Academic advisor: A faculty or professional staff member dedicated to helping your student plan term schedules, choose a major, and graduate on time.

Bachelor of Arts (BA): Students can earn this four-year degree when they successfully complete their major requirements and demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language at the level earned after a minimum of two years of university-level work.

Bachelor of Science (BS): Students can earn this four-year degree when they successfully complete their major requirements and one year of college-level math or CIS courses, unless otherwise designated by the major.

Course Catalog: This contains full descriptions of each of the academic programs and classes offered by the university. The full catalog is available online.

College or school: A smaller unit within the larger university. Colleges or schools cover broad subject departments such as the School of Music and Dance, the College of Education, or the College of Arts and Sciences.

Course Registration Number (CRN): The CRN is a five-digit number that is specific to each class offered at the UO. Students will register for classes by entering a CRN for each class they wish to enroll in on the Class Registration Menu on their DuckWeb accounts.

Credits: Each class at the UO is worth different amounts of credit. Classes generally range from 1 to 4 credits. Students earn credit toward graduation when they pass any class offered by the university.

Degree audit: Each student has a Degree Audit on their DuckWeb account. It contains information on classes for which they have earned credit and other classes they may need to take in order to fulfill their major.

Emergency alerts: The UO Police Department sends notifications to students and all Parent and Family Association (PFA) members when an emergency occurs. They contain information regarding any emergency situations that UOPD may have had to address during that day or the night beforehand. These are issued to inform students about incidents or trends in campus safety and are accompanied by crime prevention tips and resources. PFA members receive these alerts, so that they are aware of what is happening on campus.

FAFSA: The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a form that current and prospective students can fill out yearly to help them determine their eligibility for financial aid.

FERPA: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a law regarding parents’ and families’ rights concerning their student’s educational records. These rights transfer to the student either at age 18 or whenever they enroll in a post-secondary institution.

Full-time student: A student taking 12 or more credits per term.

Grade Point Average (GPA): A numerical measure on a 4 point scale of a student’s overall academic performance, calculated using their course grades.

Graduate Teaching Fellows (GTFs): Graduate students at the university who also teach and aid in many classes.

Greek life: Otherwise known as Fraternity and Sorority Life. This group encompasses all UO affiliated fraternities and sororities.

Major: A student’s main focus of study. The university offers up to 77 majors.

Meal plans: Meal plans operate on a point system loaded weekly onto a student’s UO ID card. This is not optional for students choosing to live in the residence halls. Students may choose to spend their points at any of the university’s nine dining venues.

Minor: The UO offers 65 different minors. Minors create an additional way for students to include different areas of focus within their degree.

Registrar: This office is responsible for academic and classroom scheduling, student registration, enrollment verification, grading and academic records maintenance, transfer credit articulation, degree audits, monitoring undergraduate general education requirements, degree awarding, course evaluations, student data/statistical analysis, veterans benefits, FERPA compliance, and transcript services.

Resident Assistants (RAs): All RAs are students at the university who live in the residence halls and serve as resources for residence hall students.

Syllabus: A syllabus contains information about a course’s content and a schedule of assignments and midterm and final exams. It may also include details of the instructor’s expectations or grading criteria.

Transcript: Transcripts consist of data about students’ grades and grade point average. Students are required to send their high school transcripts to the UO as part of the application process.