Glossary of Advising Terms

Advance Registration: Advance Registration allows continuing and returning students to register in advance of regular registration for each term. Students must be in good academic standing and not owe money from a previous term. To participate in Advance Registration, you must meet once per academic year with your assigned counselor or advisor to plan your courses for the following term(s).

Audit: If you choose a grade option of "Audit" you may attend class but no credits are earned. The grade recorded on your college transcript is U, which has no effect on your grade point average. The tuition charges for audit are the same as for all other grade options, i.e., you will be charged the full tuition for courses that you choose to audit.

Core Curriculum: Courses required by a specific major. Courses in the core curriculum usually must be taken for a grade, not Pass/No Pass, in order to count toward degree requirements.

Course Numbers:

• Credit courses have a course number that includes letters and numbers (e.g. WR 121, ART 115).
• Pre-college credit courses have course numbers below 100, and do not transfer to a 4-year institution.
• Non-credit course numbers have letters and numbers in the format XART 5785. The “X” before the subject and the four-digit numbers identify the course as non-credit.
  

Credit (or credit hour): an academic measurement of work in specific courses. At Lane, one credit is generally equivalent to one hour of class per week over an academic term. The average number of credits for a full time student is 12-15 credits per term. Part-time students enroll in fewer than 12 credits per term.

Elective: a course that does not meet any specific requirement for a degree or certificate. Unless there is a restriction, when an academic major requires an “Elective,” students may choose any credit class in the catalog.

ExpressLane: ExpressLane is Lane Community College’s web-based tool for registration, making payments, viewing transcripts, checking your financial aid status, and much more. myLane allows you to interact with the college from any computer connected to the Internet. Look for the myLane link on Lane’s homepage to enter myLane.

Full time: Enrollment in 12 or more credits per term.

Grade Options: When you register for a class, myLane will always assume that you wish to receive a letter grade (A, B, C, D, or F) for the course. If you prefer to take a class for a Pass/No pass or Audit grade option, you must change your grade option using ExpressLane within the first eight weeks of a full-term class.

Lower Division: Courses with course numbers between100 and 299. These are generally freshman and sophomore level courses.

Major: An academic major indicates a primary field of study, such as art, business, electronics, mechanics, nursing, etc. Your major may also be “Undecided”. Every credit student must have a current major at Lane.

Pass/No Pass: You may choose the Pass/No Pass grade option for up to 16 credits in subjects that are not in your academic major. Credits earned Pass/No Pass are not computed in your grade point average. To earn a grade of Pass, your work must be equivalent to what would earn a grade of C- or higher. For more information, see the current Lane Catalog

Prerequisites: Some classes require that you take one or more other classes first. Consult the course descriptions in the Lane catalog to see the prerequisites for any class you plan to enroll in this term. If you try to register for a class that has a prerequisite that you have not completed, you will see the following error message in myLane: “ PREQ and TEST SCORE-ERROR.”

Probation: A student who does not achieve satisfactory academic progress will be placed on academic probation. Students on academic probation may be required to meet with a counselor or advisor before they can register for the next term.

Quarter/Term: At Lane, 11 weeks including 10 weeks of instruction, and one week of final exams. There are four quarters in an academic year: fall, winter, spring, and summer quarter (or term).

Semester: Academic time period of 16 weeks or more used by other colleges, primarily in the East coast and Midwest.

Study Hour: Time needed to study outside the classroom. A useful guideline: two hours of study time for every hour in class.

Subject Area: classes that are in the same academic discipline or area, such as English (ENG), Mathematics (MTH), Computer Science (CS), etc.

Telecourse: Credit courses that include video programs, which are shown on cable television or available for viewing in the Lane Library or outreach centers. Some course videotapes may be borrowed from the Library, or rented for the term.

Term: A term, or quarter, is a unit of academic time. At Lane, we have four terms per year. Fall, Winter, and Spring terms are each 10 weeks of instruction, plus one week of final exams. During Summer Term courses may be four, six, eight, or twelve weeks in length.

Transcript: listing of a student’s courses, grades and credits earned. Unofficial transcripts may be viewed on ExpressLane (Lane’s web-based student information system). Official printed transcripts may be ordered on ExpressLane.