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Academic Calendar: The official listing of important dates relative to semester/term start and end dates, deadlines, and holidays.
Academic Load: The total number of semester hours for which a student is registered in one semester or summer term.
Academic Record: A history of all of the courses and other equivalent activities a student has taken and the grades they have received. See also TRANSCRIPT.
Academic Year: The period composed of Fall and Spring semesters.
Accreditation: The process of evaluating the academic qualifications or standards of an institution or program of study in accordance with preestablished criteria. Such accreditation is provided by one of the regional accrediting commissions of the various associations of schools and colleges for the institution or by an appropriate national association for a specific area. Most areas of study do not have accrediting agencies.
Advanced Placement: Approved admittance into a course beyond entry level as a result of demonstrated subject proficiency.
Advanced Standing: A procedure by which a student not formally enrolled in a course may receive credit for the course by passing a departmentally administered test on the subject.
Advisor: A member of the University faculty or staff charged with the responsibility of interpreting academic requirements, developing course schedules, providing personal, academic, or career information, and monitoring adjustment to college and academic progress.
Approved Elective: Course selected by the student and approved by his/her Dean or designated advisor for the student’s degree program, frequently from a restricted list of options.
Area of Concentration: The primary content areas of study in the Bachelor of General Studies degree program, not a major.
Articulation Agreement: Document that identifies courses that may be taken at one institution for degree completion at another institution.
Audit: To enroll in a course without the intention of receiving academic credit.
Auditor: A student who is officially enrolled in one or more courses for no credits.
Classification: A means of identifying the student by year of study and by course load. See FRESHMAN, SOPHOMORE, JUNIOR, SENIOR, GRADUATE STUDENT, FULL-TIME STUDENT, PART-TIME STUDENT, AUDITOR.
College: At LSUS, one of three major academic divisions within the University that offers specialized curricula.
Concentration: An alternative track of courses within a Major or Option, accounting for at least 30% of the Major requirements. Concentrations may be instituted by the affected system and campus without prior approval by the Board of Regents.
Core Requirements: See GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS.
Corequisite: A course that must be taken during the same semester/term as another course.
Course: A prescribed unit of study or instruction (credit or non-credit) that is normally presented through a series of scheduled meetings of a class.
Course Load: The number of semester hours a student schedules in a given term.
Course Number: A three-digit system used to identify each course within an academic area. The first digit identifies the level of the course: 1 for Freshman, 2 for Sophomore, 3 for Junior, 4 for Senior, and those 5 and above for graduate-level courses. The last two digits are the unique identifiers for each course at the assigned level.
Credit: The unit of measure awarded for the successful completion of coursework. A minimum of 120 semester hours is required in each bachelor’s degree curriculum.
Credit Hours: The quantitative measure given to a course as stated in semester hours. See SEMESTER HOUR.
Cumulative Grade Point Average: A student’s grade point average for all college work based on the total number of quality points earned and the total number of semester hours attempted. See GRADE POINT AVERAGE.
Curriculum: A program of courses comprising the formal requirements for a degree in a particular field of study.
Curriculum Sheet: A check sheet used by advisors to track the student’s progress towards completion of a degree program.
Degree Plan: An evaluation, usually made no later than the beginning of the Junior year by the student and advisor, of academic work completed and courses required for graduation.
Department: An instructional division within a college, such as Department of English and Foreign Languages in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Division of Continuing Education and Public Service: An administrative unit that offers noncredit courses on campus and throughout the Ark-La-Tex, as well as arranges for off-campus credit courses.
Drop: Official withdrawal from a course while the student is still enrolled in other courses. A student’s failure to attend class does not itself constitute dropping that course.
Elective: Course chosen by the student, or by the student and designated advisor, as opposed to a required course. The term “elective,” without a qualifier, will be understood to be a free elective, chosen by the student at his/her option from all the courses offered by the University for degree credit, with due regard for prerequisites.
Enrollment Guide: A publication coordinated by the Office of Admissions and Records that includes information about registration, the final examination schedule, and the academic calendar.
Equivalent: Credit in a comparable course or adequate preparation by other experience.
Freshman: A student with fewer than 30 semester hours of credit earned.
Full-time Student: An undergraduate student enrolled for 12 or more hours of resident credit in a regular semester or 6 or more hours of resident credit in a Summer term or a graduate student enrolled in 9 or more hours of resident credit in a regular semester or 6 or more hours of resident credit in a Summer term.
