<p>I am a bit confused about the whole US College thing.
I'm from Germany and there you apply for a "major" and then you study solely it.(Btw: Bachelor in 3 years)
Well, in the US, many schools have a core and you select your major afterwards.
So first question, are unis with a core called liberal art colleges?
For how long do you (mostly) have to attend the core and do all the subject count into your final grade?
Could it be, that I choose to study physics major and then I screw up some English test and get a bad overall grade?
And is it true, that none the UC Colleges have cores?</p>
<p>Liberal arts colleges are a term that is used to refer to schools that do not have graduate or PhD programs. They exist only for the purpose of undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Many universities have something like ‘The College of Arts and Sciences’ something to that effect as a part of the university. This is where a person could take classes in the liberal arts–meaning humanities or social sciences or something to that effect.</p>
<p>For all colleges (to my knowledge) in the US, you need not select a major until at least the latter half of your freshman year, and probably not until sophomore year. As for the core, requirements vary from school to school so if you don’t want a core you should seek out a school without a large core. As an example, the University of Chicago has a very time-consuming Core that one must complete, whereas Brown University has little to no general education requirements.</p>
<p>Many colleges and universities now have pretty detailed descriptions of the coursework requirements for each major available online. Perhaps taking a close look at what the course requirements for each field are would answer some of your questions.</p>
<p>Physics majors will no doubt have to take some English composition courses, but a mediocre grade in one or two of them would probably not be fatal to a talented physics student.</p>
<p>The US post-secondary education system can appear confusing to many foreigners. Undergrad students in the US often spend a year or two doing work which is typically covered in high school in Europe or Asia. This is why many students passing A levels, the Abitur or French Baccalaurate degree will get sophomore standing in the US. They are assumed to have covered much of the introductory material in high school. Conversely, when US college students study abroad during their junior at European universities, they typically take second year classes, not third year classes. </p>
<p>Most US colleges and universities have so-called distribution requirements where all students are required to take some english, social science, foreign language, math and natural science class, whatever their major. Some distribution requirements are light to non-existent (Brown, Amherst…) others are very extensive and often require students to choose from a very narrow set of options (Columbia, Chicago), others again fall somehwere in the middle with many options to meet the distribution requirements (Harvard, MIT…). </p>
<p>With the distribution requirements routinely taking up to half of all credits required for graduation, they can have very substantial impact on your GPA. In that sense it is vastly different from Europe where one’s knowledge in the social sciences or literature is irrelevant to the placement of a student in medicine or engineering. </p>
<p>This focus on general studies combined with the high cost of college education in the US explains why fewer and fewer students from developed countries elect to get to college in the US (as opposed to graduate school). It is just not worth it.</p>