Concept

Freshman

Summary
A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In much of the Arab world, a first-year is called a "Ebtidae" (Pl. Mubtadeen), which is Arabic for "beginner". In Brazil, students that pass the vestibulares and begin studying in a college or university are called "calouros" or more informally "bixos" ("bixetes" for girls), an alternate spelling of "bicho", which means "animal" (although commonly used to refer to bugs). Calouros are often subject to hazing, which is known as "trote" (lit. "prank") there. The first known hazing episode in Brazil happened in 1831 at the Law School of Olinda and resulted in the death of a student. In 1999, a Chinese Brazilian calouro of the University of São Paulo Medicine School named Edison Tsung Chi Hsueh was found dead at the institution's swimming pool; this has since become one of the most well known episodes of violent hazing and has received extensive national media coverage since that year. The term "first year" is used for a first-year student at university or college. The student orientation period at Canadian universities is often called "Frosh week." Some East Asian countries use the same names as used in the United States (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior), among them Malaysia. In Germany, a first-semester student of a university program (Bachelor, Master, State exam etc) is called Erstsemester, or in short and more common, Ersti, with "erst" meaning first and the -i adding a benevolently diminutive tone. The plural is Erstis. Unlike the word freshman, which stands for a student in their whole first year, the German word Ersti is exclusively used for students in their first semester. Students of higher semesters are accordingly called Zweitsemester, Drittsemester, Viertsemester etc. and sometimes, but rarely, also Zweitis, Drittis, Viertis, etc. for fun.
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