced by the Student Aid Index in the 2024–2025 simplified FAFSA.
Pell Grant
The largest need-based federal grant for undergraduates. Awarded based on FAFSA results; does not need to be repaid.
Subsidized Direct Loan
A federal student loan for undergraduates with demonstrated need. The government pays the interest while the student is in school.
Unsubsidized Direct Loan
A federal student loan available regardless of need. Interest accrues from the moment the loan is disbursed.
Federal Work-Study
A federal program that funds part-time on-campus or community-service jobs for students with financial need.
Merit aid
Scholarships awarded based on academic, athletic, artistic, or leadership achievement — not financial need.
Need-blind admissions
An admissions policy in which the applicant's ability to pay is not considered in the admit/deny decision.
Meets full demonstrated need
A school commitment to fund 100 % of the calculated gap between cost of attendance and the family's expected contribution.
Institutional aid
Grants and scholarships paid by the college itself, separate from federal Pell, state grants, or outside private scholarships.
Application platforms
Common App, Coalition, supplemental essays, and the platforms students apply through.
Common Application (Common App)
A single online undergraduate application accepted by 1,000+ U.S. colleges, including most selective private schools and many publics.
Coalition Application
A second consolidated undergraduate application platform, smaller than Common App, used by about 150 schools that emphasize affordability and access.
"Why us?" essay
A short supplemental essay asking why an applicant wants to attend a specific school — judged largely on specificity to that school.
Academics & majors
Majors, minors, double majors, degree types, and how transfer credit works.
Major
A student's primary field of academic study — typically 30–60 credit hours of required courses plus electives.
Minor
A secondary academic concentration, usually 15–24 credits, that complements but doesn't replace a major.
Double major
Completing the degree requirements for two separate majors at the same time, awarded as one degree.
Undergraduate degree types
AA, AS, AAS, BA, BS, BFA, BBA, BSN — the standard credentials awarded by U.S. community colleges and 4-year universities.
General education ("Gen Ed")
A required spread of courses across humanities, sciences, social sciences, math, and writing — outside the student's major.
Transfer pathway
A planned path from one college (often a community college) to another (often a 4-year university) with credit-transfer agreements.
Articulation agreement
A formal contract between two schools (typically community college → 4-year university) that pre-approves specific course transfers.
Institution types
Community colleges, liberal arts colleges, research universities, HBCUs, and other categories.
Community college
A public 2-year institution offering associate degrees, certificates, and transfer pathways to 4-year universities — typically with the lowest tuition in the country.
Liberal arts college
A small undergraduate-focused 4-year college emphasizing breadth, small classes, faculty-led teaching, and the liberal-arts disciplines.
Research university (R1 / R2)
A university with significant doctoral programs and high research activity. Carnegie classifies the largest as R1; the next tier as R2.
HBCU (Historically Black College or University)
A U.S. college historically founded to serve African-American students before 1964 — about 100 institutions hold this designation.
Minority-Serving Institution (MSI)
A federally designated category for colleges that serve a significant proportion of students from a specific underrepresented minority group.
Data & methodology
IPEDS, Scorecard, Clery — the federal sources behind every fact on a CampusPin profile.
IPEDS
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System — the federal system that collects standardized data from every U.S. college that participates in federal aid.
College Scorecard
A free U.S. Department of Education dataset of college costs, outcomes, and student-aid debt — built on IPEDS plus Treasury earnings data.
Clery Act campus security report
A federally mandated annual report of campus crime statistics published by every U.S. college that participates in federal aid.