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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).
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