Student Classifications

Undergraduate
A Freshman is a student who has met entrance requirements and has earned fewer than 32 semester hours of credit.
A Sophomore has earned 32 to 64 hours of credit.
A Junior has earned 64 to 96 hours of credit.
A Senior has earned more than 96 hours of credit.

Graduate
A graduate student is one who is fully enrolled in any of the master's programs.

Doctoral
A doctoral student is one who is fully enrolled in any of the doctoral programs.

Candidate
Students enrolled for a research degree (e.g., Th.B., Th.M., Th.D.) are considered candidates when all of their course work is completed, and they have only the thesis or dissertation remaining. This may also be called ABT (all but thesis) or ABD (all but dissertation). For those not writing a thesis or dissertation, they are considered candidates when they have only 16 credits remaining in their programs of study.