Vocational and Higher Education

The path of life after high school is a personal choice for each American. After completing required courses of study, students can try their hand at college or go straight to work.

Today 87 percent of Americans have a high school diploma. Less than one-third of the country’s population has a bachelor’s degree.

Professional education in the United States is available to young people at colleges and universities (there are private and public). The main difference is not the level of education, but its specifics: in colleges the emphasis is mainly on practice and theoretical material – all educational activities are aimed primarily at the training of workers. Universities are more practiced in students’ research activities, which consist of not only the skill of repeating proposed algorithms of actions, but also the ability to develop something fundamentally new. University students usually write a lot of research papers, essays, and articles, while the main task of college students is to master the profession and be able to show what they have learned in practice.

Universities offer a bachelor’s degree, which is usually about four years. If you plan to study for a master’s degree, you will need to take two more years to complete your bachelor’s degree. Tuition at universities can range from $2,000 to $40,000 per year, depending on the state, field of study, and program (costs are usually higher for graduate programs). At public universities in America, the primary goal is to educate the citizens of their state. If an American from another part of the country goes there, he or she will have to pay more than local students.

All courses are divided into general and specialized. General Education courses, in turn, can be required or leave students free to choose. Learning outcomes are assessed so that they reflect the student’s activity during the semester: It is not possible to do nothing all semester and cram everything for the exam.

College courses may be shorter and less expensive, depending on the field of study. Two or three years of training is equivalent to a secondary vocational education. After that, you can go straight to a third-year university in the same field. And 4 years of college gives you a bachelor’s degree. In this way college becomes the initial stage of higher education. I must say that in America quite a few colleges have a religious orientation. Not all of them teach a specific major, and not all are accredited. Colleges can be of different orientations, the most popular of which are the so-called liberal arts colleges, where students learn languages and humanities.

A great advantage of the 2-year colleges is that it is very easy to enter them, even if the student has problems with the English language. Before the beginning of the program you can take an intensive language courses, which exist in each college, where English as a foreign language (ESL) is taught.

Separate attention should be paid to private universities in the country – they can usually boast higher achievements, as the teaching staff is usually selected more carefully, and competition among applicants there is much more serious than in public institutions.

The entire educational process in the United States is based on a credit system. Each subject you study “costs” a few credits. The task of the student is to accumulate over two years of study about sixty credits, which makes it possible to move to the third year of the university bachelor’s degree. The calendar year is divided into four quarters (semesters) of 12 weeks. A student is expected to study three semesters a year and take one semester off. However, if a student wants to save time, he or she can do without vacations, which allows him or her to complete the two-year program in one and a half years. The fee is paid per semester. As I found out later, studying here can start with any quarter.