Confused by the U.S. system...

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>I'm a little confused by the U.S. (advanced) education system...</p>

<p>I am from the Netherlands where we have a system with (roughly said) (public) Universities only. Concerning the non-beta studies, it generally comes down to doing a Bachelor-study of 3 years, and then finishing your academic career with a Master which theoretically takes 1 year in most cases. Of course, afterwards you could go into research on the academic level etc, if you'd want to.</p>

<p>However, while I am currently planning to study in the United States (namely Finance, which should be about equivalent to the Dutch 'Master' level) one year from now, the system in de U.S. appears rather vague to me. I have the choice of going to Universities, (community) colleges, business schools -which all come in the flavors 'public' and 'private'- and many of these terms seem to be used interchangeably.</p>

<p>So could someone please explain this system a bit, or maybe even better, does anybody have an URL with an explanation of this system for me? Are private instituations almost always better concerning quality than the public institutions?</p>

<p>Thanks!!</p>

2

<p>Here's something to start you off:</p>

<p>A college has a specific educational focus - for example, arts and sciences, engineering, or agriculture & life sciences. Colleges can be their own institutions, or they can be part of a larger university. Some types of independent colleges are:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>technical colleges, which are focused on the sciences</p></li>
<li><p>liberal arts colleges<a href="LACs">/i</a>, which aim to give students a broad-based, non-vocational education. Most LACs don't have "career-oriented" majors like engineering, business, nursing, education, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>*community colleges, which are designed to make college education accessible to a wider variety of people. Some students get two-year degrees from a community college and transfer to another college or university to earn their bachelor's degree. Other community college students are high schoolers taking enrichment classes, students who've finished high school but need remedial work in certain subjects, adults working toward a college degree part-time, or community members who have a casual interest in a certain subject.</p></li>
</ul>

3

<p>The most famous and prestigious schools in the US are private schools. However, there are a lot or public schools that are very high quality as well - for example, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina, the University of California at Berkeley, etc. Here's a brief rundown of the differences between public and private schools:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Financially, public schools have in-state and out-of-state tuitions, while private schools charge all students the same amount. Public schools are generally cheaper, even for out-of-state students, but private schools tend to give more aid. (Note that financial aid is somewhat different for international students - I don't know the specific details about that.)</p></li>
<li><p>Public schools rely more on state funds, private schools more on endowments. Private schools tend to have more financial resources than public schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Public schools generally have more straightforward applications - fewer essays and recommendations, with more of an emphasis on numbers.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>There's a great post by hawkette in this</a> thread that explains some more important differences.</p>

4

<p>First of all my thanks for your posts and the useful link, quaere!</p>

<p>However, could you maybe also elaborate a bit more on 'business schools' and their relation to Universities? (I suppose the answer given to this question would also hold for 'Law schools', 'Med schools' etc, only then it obviously concerns other academical areas). Are 'Business schools' just the 'Department' of a University that offers the 'graduate level business administration (related) education'?</p>

<p>By the way, is it correct to say that a college is generally a part of a Univerity? Or more specifically, that a certain college concerns the 'undergraduate level education'-part of a University? Or is this simply incorrect?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for your answers!</p>

5

<p>The old universities (i.e. those dating back to the colonial period like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.) are normally divided into an undergraduate section known as college , one or more graduate schools , and possibly several other professional schools .</p>

<p>The college in the HYP (Harvard-Yale-Princeton) sense is the unit within the university that grants the degrees of Bachelor of Arts (B.A) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.), which are normally awarded following 4 years of full-time study beyond secondary school. After earning a bachelor's degree, one can enter the job market directly or, alternatively, apply for admission into a graduate school or into a professional school.</p>

<p>Graduate schools grant academic master's degrees (e.g the M.A or the M.S degrees) and research doctorates (e.g. the Ph.D. or the Sc.D. degrees). A master's degree normally requires two years of study beyond the initial bachelor's degree , whereas a Ph.D. may be earned after 3 to 5 years of study beyond a master's.</p>

<p>Professional schools, like graduate schools, only admit students who already hold a bachelor's degree, but they differ from graduate schools because, instead of granting research degrees, they specialize on teaching certain prestigious professions, especially law, business, and medicine. Law school normally lasts 3 years beyond the bachelor's degree and leads to the J.D. (Doctor of Jurisprudence) degree. Medical school lasts 4 years beyond the bachelor's course and leads to the M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) degree. The primary degree granted by Business Schools is in turn the M.B.A (Master in Business Administration), which requires two years of study beyond an initial bachelor's degree.</p>

<p>Note however that, in the modern universities (i.e. those established in the 19th and 20th centuries), the term "college" may occasionally have a different meaning and be used as the equivalent of a "faculty" in British English, i.e., a unit within the university specializing in one specific subject, e.g. the College of Engineering, the College of Fine Arts, etc. Colleges in that second meaning may grant both bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees.</p>

<p>Finally, a "liberal arts college" (LAC) means an isolated institution of higher learning, normally small in size, that is not part of a university and grants 4-year bachelor's degrees only, usuallly offering a broad , non-specialized curriculum.</p>

<p>Answering your second question, U.S. universities may be private (like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Duke, Chicago, UPenn, most of the other top 30 American universities, and pratically all LACs ) or public (mostly the state universities like the Universities of California, Illinois, Texas, Virginia, Florida, etc.). Unlike in Europe, both public and private universities charge tuition fees, but private universities are generally more expensive. State universities are actually relatively cheap for in-state residents; for international students, they are still very expensive by European standards.</p>

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<p>Bruno, thanks man, this clarified a lot!</p>

7

<p>I have got a new question concerning the U.S. system;</p>

<p>Here in the Netherlands we have got several levels of difficulty of the Dutch equivalent of the U.S. 'High school' (In the Netherlands we call this something like 'Middle school'). Generally, only if you finish 'the heighest level', you go to (what we call) a 'University'. Finishing the second heighest level usually also implies continuation of studying, only then the next institution isn't called 'University', but (amusingly enough) 'high school'.</p>

<p>Now, I get the idea that a relatively large part of the U.S. citizens go (or have gone) to a University at some point in their life. So that brings me to my question;</p>

<p>Do you have got differences in levels of difficulty at U.S. Universities? And then I don't mean to refer to differences between difficulty of different types of courses (like e.g. 'Rocket science' vs. 'Sociology'), but really differences in difficulty in courses regarding the same subject. Do Universities for instance offer easy business course (for the 'less smart') and 'more difficult' business courses for the more intellectual?</p>

<p>I hope you understand what I mean... Tnx!</p>