Academic Terminology
Current Northeastern students
Use the following preferred terms to describe academic status or academic intervals. Lowercase these terms: first-year student, second-year student, third-year student, fourth-year student, fifth-year student; part-time student; transfer student.
It is acceptable to use the term senior when referring to a fourth- or fifth-year student who is about to graduate.
Avoid referring to current students using alumni construction of college designation and year of graduation. For instance, “Pat Smith, E’15” should not be used for a current engineering student.
When discussing a student's academic discipline, include the student’s major and minor and lowercase the terms, unless it's a proper noun: a third-year architecture and Spanish combined major with a minor in basket weaving; a third-year architecture, international affairs, and French combined major.
Not: A middler architecture major/basket-weaving minor…
A double major requires the student to complete all the requirements for two existing majors. The same holds true for triple majors, which are rare.
A combined major (formerly known as a dual major) is a predefined and preapproved program that combines two disciplines. View the list of currently approved combined majors.
Northeastern alumni
A person is a Northeastern alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine) if he or she graduated from the university. Use alumni to refer to all-male or mixed-gender groups of graduates, and alumnae for all-female groups.
If you are listing only Northeastern graduates and want to call attention to their alumni status, you may identify them by their class year or the class year paired with an abbreviation for the college (or school) they attended or the degree they received.
Note that there is no space between the college or school abbreviation and the class year.
Harry Winters, PAH'51
Janet Edelmann, L'83
Mark Jones Jr., Ed'70
Rhonda Washington-Smith, AS'96
Joseph Peters Sr., BA'65, has issued a call for . . .
Partial Listing of Degrees at Northeastern University
The following is a list of the most common abbreviations for colleges and degree codes used at Northeastern University. The degree code for the college at the time of the alumnus' graduation should be used.
AGS Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study
AMD College of Arts, Media, and Design
AP Master of Science in Accounting
AS College of Arts and Sciences
B School of Business
BA College of Business Administration
DMSB D’Amore-McKim School of Business
BB Boston Bouvé College
BHD Bouvé College of Human Development Professions
BHS Bouvé College of Health Sciences
BPH Bouvé College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
CIS College of Computer and Information Science
CJ College of Criminal Justice
CPS College of Professional Studies
CS College of Computer Science
DMSB D’Amore-McKim School of Business
E College of Engineering
Ed College of Education
EdD Doctor of Education
FD Forsyth Dental
GB Graduate School of Bouvé College
H Honorary Degree
L School of Law
LA College of Liberal Arts
LC Lincoln College
LI Lincoln Institute
MA Master of Arts
MBA Master of Business Administration
MCS Master of Computer Science
ME Master of Engineering
MEd Master of Education
MJ Master of Criminal Justice
MP Master of Science in Pharmacy
MPA Master of Public Administration
MPH Master of Pharmacy and Allied Health
MS Master of Science
N College of Nursing
P College of Pharmacy
PA Graduate School of Professional Accounting
PAH College of Pharmacy and Allied Health
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
S College of Science
SET School of Engineering Technology
SPCS School of Professional and Continuing Studies
SSH College of Social Sciences and Humanities
UC University College