TOEFL Vocabulary: Academic and campus administration

Admissions, prerequisites, transcripts, waitlists and the registrar: the paperwork side of university life. These terms drive many campus conversations and notices, and misreading one, such as a waiver versus a withdrawal, changes the whole message.

Most useful for: Read in Daily Life · Listen to a Conversation · Listen to an Announcement · Write an Email.

The 40 words

Self-check: match the meaning

Cover the table above. Here are 8 of the 40 academic and campus administration words, starting with admission: choose the word each definition describes.

1. permission to enter a program or institution
   1. admission
   2. faculty
   3. waiver
   4. inquiry
   Show answer

   A. admission

2. a school official responsible for financial affairs
   1. placement
   2. bursar
   3. commute
   4. waitlist
   Show answer

   B. bursar

3. a course chosen rather than required
   1. scholarship
   2. placement test
   3. elective
   4. attendance
   Show answer

   C. elective

4. money given for a particular purpose
   1. withdrawal
   2. accreditation
   3. department
   4. grant
   Show answer

   D. grant

5. supervised practical work in a course
   1. practicum
   2. disability
   3. credential
   4. fellowship
   Show answer

   A. practicum

6. an official record of courses and grades
   1. registrar
   2. transcript
   3. extension
   4. portfolio
   Show answer

   B. transcript

7. the state or number of people registered
   1. appeal
   2. orientation
   3. enrollment
   4. syllabus
   Show answer

   C. enrollment

8. involving more than one academic field
   1. degree
   2. residence
   3. work-study
   4. interdisciplinary
   Show answer

   D. interdisciplinary

Using academic and campus administration words on the test

• In Listen to a Conversation, listen for appeal and elective as signals of what each speaker needs or decides.
• In Read in Daily Life, words like orientation and syllabus tell you what a notice or email wants you to do, so read them as clues to the writer's purpose.
• In Listen to an Announcement, advising and registrar tend to mark the key change or instruction, so note them when you hear them.
• In Write an Email, use bursar or extension only where it states your request or point exactly.

Other medium themes

• Argument and interpretation
• Research and data
• Cause, process, and change
• Society and economy
• Institutions and policy
• Living systems and ecology
• Earth and physical systems
• History, language, and culture
• Learning, memory, and behavior