#47- 19 Words for the College & University experience

Welcome to episode #47 of The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast! This episode is part 2 of my education series where I'll be teaching you 19 phrasal verbs, slang words and idioms for the college and the university  experience. In American culture and most cultures around the world, it’s very important to know how to talk about colleges and universities. Whether or not you're interested in attending an American school or whether you just want to boost your English vocabulary, this is the episode for you! After listening to this episode and using this Study Guide, you’ll be able to speak colleges and universities confidently and be one step closer to speaking English like a native speaker.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] On this episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 19 words for university and college life. You'll be learning words like cram, Greek life, flunk out, sit in on, and more. Let's get to it.
Hey there. Welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.
Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.

Hello, hello. Welcome to episode number 47. Greetings from New York City. This episode is part two of our education series. Episode number [00:01:00] 46 is all about lower education and being in the classroom in general. This episode, number 47, focuses on the college and university experience. I really love talking about this topic, and it's always an exciting topic when it comes up in my English learning classroom here in New York City. And it's awesome because of how different the college experience is in the USA compared to the college experience in most countries that I've heard about.
 The main level that I've taught for over 13 years is B2, higher intermediate. It's my favorite level. I also teach higher level, I teach lower level, sometimes a combined B1–B2. It's my favorite, and one of the units is education. And I just [00:02:00] love the topic because hearing about all of the education systems around the world and how they're so different from one another is so fascinating. And as fascinating as it has been for me to hear from students all over the world, it's even more fascinating for my students to hear their classmates talk about how different the education systems are in their countries.

For example, my Korean students always shock their classmates by talking about how long they attend high school each day. For example, most of my Korean students—I do know that younger students are a little different—so when I get 16-, 17-, 18-year-old Korean students, their experiences are a little bit more different than Korean students maybe 25 plus. But for most of them, high school was from 8:00 AM in the morning past 8:00 PM in the evening.
 A lot of these students are in [00:03:00] school for 10 to 12 hours a day, sometimes more, because of self-study academies where they could go to practice for their high school exams. And it's very common in Korean culture.

Then I talked to many of my Italian students or Brazilian students, and many of them said how their school days often ended by one or two o'clock. And another really cool example is talking to my Swiss students and how high school kind of determines your future—because some students go to college, some students, I guess, don't get high enough marks where university is a recommendation for them. So it's very, very interesting to hear.
 Like, I had one of my Swiss students joke that she wasn't smart enough to go to university, and I was like, oh my gosh, it's so sad. But yeah, it's very [00:04:00] interesting for me to hear about education all over the world.

My favorite country for education is Finland. I've studied it extensively. We talk about it a lot, and that is what we model my son's education—my older son's education—after. However, what I find most fascinating about the differences internationally with education is that in most countries, you have to know what you wanna do before you enter university.

This is so vastly different than the American college system. Here in the USA, you have to study every topic in university. You enter, you declare a major—which is like a focus or a concentration—you declare one when you enter, and then you take what we call core classes and major classes.
 For example, [00:05:00] if you're a business major, you have to take core classes first: math, art, music, English, science, foreign language, and then you can focus on your business-specific classes.

Usually we spend about two years on the core classes, two years on our major classes. And you can change your major at almost any time. And in fact, this is why the first two years we really only take core classes—because you're exposed to a lot of different things. You can see your strengths and weaknesses, and if you wanna switch, you can before you really take your major classes that are more specific.

Most students change their majors at least twice in universities. I teach at a university here in the US, here in New York, and international [00:06:00] students tend to change their majors less than American students. But American students? Oh my goodness—they change majors a lot.
 The cool thing about this, which is kind of what I—I also mentioned this in the previous episode—is that it's never too late for a career change. Career changes here are very normal. So if you change what you wanna do in your last year of university, it's okay. If you're 45 and you've been doing something for 20 years and you wanna change? That's okay too. It is never too late for a career change, and it's actually very common amongst my generation of millennials to totally switch careers. And what you do when you realize that you're not enjoying it anymore—because here in the United States, people do things for money—they don't often get to pursue things that they want because they're more [00:07:00] interested in financial security.

Before we talk about the vocabulary for today, I wanna give a little overview of the American education system, just because my students always ask—because they're very curious. Because in some countries, high school is three years, in some countries high school is five years. In the United States, high school is four years.

So I'm just gonna give you a brief overview of how it goes, and then we'll get into the vocabulary.
 Alright, so every student in the USA has to be in school—it's mandatory—from six years old until 16. If you drop out of—if you leave school at any point during that time, your parents can actually be arrested. You can get into trouble. We have alternative forms of education. We have private education, public, charter—what we call—we also have non-traditional education, which is what we do with my [00:08:00] 7-year-old, which is one-on-one teaching, private tutors, private classes, homeschooling, all of that.

