And after that, what about juniors and seniors? Those terms are indicative of a ranking, of a hierarchy if you will, based on levels of achievement, credits earned towards graduation, etc.
So, eventually, you will have 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year, with no indications or implications that any year is superior in any way to any other year.
It's like that with graduate school.
And you might well wonder whether spending more time in graduate school really does make somebody superior.
“So, eventually, you will have 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year, with no indications or implications that any year is superior in any way to any other year.”
At the University of Virginia, the terms first year student, second year student, third year student, and fourth year student have always been used to distinguish classes.
At the US Military Academy at West Point freshmen are called plebes, sophomores are called yucks or yearlings, juniors are called cows, and seniors are called firsties.
Some universities, such as Elon University, refer to freshmen as “first year students” and the remaining years as sophomore, junior, senior.
Regardless of the wording used to designate one’s year at an institution of learning, I suspect the students are very clear as to where they stand in the pecking order.
“5th year senior” is common in college.