Academic Status: How an applicant was classified when taking courses. Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior.

Advanced Placement (Adv Pl ): A course that was granted advanced credit by examination.

Applicants In Process: See Applicants e-submitted.

Applications e-submitted: Applicants who have e-submitted their applications and are either missing transcripts and/or references. Once applications are in e-submitted, their contact information is available for viewing individually and as a group with the provided MS Excel® spreadsheet.

Applications e-submitted/Transcripts Verified: These are applicants whose materials have been verified but do not have at least two references. These applicants are waiting for references to arrive before they are processed for mailing. When applicants are in this category, programs can view the course work and GPAs for each applicant.

Applications Complete/Transcripts Un-verified: These are applicants who have all of their transcripts and at least two references but have not had their transcripts verified. Once the transcripts are verified, the applications will be put into the next category.

Applications Complete/Transcripts Verified: These are applicants who have at least two references and have been verified by CASPA. These applications are considered complete and will be processed for mailing.

Applications Initiated: Applicants who have selected your program, but who have not yet finished and e-submitted their applications. The applicant information is not available for viewing by programs at this time.

Applications mailed: Applicants who have been verified and applications sent to your program. You may refer to the Mailings section for the date the last mailing was sent on. Please note that it may take up to one week for the physical paper mailing to reach your office.

Applications On Hold: Applicants who have been put on hold due to discrepancies found within the application. These discrepancies could include coursework errors, transcript problems or errors, bad payments, etc.

Applications Un-delivered: Applicants who have previously e-submitted their applications, but have had their applications sent back to them so that coursework corrections may be made. Please note that after the applicant has made the necessary corrections to the coursework section of the application, they must e-submit their application again for it to be re-processed by the CASPA staff.

CASPA: Central Application Service for Physician Assistants

Course Type: Describes the courses listed on the Academic Record.

Disadvantaged: Disadvantaged can fall into two categories: (1) Educationally: comes from an environment that has inhibited the individual from obtaining the knowledge, skill and abilities required to enroll in and graduate from a health professions program, or
(2) Economically: comes from a family with an annual income below a level based on low income thresholds according to family size published by the US Bureau of Census, adjusted annually for changes in the Consumer Price Index, adjusted by the Secretary for use in all health professions programs. These income levels are published in the Federal Register.

A few examples of educationally disadvantaged are coming from a high school with low SAT scores or below the Average State test results, coming from a school district where 50 percent or less of graduates go to college, being the first generation to attend college.

E-LOR: Short for Electronic Letters of Reference. Applicants may request that references be completed electronically or by using the paper reference form. If applicants ask someone to complete an E-LOR, the writer will receive an email requesting them to access a secured web site to complete the form. Once the form is completed and submitted, it will be sent to CASPA electronically.

E-submitted: Applicants that have paid all of their fees to CASPA and have submitted their application for review. Note that this does not necessarily mean that all of their materials (transcripts, references) have been received and the file is ready to be processed.

Grade Point Averages (GPAs)

Post Baccalaureate: Category of courses taken after the completion of an undergraduate degree program but not taken toward a graduate degree.

Professional Courses: Courses taken at a professional school. This would include all courses taken while enrolled in a medical program (allopathic, naturopathic, osteopathic, homeopathic or oriental medicine), a dental, chiropractic, pharmacy (Pharm.D. only), or veterinary school, professional military education or foreign medical school. Course grades are not verified by CASPA and they are not calculated as part of the GPA.

References: Each reference consists of two parts, the two-page CASPA Reference Form and either a narrative on the electronic reference or a letter submitted on the writer's stationery if it is a paper reference. Three complete references are required. When two arrive, processing can begin if the application is otherwise complete.

Subject Codes: Categories used to separate courses to help calculate GPAs.

Supplemental/Secondary Application: An additional step, separate from the CASPA application, required by some programs, collecting information of unique interest to that school. (see separate "Supplemental Application" section of this manual)

Term: The time of year in which the course was taken, fall, spring, winter, interim

Transcript Request Form: Applicants give this form to the registrar's office for inclusion with the official transcripts that are sent to CASPA. The applicant can print this form after entering their information in the Institutions Attended section in the applicant portal.

Verification: Course-by-course verification of applicant academic record (what the applicant has entered) matched to official transcripts. (This does not include professional or foreign program courses.) In addition, the verification of information on all earned degrees, from every institution, including professional programs.