Age

A student's age is computed by subtracting year of birth from 2004.  Therefore, students born in January 1978 and December 1978 will both be reported as age 26 (2004-1978).

Classification

Classification describes the student level and/or type and includes freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, special undergraduate, special graduate, master, and doctorate.

College

The University is divided into seven colleges:  Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources (ASNR); Arts & Sciences (A&S); Business Administration (CBA); Education (COE); Engineering, Architecture, & Technology (CEAT); Human Environmental Sciences (HES), and Veterinary Medicine.  Data for CEAT are sometimes divided into two data sets—one for Engineering & Architecture (ENGR) and the second for the Division of Technology (TECH). 

In addition to these seven colleges, students may enroll in University Academic Services or the Graduate College .  In this report, students enrolled in the Graduate College are usually distributed for reporting purposes to the respective college that administers their major coursework. 

Ethnicity Codes and Definitions

For purposes of reporting OSU enrollment by ethnicity, the total enrollment at OSU excluding internationals (non-U.S. citizens) is divided into the following categories:

White:  All persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe (except Spain and Portugal ), North Africa (above the Sahara), or the Middle East .  This category would include, for instance:  Italy , France , the British Isles, Scandinavia , Germany , Russia , Romania , Greece , Turkey , Morocco , Algeria , Libya , Egypt , Iraq , Israel , Saudi Arabia , and Iran . Any person not claiming an ethnicity is categorized as white.

African American: All persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Africa south of the Sahara .

Native American: All persons having origins in any of the original peoples of North or South America .

Hispanic: All persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Spain or Portugal .  This category would generally include, for instance:  Chicanos, Mexican-Americans, Mexicans, Central and South Americans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Spaniards, and Portuguese.

Asian: All persons having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Pacific Islands .  This category would include, for instance:  China , Japan , Korea , Thailand , Vietnam , the Philippines , Samoa , Indonesia , New Zealand , Australia , and the Indian subcontinent which includes all persons from Afghanistan , Nepal , Burma , India , and Pakistan . 

In order to present a set of data regarding OSU enrollment that sums to OSU's total enrollment ( including international students), some tables and figures that present data by ethnicity in this report include an additional column or row of data pertaining to the balance of the student body—the international student population. 

FTE (Full-Time Equivalency)

Full-time equivalent for undergraduate students is 15 hours. For graduate students, a full-time equivalent is 12 hours. All Veterinary Medicine students are one FTE.

New Freshman

A new freshman is a degree-seeking undergraduate student with fewer than 7 hours of college credit earned before his/her first semester at OSU. College hours earned through advanced placement or through concurrent high school enrollment are not figured into the 7 hour limit. Students who begin as new freshmen during the Summer semester, and continue their enrollment into the Fall semester, are counted as new freshmen for the Fall. This change begins with Fall 2003 counts.

Resident Status

A student is categorized as a resident if he or she was a legal resident of the State of Oklahoma at the time of original admission to OSU.  If not a legal resident of Oklahoma at the time of admission, the student is a nonresident.  If the student was a legal resident of a country other than the United States at the time of admission, the student is categorized as an international.

Retention

Student retention is usually expressed as a percentage figure which is derived by comparing the size of a specific group of students who were enrolled at OSU for a given semester to the size of the same group when they are enrolled for a successive given semester. 

A non-returning student is defined as a student who was enrolled at OSU for a given semester and who did not graduate and who did not return to OSU for a successive given semester.

Special Undergraduate/Graduate Student

A special undergraduate student is a non-degree-seeking student who has not earned a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. A special graduate student is a non-degree-seeking student admitted to the Graduate College .

Type of Admission

A new student admitted to OSU is classified as a new freshman, a transfer student, or a readmission.  All other students are classified as returning students, concurrent high school students, or non-degree-seeking students.  A transfer student is classified as such only for the first semester that he attends OSU; after one semester, a transfer student is reclassified as a returning student.  Similarly, new freshmen are reclassified as returning students after their first semester at OSU (and are sometimes shown as "other freshmen" when presenting data by classification).  A readmission student is a student who has enrolled at OSU in the past but who has not been enrolled at OSU during the previous semester (excluding the summer semester).