The following is a list of commonly used terms and acronyms that often appear in Institutional Effectiveness data, along with Academic Affairs-related publications. Please contact our office if there are any additional terms that should be included on this list.
Updated July 2021.
The number of students admitted divided by number of students who applied.
APDB reports provide information in support of academic planning and administration. These reports present information related to enrollment, student-faculty ratios, class size, mode of instructions, and more organized by discipline, discipline category, and administrative structure. These reports are used locally to support such activities as the review and approval of newly proposed degree programs, as well as the continued evaluation of existing programs. They are also utilized by the Chancellor's Office to examine and assess the structure, workload and productivity of each campus's faculty in order to... Read more about APDB (Academic Planning Database)
Refers to the cumulative GPA for courses taken within the university only.
Denotes all data collected on the campus's census day that has been approved by the Chancellor's Office. These are the official numbers for reports to the federal government, state agencies, and various national organizations. Census data is the result of a rigorous data checking, cleaning and error correction process. The most important census data submissions are the Enrollment Reporting System-Student (ERSS) and Academic Planning Database (APDB).
The date when official enrollment is taken for each campus in the CSU system. It is the close of the fourth week of each regular semester.
A cohort is a group of students with similar college experience (First-Time First Years, Undergraduate Transfers, and First-Time Classified Graduates) who matriculate together in the same semester. Cohort retention and graduation rates are the main measures of progress and success for each group as a whole.
Refers to students who had enrolled the previous semester and returned for the current term.
A number that follows the name of a specific subject (for example, English 101) that indicates the course structure, organization and degree of difficulty of that course. Lower division includes 100 and 200 level courses, upper division includes 300-500 level courses, graduate includes 600+ level courses.
Refers to the overall cumulative GPA a student has earned at the time the degree was awarded.
A coding system which classifies the current enrollment of a student and distinguishes between new, continuing, returning, and transitory students.