How does the American college system work?

Question

You know - when you leave high school you go to be an undergraduate - in UK we choose our subject before we start, in the last year of school, for example I have a degree in Religious Studies, I chose this before I finished my A-levels. How does it work in US, I know it's different but how?

Answer 1

You can pick what degree you want to work towards after admission. Some schools will force you to choose at some point and kick you out if you spend too long there, whether you've achieved a degree or not. Typically, it's the state schools who do that.

Answer 2

First, to even get admitted to a University you have to pass entrance or placement exams, such as the SAT and ACT. Secondly, you have to maintain a minimum grade point average of 2.5 for most Universities. That GPA is about a grade letter C or a 75%. In the US any grade below a 60% is considered failing, and if you go two semesters without passing you will get expelled from school. And of course, you have to be able to afford to pay the tuition and associated costs of attending school.

Here you are considered an undergraduate when you have a Bachelors, Associates, or no degree. Masters and PhD is considered graduate. Some schools do require a declared major, and to receive any scholarships or financial aid or loans you have to have a declared major (usually). You can change your course of study in the US, or pick a new major. We don't have "programs" like you do in the UK. We have what is called curriculums. This is basically where we are required to take certain number of classes in certain subjects in order to earn our degrees, instead of being required to take specific classes, etc. For example: To earn an Associates you need 63 credit hours, where classes are on average 4 credit hours a piece, and to earn the degree you'd have to take 4 credit hours of Math, 4 credit hours of Social Sciences, 4 credit hours of Composition, , 2 credit hours of Physical Education, and the rest in classes that count towards your major/degree. Basically our major is our declaration of intention of earning a specific degree. Here we can also double-major (earn 2 degrees at the same time), and minor in a subject. It is roughly 63 credit hours required per 2 every 2 years of university attended in order to earn a degree. 63 for an Associates, 120+ for a Bachelors, etc.

The first four years of all secondary levels of education are named, in chronological order: Freshman (year one), Sophmore, Junior, and Senior. Past Senior year, you would be then working on your Masters degree.

Answer 3

In American, people are constantly changing their majors! You can start without really having a major (They call it General Studies) This way you get all your general education classes out of the way (most degrees require a fair amount of gen ed classes to graduate) and find what interest you as you go along. Or if you know what you like, you sign up for a major when your registering for admissions and go from there

Answer 4

American Universities are interested in two things: 1) can you pay the tuition? and 2)--of less importance--can you academically handle the work? If you never declare a major, never earn a degree, but you can do #1 & 2, they are happy.
It is the STUDENT who must decide on a course of study--money Does run out.