Language & Terms Common to Education

Colleges and universities have terms that sometimes are unfamiliar to people new to the school. Here are some words and phrases commonly used at MATC:

ASC - Academic Support Center
MATC has a number of these centers on each campus designed for your student to receive specialized assistance. For example, there are writing labs for assistance with research papers, and the science labs for assistance with biology, chemistry, or anatomy and physiology.

BID - Background Information Disclosure form
This form gathers information as required by the Wisconsin Caregiver Background Check Law. This form is normally completed by students in health care, child care and other academic programs that require the background check for students that will need to do clinical placements.

CBC - Criminal Background Check
A CBC is required for our health programs and several other programs, such as Early Childhood Education and Criminal Justice Studies.

Course wait list is the list available when class sections are full. This process allows students to put their name on the list and if space becomes available, they are notified via email and given the opportunity to register for the class.

Credits are what a student earns when they take a class. You need a certain number of credits and a certain grade point average to graduate from a program.

Cumulative grade point average is the average score of all class grades a student has received on a 4.0 scale. The 4.0 is considered an “A” at MATC and that is the highest a student can earn.

FAFSA - Free Application for Federal Student Aid. This is the application students and parents use to apply for grants and other financial aid.

FERPA - Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act. This is the federal law that determines what information regarding your student can and cannot be shared, who it can be shared with, and the context in which it can be shared.

Grade Point Average (GPA) is a number that reflects the average grades in a semester.

IEP is an Individual Educational Plan that is developed tomeet a student’s individual educational need.

INFOnline is the online system MATC students use to view their grades and program plan, register, drop classes, get an unofficial copy of a transcript, view classes that are available, view the cost of classes and make payments. 

MyMATC is the MATC portal. It provides access to other sites within MATC like registration, grades, program plans, as well as informational items regarding the college.

Program plan is a document that shows students the classes they have taken and how they fulfill the requirements for graduation. Students can access their individual program plan via INFOnline.

Rave Alert is the alert system MATC uses to provide emergency and school closing information to the MATC community of students, faculty and staff. Students are notified via email and text messages.

Semester is a half-year term in a school or college, typically lasting 15 to 18 weeks. MATC has three
semesters in an academic year: Fall, Spring and Summer. The Summer semester is normally six weeks;
the Fall and Spring semesters are normally 16 weeks each.

Stormer Pass is the MATC ID card that provides students access to “campus cash,” library privileges, copy machines, athletic facilities, parking and the MATC bookstore.

Transcript is an actual record of classes a student takes while at MATC. The transcript will show the classes taken, the semester they were taken in, the grades and credits earned by semester, as well as the cumulative grade point average.

U-Pass is the semester long, Milwaukee County bus pass available to MATC students enrolled in at least six college credits for the Fall or Spring semesters, and at least three college credits for the Summer semester.