Most American students are in school from about four years old until 17 or 18. So first up, we have preschool, which for us is 3K and 4K, which is pre-K—pre-kindergarten. So my three-year-old son, Miles—he's currently in 3K here in New York City. It's free here, but in some states—in many states, I should say—it's not free.
 It's very play-based. They basically play all day long. They do learn their ABCs, one-two-threes. They have free lunch if they need it. They have free services like speech and movement, and it's a really fun little program. So my three-year-old started school last year in September. And [00:09:00] it's a few blocks from our house and it's just a little pre-K center and it only has 3K and pre-K. So from three to five years old—some two-year-olds start if they have a birthday later in the year.

Pre-K is where most kids begin school at age four. Some kids will be five depending on when their birthdays are. It's also very play-based, but definitely more structured where kids start literacy activities, they start writing, etc.
 Then after that, we have elementary school, which is kindergarten—German word—at age four and five, up until fifth grade is when students are about 10 or 11. Elementary school here has become very intense. My son was in public school for kindergarten, and he had a test on the computer three weeks into school. He was four years old because he has a December birthday.
 It's very intense. It's not fun anymore for [00:10:00] kids. Part of the reason why we removed my son from the public school system here.
 Next we have middle school, junior high school. It's from sixth to eighth grade and it's from about 10, 11 till 12, 13.
 And then we have high school. High school here is four years long. It's from 12, 13 years old to 17, 18 years old. High school—you either love it or hate it. My husband hated high school. I loved high school. We have sports. We have trips. It's just—it's a lot of fun, if you go to the right high school.
 After high school, you can attend a college or university. I just wanna say we often use the words college and university interchangeably.

I know that's very different than internationally. Around my students in my classroom, I typically say "university" because I know in some languages like French, "college"—college—is something [00:11:00] different. But here, university and college both mean secondary education, where you attend a four-year school.

Okay, so after high school, you can attend a college or university. There are schools like Harvard University that have "university" in the name. If you have "university" in your name, you have to be a four-year school where you can earn multiple types of degrees. But then we have colleges like Boston College that are also Ivy League—very prestigious, famous, high-level—but it just has "college" in the name instead of "university."

We also have community colleges, which are only two-year schools where students can earn an associate's degree, and then after that they can transfer to a four-year school. You should know that overall—get ready for these statistics, okay?—because my students are always shocked. The U.S. is a very low-educated [00:12:00] country.

I mean, now because of politics, you're like, "Oh, that makes sense." But actually, less than 50% of American adults have a bachelor's degree. The range is actually 35 to 45%, depending on the survey. So, like, an associate's degree is a degree after two years. Some surveys count that. Most count bachelor's degrees—four years. And get this: only 16% have advanced degrees.

So, you know, any kind of professional degree, master's degree, doctorates—so doctors, lawyers, anyone who's advanced—teachers. 16%, and that's it. That's crazy. This is extremely low—surprisingly low—for an advanced "quote-unquote" country.

Now, in big cities like New York City, [00:13:00] Chicago, Boston, L.A., you're gonna have high concentrations of people with college degrees, because big cities attract educated people because of the types of jobs here that require advanced degrees. However, most places in the USA, it's very normal for people to only have a high school level of education. Again, this will probably help you make more sense of our current political situation, because almost 60% of Trump voters only had a high school level of education, which is very typical for our political landscape here in the USA.

You see, as I mentioned in the previous episode, oftentimes students in different states learn different things in lower education based on their own state's policies and rules—guidelines. But college is the great [00:14:00] equalizer. Colleges and universities teach the truth about the world. This is why it's so enlightening for many students who lack real-world experiences. This is why so many protests and social movements start on American college campuses.

Without a college education here in the USA, you most likely have an incomplete education. Depending on where you went to school, someone who grew up in a very conservative state, for example, learned that the USA is the center of the world, we are the best country, slavery wasn't that bad, and we've never lost a war. I wish I were exaggerating, but I'm not.

It was very interesting being in university and hearing different perspectives and the shock from students, for example, in history classes [00:15:00] where they were talking about history. 'Cause, you know, my bachelor's degree was in history, and my minor was biology because I was pre-medicine. Being in American history classes—oh my gosh—the amount of students who don't know real American history. They know the sugar-coated, sweet version of American history. So it's very interesting.

So our universities are very high level. I do not like our lower education here in the United States, but our higher education is phenomenal, which is why so many students from around the world—their goal is to attend an American university. However, the problem, as you probably know, is the cost. It's so expensive. My master's degree cost me $30,000, guys. Okay? It's crazy.

