Glossary

Credit Evaluation Terms, Defined Plainly

From ACE recommendations to reverse transfer: short, accurate definitions of the terms registrars, admissions teams and veteran services offices use every day.

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32 terms

ACE credit recommendation

A recommendation from the American Council on Education about how much college credit a military course, occupation or workplace training program is worth, including level (lower- or upper-division), subject area and semester hours. Institutions decide whether and how to award the credit.

Articulation agreement

A formal agreement between two institutions that specifies how courses or whole programs from one transfer to the other. Agreements reduce credit loss when they are applied consistently on every transcript.

Audit trail

A permanent record of how a decision was made: the evidence reviewed, the rule applied, any recommendation and the person who approved it. In credit evaluation it supports appeals, accreditation and compliance reviews.

CCAF transcript

The transcript issued by the Community College of the Air Force, which documents training and education for Air Force and Space Force members. These branches are not covered by the Joint Services Transcript.

CLEP and DSST

Standardized exams that let students earn college credit by demonstrating knowledge. CLEP is offered by the College Board; DSST by Prometric. Institutions set the passing scores and credit they accept.

Core IMPACTS (Georgia)

The University System of Georgia’s general education curriculum: 42 credit hours across seven areas. Credit completed in an area at one USG institution counts in the same area at another, even when courses are not identical.

Course equivalency

A decision that a course taken at another institution counts as a specific course in your catalog. Courses without a direct equivalent may count as general education or elective credit, or not at all.

Credential evaluation (NACES)

A report that translates a foreign academic record into its U.S. equivalent. Members of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services, such as WES and ECE, produce these reports.

Credit for prior learning (CPL)

College credit awarded for learning gained outside a classroom, such as work experience, certifications, military training, exams or a portfolio. Also called prior learning assessment (PLA).

Credit loss

Credits a transfer student earned that do not apply toward a degree at the receiving institution. Lost credit adds time and cost; GAO estimated an average 43% loss for transfers in its 2017 study.

DD-214

The Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty. It summarizes a service member’s record and is often used alongside the JST to verify military training.

Degree audit

A report that compares a student’s completed and transferred courses with the requirements of their degree program. Common systems include DegreeWorks and uAchieve.

EDI and PESC XML transcripts

Electronic transcript standards used to exchange academic records between institutions. EDI (SPEEDE) and PESC XML can be processed without manual data entry.

FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the U.S. law that protects the privacy of student education records and limits who may see them without consent.

First-year (freshman) applicant

A student applying to college for the first time from high school, a homeschool program or a GED. Their transcripts are high school records, not college credit.

Georgia Dual Enrollment

Georgia’s program, formerly Move On When Ready, that lets high school students take college courses for credit, with tuition paid by the Georgia Student Finance Commission. The college credit must be evaluated when the student enrolls elsewhere.

GPA standardization

Converting grade point averages from different scales (such as 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 or 100-point) to one institutional scale using a documented formula, so every applicant is compared fairly.

HECVAT

The Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit, a standard security questionnaire colleges and universities use to review technology vendors.

HOPE GPA (Georgia)

The GPA the Georgia Student Finance Commission calculates from core high school courses to determine HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarship eligibility. It uses its own weighting rules and can differ from an institution’s admissions GPA.

Human-in-the-loop review

A process in which software drafts a recommendation and a qualified person approves, changes or rejects it. In LioraAI, staff or faculty approve every credit decision.

Joint Services Transcript (JST)

The official transcript of military training and occupational experience for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, including ACE credit recommendations.

Residency requirement

The minimum number of credits a student must complete at the degree-granting institution, regardless of how much transfer credit they bring.

Reverse transfer

Sending credits earned at a four-year institution back to a student’s former community college so it can award an associate degree the student has now qualified for. It requires the student’s consent.

School Certifying Official (SCO)

The staff member who certifies a student’s enrollment to the Department of Veterans Affairs so they can receive GI Bill benefits. SCOs often coordinate military credit evaluation.

School official exception

A FERPA provision that lets an institution share education records with a contractor that performs an institutional service, under the institution’s direct control, without student consent.

SOC 2

An independent audit framework from the AICPA that reports on a service provider’s controls for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy.

Student information system (SIS)

The system of record for student data such as admissions, registration, grades and transfer credit. Examples include Ellucian Banner and Colleague, Workday Student, PeopleSoft and Jenzabar.

TCSG-USG transfer agreement (Georgia)

An agreement between the Technical College System of Georgia and the University System of Georgia that maps listed TCSG general education courses to direct USG equivalents or Core IMPACTS areas.

Transfer credit evaluation

The process of reviewing a student’s prior college coursework and deciding which courses count, and how, at the receiving institution.

Transfer student

Any student bringing credit from another college or university, whatever their class standing. A student with one prior course and a student with 70 credits are both transfer students.

Transfer yield

The share of admitted transfer students who enroll. Faster, clearer credit answers are one of the strongest levers on transfer yield.

Weighted and unweighted GPA

An unweighted GPA uses a standard 4.0 scale for every course. A weighted GPA adds points for Honors, AP, IB or dual-enrollment courses, producing scales up to 5.0 or higher.

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