First Year Student versus Freshman
 

Does your college or university say "first year student" instead of Freshman?

Did your college eliminate freshman/sophomore/junior/senior as classifications entirely?

I feel like my college did this officially, but we all colloquially stick with the traditional classifications.

My school says "first year students" because a lot of people here don't fit nicely into a class standing although we still have the Freshman (0-29), Sophomore (30-59), Junior (60-89), and Senior (90+) standings.

I'm curious whether they use the term "first year student" to include 1) kids who have enough college credits when they start from AP or Community College credits to technically qualify as Sophs, even though they are 18 and in their first year of college and 2) transfer students who are FIRST year to that school, but perhaps Juniors or Sophs in credits.

I am assuming yes on number one, no on number two.

At my college it depends on what your degree program is, like I'm in my second year of college which obviously makes me a sophomore, but it's my first year in the Architecture program so I'm referred to as a first year architecture student. I guess that's a yes and a no? lol

At my school, "first year student" is usually reserved for students in their first year at LTU with less than 30 credits and then "Transfer student" refers to other people who transferred in with more than 30 credits in their first year at LTU.

If traditional classifications are eliminated by a college, do the credit ranges that were previously associated with the traditional classifications then transfer over to the new classifications? Or is it an entirely different concept?

My university used freshman/ sophomore, but medical school and residency used first year/second year, etc. The weird thing is that their is no way to be in between years as a medical school student or resident. You don't have hours or credits.

My school uses freshman, sophomore, etc. even officially. When I log into my school account it says "Class Standing: Senior".

A co-worker's school referred to the students as first year, second year, etc. It made me laugh cause it reminded me of Harry Potter :D

Technically anyone who is starting at my university for the first time (regardless of AP credits) is termed a "first year student". At least, that's the p.c. way of saying it. I still say freshmen a lot, though. The reasoning behind this is that the term "freshman" came from the idea that these students were "fresh men", straight out of high school. The would denote that 1. all students in colleges and universities today are men and 2. that they are all 17 or 18 years old when they start school. Because this trend has obviously changed (ex: the fact that Penn State is 45% female now as well as the fact that the average age of a first year college student is getting older as time passes) the school wants to try to remove the use of this word due to prejudicial connotations. That's the explanation I was given, anyway. Also, in technical terms we are to be referred to thereafter by semester standing, as this is more precise term in most cases (as it refers to number of credits earned versus the actual number of years you have been here/have remaining).

I actually remember people using the term "freshperson." :rolleyes:

Another PC piece of poo that people will laugh at and never use in daily life.

I think the reason med school/law school use first year etc is because the program itself is pretty rigidly scheduled and full of prerequisites. That's the impression I get, anyway.

My school still uses Freshman, etc. because there aren't many "fifth year" students - as a private school almost everyone graduates in four years. For first year students who enter with college credit from AP and such, they are classified according to their credits standing, which would be either Freshman or Sophomore. Therefore, some first-year, recently graduated high school students enter as sophomores. But for purposes of policies that extend to all first year students - such as mandatory on-campus housing - they would still refer to them as first-year students.

i believe NYU uses the term to encompass both, with more emphasis on the first one. when it comes to student activities/residence life, the 2nd didnt apply as transfers were not typically eligible for first-year housing. i feel two different ways about it: a transfer could come from a school mid-year, only having one semester under their belt, and their college experience could still be "fresh." a year out is a little different, and that person probably wouldnt want to live with a freshman. another first-year, perhaps.

i bet more thought is given to this being that NYU is a revolving door of transfer students.

Freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior here.

Do not say "first-year." This is not UVA, you will be corrected.

In undergrad, we were Freshmen. In grad school, we were first-year students.

(this was true when I attended a couple of years ago) At UCLA, undergrad students generally use the terms "First year" , "second year", etc. to eliminate the annoying caveat "...with sophomore/junior/senior standing" whenever you're asked what year in school you are.

As a first year/freshman, everyone starts out by saying "I'm a freshman with sophomore standing", because everyone is so darn proud of those AP units.

I have no idea if the school officially uses those terms.

An undergrad is a freshman, a sophomore, a junior, a senior, or a super-senior. Being a super-senior is not uncommon, and not a stigma - it usually means you're double majoring, you're pursuing a combined bachelor's/master's in a five-year program, or you switched majors after your sophomore year and had to take the core classes for your new major after spending your soph year taking core classes for your original major.

A graduate student is a <insert ordinal number>-year grad student.

what's REALLY annoying is schools who use "lower/upper" designations. its really annoying. i don't know if it's a CUNY thing but Brooklyn College uses it and it drives me crazy. if you tell me youre a senior but arent graduating for 3 semesters... then congrats, buddy. youre a junior! have a seat.

Most law schools refer to students as 1Ls, 2Ls and 3Ls, not first/second/third years. You might refer to your first year of law school (as opposed to your 1L year), but during your first year, you are a 1L.

That said, I think there still may be a few schools out there that use the older terms (dating from when law schools usually awarded LL.B. degrees, which is technically a bachelor's degree, rather than J.D. degrees) -- Juniors, Middlers and Seniors.

We used "first-year," and then the usual sophomore, junior, and senior titles. Because my school didn't really accept AP credit (just for placement in classes), and only looked at IB credit after the sophomore year, there weren't people running around saying how they had sophomore standing as first-years. I only know a handful of people who actually took the IB credit (a year of credit was offered).

I really liked college. :) Or, at least my college.

I had lots of AP and other credits and sure wish I hadn't used them! If I'd have taken the classes instead of used the credits, I'd have had that many A's to add to my GPA!

Some people tried to run around saying "I'm a junior in years but a sophomore in credits because I changed my major" or "I'm a freshman with sophomore standing." but for the most part, people were freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, etc.. I started as a second semester freshman (in credits) but I did not call myself a sophomore my second semester there.

Of course, I still registered with the sophomores, because it went by number of credits. As a student in the Honors program, I also got to register early. I never worried about not getting the classes I wanted.

Is this really a problem? Do people not get into classes they want? How does that impact required classes for graduation?

In college, the only class I didn't get into was a grad-level class that was capped at like 8 people so they really weren't letting undergrads in. My graduate program was small enough that everyone got the classes they wanted.

YES.

When I was an undergrad, they gave graduating senior preference, followed by "regular" seniors, then juniors, etc. If a class filled up, you either took it at a shitty time or in a different semester.

I knew the dean of the college of business, though, so I was able to get myself into the full classes anyway.

It didn't happen to me but to a lot of my friends. It started happening to me in grad school, but professors didn't have much of a problem signing students into their already full classes, especially because they knew there were a lot of us who liked to shop around during add/drop period and it would all even out in the end.

I was under the understanding that it was a fairly common problem.

As was I.

It was the same way for me in undergrad, except everyone registered according to the number of credits they had. For example, those with 100 credits could schedule on Dec 2, those with 95 credits on Dec 4, and so on.

And yes, it happened to me a couple of times. But I would usually talk to the professor, and they would sign me into the class. And I never heard of anyone not being able to graduate on time because they didn't get a class they needed in their final semester or anything like that.