We often have scholarships and [00:16:00] grants that can reduce the price a little bit, and student loans that help us pay, but this is why many Americans don't pay off their student loans until they're in their forties. And get this—medical school costs at least $100,000 per year. So these doctors, when they graduate from medical school, a lot of them are in debt. By a lot.

So this is another difference that I wanted to talk about. If you wanna be a doctor in the United States—or a teacher or a lawyer—you cannot go straight from high school into law school, medical school, or teaching school. You have to go to a regular university for four years, and then after that you have to go to medical school, law school, or a master's program.

So for me, I had four years of college education and then [00:17:00] I entered a master's program for two years where I learned all about teaching English as a second language. People who are doctors—they go to school for four years, regular degree. Then they apply to medical school. If they get in, they go to medical school for four years. If they want to specialize in anything—surgery, pediatrics, cardiology—then they have to go for extra years. So doctors in the United States are in college/university for at least eight years.

And so it's very interesting here, because I know a lot of you can go straight from high school into a medical school, for example. So schooling here is very long. But, you know, this is just how the college system is—because it's the great equalizer. They want to make sure everybody is equal when they have a degree.

I should [00:18:00] add that we do have cheaper options at city, state, and community schools. These are not as famous as Ivy League schools like Harvard or Yale, UCLA, but you can still get a quality education. In fact, many of my friends went to local schools, didn’t have to take out loans, and then got high-paying jobs afterwards. We even have free tuition at city schools for low-income students.

Okay, now back to today’s vocabulary. Here are the 19 words and expressions I’ll be teaching you in this episode:

Legacy student. Safety school. Reach school. Target school. Get into. Hit the ground running. Sign up for. Check out. Greek life. Have a lot on your plate.
 Cram. To pull an all-nighter. To blow off a class or assignment. Flunk out. Freshman 15. Drop a class. Burnout. Sit in on. Nail a test.

[00:19:00]
 Before I get into the story, I just wanna remind you that there’s a free study guide waiting for you that will help you remember what you learn in this episode. It has all the words and definitions and examples. It also has the story to see all the words in context and practice activities, along with the transcript. Everything you need to practice and remember the new vocabulary and use it with confidence in the real world is waiting for you in the study guide.

To get that study guide, just click the link in the episode description. Alright, so let’s get to [00:20:00] the story.

Listen to the story while I read the vocabulary in context. Afterwards, I'll explain all of it and give more examples. Here we go. Lena had always dreamed of going to Westlake University. Her mom and older brother had gone there too, so she was a legacy student. She applied to a safety school, a target school, and a reach school as well. But Westlake was her first choice. When she finally got into Westlake, she was over the moon. She really wanted to make the most of college, so she planned to hit the ground running.

Lena signed up for five classes, joined the student newspaper, and even started checking out Greek life. She was excited, but also [00:21:00] nervous. In the first few weeks, she was always on the go. Her roommate joked that Lena already had a lot on her plate. Things got stressful really quickly. Her psychology class had surprise quizzes. Her history professor assigned a 10-page paper, and she had a math exam coming up. Lena started to cram the night before every test. One time, she even pulled an all-nighter, drinking way too much coffee just to keep her eyes open.

Lena also started blowing off her philosophy class because it was so early in the morning. Soon, she realized she might flunk out if she kept up this behavior. On top of that, she was eating fast food all the time and barely moving from her desk. One day, she stepped on the scale and laughed. “Whoa. I think I've already got the [00:22:00] freshman 15.” Lena knew that something had to change, so she talked to her advisor and decided to drop the philosophy class because she didn't need it for her major.

She also stopped signing up for every event on campus. “I'm burning out,” she admitted. “I need to slow down.” To help herself out, Lena started studying in a small group. She even sat in on a few extra review sessions before her final math exam. This time, she studied early instead of waiting until the last minute. When she finished the test, she smiled. “I think I nailed it,” she said, finally feeling confident again. By the end of the semester, Lena had found her rhythm. She was still busy, but not overwhelmed. She had learned that college wasn't just about doing everything—it was about doing the right [00:23:00] things for her.

The end.

All right, so let's get into the definitions and examples. First up, you heard in the story that Lena is a legacy student. A legacy student is a student who has a parent or close family member who attended the same school. Traditionally, legacy students get automatically admitted into schools, especially when it comes to Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale, Brown. These types of schools are difficult to get into, but if you are a legacy student, you often have guaranteed admission.

