Meaning & use
undergraduate
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person studying at a college or university for a first degree, before any master's or doctoral work.
Grammar: Countable: an undergraduate, many undergraduates; often shortened informally to undergrad.
Patterns
- an undergraduate at somewhere
- an undergraduate in a subject
As an undergraduate, he lived in a dormitory on the main campus.
The university admits about four thousand undergraduates each year.
Several undergraduates helped the professor collect data for the project.
adjectivebefore a noun
Relating to the study done for a first degree, or to the students doing it.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: an undergraduate degree, not a degree that is undergraduate.
Patterns
- undergraduate degree
- undergraduate course
She finished her undergraduate degree in biology at twenty-one.
The undergraduate library is open all night during exams.
Undergraduate classes are usually larger than graduate seminars.
Word forms
| plural | undergraduates |
|---|
Common combinations
- undergraduate degree
- An undergraduate degree usually takes three or four years.
- undergraduate student
- Every undergraduate student must take a writing course.
- undergraduate studies
- During her undergraduate studies she lived abroad for a year.
- undergraduate research
- Undergraduate research gives students experience in a real laboratory.
- undergraduate program
- The engineering undergraduate program is highly competitive.
Synonyms and how they differ
- undergrad
- Undergrad is the casual spoken shortening, fine in conversation but less suited to formal writing.
- college student
- College student is broader and can include people in two-year or graduate programs.
- freshman
- A freshman is only a first-year undergraduate, so it is narrower than undergraduate.
Opposites
Word family
- graduate noun
- a person who has finished a degree, or who studies beyond a first degree
- graduate verb
- to complete a degree or course
- graduation noun
- the ceremony or act of receiving a degree
- postgraduate adjective
- relating to study after a first degree
Commonly confused: undergraduate or graduate?
undergraduate vs graduate
A graduate has finished a degree, and in American English also describes students at the master's or doctoral level. An undergraduate has not yet earned the first degree.
Practice
She is still an ___ because she has not yet earned her bachelor's degree.
Choose one answer.
Someone working toward a first degree is an undergraduate. A graduate or alumna has already finished, and a postgraduate studies after a first degree.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “undergraduate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.