 Anybody who watches popular teenage American
serials like Beverly Hills 90210 or the Wonder
Years must have been confused when a 23 year
old says he goes to school and a 15 year old
says he going to high school! Without doubt
understanding the education system of a particular
country helps a great deal in preparing you
for your further studies there. America is one
of the hottest destinations for Indian students.
Let's then look at the system of education in
the U S of A.
The American way
American education can
be divided into elementary, secondary and higher
education. Elementary and secondary education
is given for a period of eight years at elementary
school and middle school followed by four years
in high school. After this the students appear
for their ACT (American College Test) / SAT
(Scholastic Assessment Test). The scores in
the SAT / ACT determine which college one goes
to when they are usually 17 or 18 years old.
After this students
pursue their bachelor's degree at colleges or
universities (undergraduate schools) usually
for a period of four years. The undergraduate
degrees are divided into two categories, arts
and science. The former is mainly for humanities
and social science and the latter, for natural
science. There is no steam as commerce but you
can pursue a bachelor's programme in Business
Administration.
For your Bachelor's degree,
the emphasis you choose is called a major. Majors
are offered in liberal arts areas such as art,
history, philosophy, foreign languages, and
sociology; as well as in professional/vocational
areas such as nursing, law, business, and engineering.
Majors require you to study an area in depth,
but you won't be expected to declare a major
until after two years of study, and you may
change majors or pursue more than one.
Other requirements, sometimes
called 'core' or 'distribution requirements,'
ensure that you have studied in areas outside
your major. For example, engineering students
might complete distribution requirements in
art; history majors in mathematics.
They can then enroll for Graduate
schools which have mainly two levels, masters
and doctoral, which takes 1-2 years for the
former, and 3-5 years for the latter.
American elementary and secondary
education is free except private schools. However,
higher education is very expensive, including
public ones.
Types of Universities and
Colleges
Higher education can be pursued
in two-year colleges, four-year colleges and
universities with masters and doctorate programs.
Two-year colleges are called
community colleges or junior year colleges.
Here you can pursue the first two years of your
undergraduate programme. Tuition fees here are
usually lower than that of four-year colleges
making it a less expensive proposition.
You can also enroll in four-year
colleges, which do not have graduate schools
i.e. they have a bachelor's programme but do
not offer a master's or doctorate programme.
They are usually small and have few departments.
However the ratio of professors and students
is very less; in the range of 1: 9-12. Also
each student is consulted to his/her own curriculum
based on the goals of education for that particular
student. Most of these colleges are privately
run and are very expensive.
Then there are the
large universities. Most of them have the masters
and doctorate programs in addition to the bachelor's
programme program. These universities are usually
supported by the state financially. They are
less expensive for residents and more expensive
for non-residents, since the parents of the
former are paying tax and support them indirectly.
There are also private universities,
and some well known ones include Harvard University,
Yale University, Princeton University, and Stanford
University. The tuition of private universities
is very high, for Americans and non-Americans
alike, but majority of students get scholarships
or some sort of financial aid to cover majority
parts of the tuition. Usually students at these
institutions work while they study to pay for
their education. However international students
are prohibited to work off-campus during the
first year and have to seek employment strictly
on campus.
Terms
American colleges start in
August or September and end in the following
May or June. Each academic year is divided in
two semester the spring semester and the fall
semester or three quarters. One semester lasts
15 weeks, and one quarter 10 weeks.
Students can also opt to take classes in summer
school i.e. during the spring break. If you
do this, it may be possible to complete a four-year
course in three years or even less.
Credits
This is the currency by which
you are valued. As a rule, one credit represents
one hour (50 minutes) of class time a week for
one term, except in the cases of language or
laboratory courses, where one credit equals
up to two hours per week.
Normally, 60 credits are required
for associate degrees (junior college), 120
for bachelor's degree (four year college), 30
graduate credits for master's degrees and 90
graduate credits for doctoral degrees.
For undergraduate studies,
international students have to be full time
students, and they have to take the minimum
of 9 or 12 credits a week. That is, they have
to attend classes for 9 or 12 hours a week.
Generally, a Bachelor of Science
degree, for example, requires more credits in
the area of the student's major than a Bachelor
of Arts degree does. Most art degrees require
only 24-30 credits in the major fields. So it
is possible to have two majors like French and
Spanish
It is also possible to transfer credits from
one institution to another. Most colleges require
one-year residency. This means that even if
you have spent just one year of your total academic
life in a particular college, you will get your
degree from that college provided you obtain
the requisite number of credits.
Teaching Methodology
Each class has different requirements
to finish and earn credits. Students are given
a course syllabus, which explains the goal,
contents, textbooks used, required work, class
schedule, assignments, reading assignments for
each class, and how grades are given. Most classes
have a final exam at the end of the term, and
one midterm exam in the middle of quarter system
classes, and one or two midterm exams in the
semester system classes. They may have a term
paper at the end of the class. Some classes
may have projects or presentations. The course
syllabus shows what percentage of points are
assigned for which work.
Grades
Grades are given if students
enroll any class whether they finish them or
not. The grades are as follows:
A (4.0) - very good (90% and above)
B (3.0) - good (80-90%)
C (2.0) - all right (70-80%)
D (1.0) - poor (60-70%)
F (0) - failure (below 60 %)
Some colleges may also give the middle score
such as 3.5, and 2.5.
All grades are permanent records,
and any part of them will not be taken away.
Thus, even ten years later, if you try to go
to a graduate school, all grades will be shown
to the graduate school.
Students' academic
achievements are shown with GPA (grade point
average), which is the average score of all
grades based on the credits. Good GPA are very
important for getting scholarships and good
jobs amongst others.
The GPA is calculated as follows:
Each individual course of the programme is worth
two, three, or four credits. To obtain the GPA,
multiply your grades of each course with its
corresponding number of credits and add them
up. Dividing this with the total number of credits
gives your the GPA. The maximum GPA that one
can get is 4
For
e.g.
| Course |
Grade Value |
Credit Hours |
Grade Points |
| MATH |
A = 4 |
3 |
12 |
| ENGLISH |
B = 3 |
3 |
9 |
| GEOLOGY |
C = 2 |
4 |
8 |
| CHEM |
D = 1 |
3 |
3 |
| PHYSICS |
F = 0 |
3 |
0 |
| Total: |
|
16 |
32 |
Divide 32 (Grade Points
Column) by 16 (Credit Hours Attempted Column)
and the G.P.A. = 2.00
In conclusion
The American educational
system differs from educational systems in
many other countries in that it is based on
a liberal arts philosophy - the idea that
students should study a wide range of subjects
before specializing in one area. So you can
do your major in Business Administration and
pursue a minor in Dramatics at the same time.
You are at liberty to complete your academic
programme depending upon you capacity be it
earlier or later than the normal time period.
The emphasis here is on understanding the
subjects reflected by evaluation system, which
takes into account the number of credits,
in class assignments and projects and presentations
rather than just the marks obtained in the
final examinations.
The United States
has over 3,600 universities, colleges and
community colleges. Whatever your academic
ability, you should be able to find a school
that meets your needs.
Tabular comparison of
the Education system
|
INDIA |
USA |
| Class I – IV –
Primary Education
Class V – X- Secondary Education
Class XI –XII- Higher Secondary Education
Graduation (Three years)
Post graduation (Two years)
PH D (Three years) |
Class I- V – Elementary
School
Class V – VII – Middle School
Class IX – XII – High School
Undergrad Programme (Four years)
Masters programme (two years)
Doctorate programme (three-five yrs)
|
|