So I have a friend, for example, whose mother and grandfather and great-grandfather attended Princeton University. So she was a [00:24:00] legacy student. For example, Lena was a legacy student, so she felt proud when she got accepted to Westlake University.

Next up, we have three expressions: safety school, reach school, and target school. When American students are applying to universities, we typically apply to about five to ten schools. Most students have what we call reach schools. These are colleges that may be difficult to get into because they have very high admission standards and low acceptance rates. For example, Harvard was her reach school, but she applied anyway, hoping for the best.

Then we have a safety school. This is a university where you're very likely to be accepted based on your grades and your CV, your portfolio. It's very unlikely that you'll be rejected. For example, she applied to a safety school just in case she didn't [00:25:00] get into her top choices. Many safety schools are often local schools.

And then we have target schools. These are schools where their grades should be a good match for you. There is a small chance that you won't be accepted, but this is the target. For example, she felt confident about her chances at her target school because her scores were right in the range. Now let me just add something.

Here in the United States, we have the SAT and the ACT. Different states require different tests. So before you enter a university, you take these tests. You can take it your junior year or senior year of high school—your choice when you take it—and you can take it multiple times. I know in many countries, you take a test and if you [00:26:00] get the top percentile of that test, you get accepted into certain schools.

It is very different in the United States. So you can have a 4.0 GPA and apply to Harvard University, and someone with a 3.8 GPA got accepted, but you didn't. That's because acceptance here is based on your test score, your GPA, and your extracurricular activities. So were you in the student newspaper? Did you volunteer with a charity? Did you play sports? Did you travel and volunteer in another country?

So this is why college students are very busy. High school students are very busy as well. Because what you do outside the classroom is almost as important as what you do in the classroom. So if you're just a student who studies all day and doesn't do anything else, you most likely [00:27:00] will not get accepted into most universities. Very interesting here.

All right, next up we have "get into"—a phrasal verb. In the context of education, this means to be accepted by a school or by a program. The college application process here is extremely stressful, and so we really want to get into these schools. If not, we're really sad.

Next up, we have "to hit the ground running." This is when we start something with a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm. On her first day of college, she hit the ground running and joined three clubs. Oftentimes, our goal is to start something new—a new class, a new course, a new job—with energy and enthusiasm, and sometimes it dies off as the semester progresses.

Next up, we have a three-word phrasal verb: "sign up for." This is to [00:28:00] enroll in a class, an event, or an activity. For example, I signed up for a cooking class this semester.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb "check out." Now, "check out" has multiple meanings, like most phrasal verbs. So you may have heard this in a previous episode—I think we talked about this in the shopping episode—but "check out" in this context means to look at or explore something to see if you are interested. For example, he's checking out different clubs to see which one he wants to join.

So it says that she was checking out Greek life. Okay, let's talk about this. This is a huge part of American college culture. Greek life is fraternities and sororities. These are social organizations that are only on college campuses in the [00:29:00] United States.

They're referred to as Greek life because they use Greek letters in their names like Alpha, Gamma, Beta. Fraternities are social organizations for male students. Sororities are for female students. Members live together in a big house, either right on campus or right off campus. They do campus events, community service, sometimes philanthropy, and big-time networking.

If you look at a lot of presidents, a lot of influential people in the United States, most of them came from either secret societies, or they came from fraternities and sororities. In order to join, you have to do a lot of ridiculous things on campus, and then they select only a certain number of people.

Greek life is really, really big in the United States. I did not want any part of it. A lot of times, there's a lot of partying, drinking. They [00:30:00] do good things sometimes, but it's a very controversial topic here in the United States. But that is what Greek life is.

Next up we have: to have a lot on your plate. If you can visualize a plate with a lot of food—maybe you serve yourself a lot of food and then you realize, "Wait a second, I took too much food. This is a lot of food to eat"—that is similar to what this idiom means.
 To have a lot on your plate means to be very busy, have many responsibilities, have a lot of things that you need to accomplish.
 For example: She had a lot on her plate between classes, work, and volunteering.

Next we have to cram.
 To cram is a verb, and to cram is to study a lot in a short amount of time, normally right before the test. Now, the word cram also has another definition, which is to put [00:31:00] a lot of things in a small space. It can be—you want to cram a hundred people into one subway car. That’s another way that we use cramming. But in the context of school and education, it means that we try to put a lot of information in our brains in a short time.
 So, some students like to study slowly over a few weeks. Some students, they actually do better cramming the night before a test, putting all the information they need in their brains.
 For example: He stayed up all night cramming for his chemistry exam.