General Education Requirements: Courses and other requirements that must be met by all candidates for any bachelor’s degree.
Good Standing: A status assumed or stated that a student is eligible to continue at or return to an institution unless noted otherwise.
Grade Point Average (GPA): A mathematical measurement of academic performance, computed by multiplying quality points by credit hours for courses in a semester, a major, or a total program; adding them; and dividing the sum by semester hours attempted.
Grade Points: See QUALITY POINTS.
Graduate Student: A student who has received a baccalaureate degree and has been officially admitted to graduate study.
Independent Study: A method of instruction in which studies by individual students are carried on with a minimum of external guidance.
Junior: A student with at least 60 semester hours of credit.
Lower Level: Freshman- and Sophomore-level courses at LSUS that begin with a 1 or 2.
Major: Primary field of study. There is no “major” in the General Studies program. See AREA OF CONCENTRATION.
Matriculation: The state of being registered for coursework.
Minor: The student’s field of secondary academic emphasis.
No Preference: The state of being registered for credit and working towards a degree but undecided yet as to a major.
Part-time Student: An undergraduate student enrolled in fewer than 12 hours of resident credit in a regular semester or fewer than 6 hours of resident credit in a Summer term or a graduate student enrolled in fewer than 9 hours of resident credit in a regular semester or fewer than 6 hours of resident credit in a Summer term.
Prerequisite: Requirement to be met before a certain course may be taken. May be in the form of specific coursework or approval of the department chair in instances where “consent of the department” is required.
Probation (academic or disciplinary): A status assigned because of unsatisfactory grades or conduct.
Quality Point: Numerical value assigned to each letter grade when given as the final grade in a course, which provides a basis for determination of a grade point average. At LSUS, A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, and F=0. In a three-credit hour course, a B, or 3, is multiplied by 3; a C, or 2, is multiplied by 3; etc.
Re-entry Student: An LSUS student who returns to take additional coursework, and who has remained out of school one or more semesters (Fall and/or Spring).
Residency: (1) Source of courses studied: To earn a degree from LSUS, a student must successfully complete a minimum number of the final hours of academic work through LSUS course offerings. (See SEMESTER HOUR REQUIREMENTS for more information.) (2) Residency status: Determined by location of a student’s official domicile and other factors and is used as a basis for determining tuition charges.
Resignation: The official process by which a student withdraws from all courses during a university semester or summer term. The withdrawal is usually initiated by the student, but may be done in certain instances by university personnel. See also DROP.
Section: Specific designation (beyond the course number) of each course offering that distinguishes room location, meeting time, and instructor.
Selected Topics Course: A course whose subject matter may vary from semester to semester; it may include current or special topics. The instruction may be by seminar, lecture, or some other method.
Semester Hour: The unit by which coursework is measured. The number of semester hours assigned to a lecture course usually is determined by the number of hours the class meets per week.
Seminar: A method of instruction in which a group of students engaged in research or advanced study meets under the guidance of one or more faculty members of the University for presentation and discussion of approved topics.
Senior: A student with at least 90 semester hours of credit earned.
Sophomore: A student with at least 30 semester hours of credit earned.
Special Topics: A term describing possible subject matter in selected topics courses or in other course types.
Student Number: A nine-digit computer-generated number to be used in place of the student’s social security number.
Student Schedule: The section of courses in which a student is enrolled.
Suspension (academic or disciplinary): A University-assigned status that prohibits students from registering for courses for a specified period of time. See also PROBATION.
Transcript: The continuous, formal, and official record of a student’s academic work at a university. See also ACADEMIC RECORD.
Transfer Student: A student who terminates enrollment in another college or university and subsequently enrolls at LSUS.
Trial Schedule: A form used to indicate a student’s preliminary schedule that is developed as a result of a meeting between the student and his/her academic advisor.
Undergraduate Certificate: An undergraduate credential consisting of at least 18 credit hours, at least half of which must be upper-level. Certificate programs must be approved by the Board of Regents.
Upper-Level: Courses offered at the Junior and Senior levels designated by a course number beginning with a 3 or 4. Students who have not satisfactorily completed 60 hours are generally prohibited from enrolling in courses at this level.
Upper Classman: Any undergraduate who is classified as a Junior or Senior.
Withdrawal: See RESIGNATION.
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