Every profession, activity, or area of interest has its own jargon or set of specialized vocabulary. College is no different. College staff, faculty members and students develop a set of short-hand terms that can be confusing to those not familiar with them. As a college parent, you may be surprised at how quickly your college student will pick up the lingo.
It’s easy to start to feel left out.
If your college student slips into ”college-speak” and you don’t understand what she is talking about — ask! But if you want to be able to at least begin to talk-the-talk, we’re here to help you get started.
We’ve just added a new feature to the College Parent Central website — a glossary of terms to help you understand the lingo — and talk college! You’ll find the glossary page in the navigation area in the left sidebar of the site.
We’ve included 45 generally used college terms to get you started, and we’ll be adding more in the next few months. We hope that having some of the language of college in hand will help you talk to your student about her college world.
Please remember that there may be some variation in the use of these terms at various institutions.
Don’t be intimidated by college terminology or ”lingo”. If you’re not sure what something means, ask! You’ll be ”talking college” before you know it.
Feel free to leave a comment here if there are more terms you think we should include — or other features you’d like to see on the College Parent Central website to help you in your college parent role.