Next up, we have the expression to pull an all-nighter.
 To pull something in English—slang meaning like to pull something off—it means to accomplish something, typically. So, to pull an all-nighter means to stay awake all night long to study or work. So you are successfully able to stay [00:32:00] awake all night to submit a paper, submit a project, etc.
 Very, very common to do in American school culture during finals week, or even with certain jobs that you have. Maybe if you work on Wall Street in the business industry, you'll be pulling lots of all-nighters.
 For example: She pulled an all-nighter to finish her final research paper.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb blow off.
 To blow off a class or blow off an assignment means to skip or ignore something that you are not interested in doing anymore.
 So we can say: to blow someone off means you had plans with someone and you just decided to skip it. It's something that you are committed to and you just decide to not do it.
 We typically say: blow off my class, blow off an assignment. I'm just [00:33:00] not gonna do it. I'm gonna blow it off.
 For example: He blew off a major assignment and failed the class.

Next up we have the phrasal verb flunk out.
 Flunk out is a really common phrasal verb here when it comes to education. We can also use this for lower education as well. It means to fail so many classes that you're forced to leave the school.
 If you're in high school and you decide to blow off school—you skip school, you miss a lot of classes—you can actually flunk out and then be kicked out of the school, removed from the school.
 For example: If he keeps skipping exams, he might flunk out of school.

Next up, we have an interesting expression. This is the freshman 15.
 A freshman is a first-year student. So we have [00:34:00] four names: freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. It’s actually the same for high school and university.
 And 15 refers to the amount of weight that you gain during your freshman year if you go away to college.
 The main reason for this is because college campuses typically have not-so-great options for food. College campuses have a lot of unhealthy fast food franchises. Like my first university—where I got my bachelor's degree—had a Taco Bell.
 And a lot of students that live on campus or spend long hours on campus get food right on campus. And it's a lot of junk food.
 You know, most dorm rooms don’t have kitchens, and for students who live in the dorms, they can only eat what’s in the area, and so they gain 15 [00:35:00] pounds. It’s called the freshman 15.
 For all of you, this is a little bit less than seven kilograms.
 For example: After eating junk food every day, she realized she gained the freshman 15.

Next up, we have to drop a class.
 We use the verb drop when we officially stop taking a class before the end of the term.
Now, this is not to just stop going—this is to officially remove the class from your schedule. You go to the administration and you tell them, “I don’t want this class anymore,” and they remove it.
We don’t say "remove myself," we say drop a class. It is dropped from our schedules.
For example: I had to drop two classes because my workload was too heavy.

Next up we have the phrasal verb [00:36:00] burn out.
 Burn out is used in many contexts, but it means to become extremely tired, stressed out from doing too much work.
 People who burn out are people that don’t really take emotional breaks, physical breaks, and honestly, I feel like maybe most adults have been burned out or have almost burned out at some point in their lives.
 You just have too much stuff happening in your life and you're not really able to take a mental health break or breaks—and you burn out.
 Many college students burn out at some point in their college life because they take on too many things: too many campus activities, too many difficult classes, too many parties.
 For example: By the middle of the semester, she was burned out from working nonstop.Next up, we have the three-word phrasal verb [00:37:00] sit in on.
To sit in on a class means to attend a class without officially being enrolled.
Let’s break this down a little bit. Sit in on has two uses here.
For example: He sat in on the lecture to see if he wanted to take the course next semester.
 Many colleges allow you to sit in on classes. So, if I want to take an advanced chemistry class, I could sit in on one class, see if I like it, and then sign up for it next semester.
 This is the typical way to use it.

And lastly, we have to nail a test.
 Now, in episode number 46, I taught you bomb a test, which means to do really poorly on a test. And to ace a test—nail a test is actually similar to ace a test. They both mean to do very well [00:38:00] on a test.
You probably have heard a lot of Americans say, “Ooh, I nailed it.” That means to do something successfully.
Sometimes you'll see online a sarcastic post where people say #nailedit.
For example, if I see someone baking a cake and the cake is really beautiful, and then I try to bake the cake and it came out terrible, I would write #nailedit just to show that I did such a terrible job.
But typically, nailed it means to do something successfully.
For example: She studied for weeks and totally nailed the test.

Okay, so guess what? You just learned 19 new phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms and expressions that you can use to talk about education.
 Your homework, as usual, is to try and use these words this week—even if it's just five of them. Try to have a [00:39:00] conversation with someone. Try to send a text message, send an email.
 Hey, if you wanna use them, send me an email. It’s gabby@englishwithgabby.com.
 But remember that the best way to actually remember these words and feel confident enough to use them is by practicing as much as you can and using repetition. So go ahead and use these words.

Well, that’s a wrap for today’s episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today’s study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently.
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