April 29, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR LYNN FRASER IN NV
Most US college programs take 4 years to obtain a "major" degree(some are 5, and you can attain an associate's degree in less than 4). You must choose a subject major and fulfill the requirements of that major before receiving a degree, but do not necessarily need to have chosen your major when you arrive at school - you still have time to decide after a year as long as you've taken some of the prerequisite classes for that major (in science and technology fields many of the prerequisite classes are the same). All programs that I know of allow you (even require you) to take additional classes outside of your major in any subject you want. If you like you can use these extra classes to obtain a "minor" degree (a subset of classes for a major degree field). Or you can just use these classes to expand your learning experience, which is the standard approach. It is also possible to obtain more than one major degree if you take all of the requisite courses in multiple fields, but this may take you longer than 4 years.
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A: FROM MENTOR KATHERINE DRENNON IN KY
Charlotte, universities in the US generally have a four year study program. You choose field you would most like to have as your career (presumably), and take courses enough to obtain a bachelor's degree. For example, when I attended college, I wanted to be a doctor, so I thought that biology would be a good foundation for that career. I completed a biology cirriculum I designed based on the requirements presented to me by the university and in three in a half years I had my degree.
Most degree programs are designed so that they can be completed in four years, but they are easily attainable in less time, or more depending on the individual. You choose the courses that best fit your interests and major based on the university's guidlelines for that major (which are generally flexible) and your own personal choices. Two people could major in the exact same course of study, say engineering, and could get the same degree, but come out with distinctly different training based on the courses you choose to take. That is what makes the university system so grand: it is structured enough to make sure you are trained for your career, and flexible enough to allow you to choose your own specialty in that career.
After the bachelor's degree (a.k.a. undergraduate degree), there is graduate school to consider. This is where one obtains a masters degree and/or PhD. If graduate school is not the way you want to go, there is always professional school, for doctors, lawyers, etc. Professional schools generally have a prescribed cirriculum that is rigid depending on your chosen specialty. Graduate school has a lot more flexibility. Graduate school generally can take anywhere from 2-5+ years to complete, depending on the course of study, degree sought, and amount of effort one puts into it. Professional school generally takes 2-4 years depending on what it is for (Drs.-4yrs, Law-3yrs, Pharmacy-2yrs, etc).
I hope this gives you a little more insight into the university system in the US.
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A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK IN RI
I can really sympathize with you! I couldn't understand the UK
system at all when I was applying for a Fulbright to study there
after college.

The US college system doesn't expect that you will know exactly what
you want to study when you being. In fact, it expects that you will
study a variety of subjects and then choose one (or two) to study in
more depth. These would be your "major" and "minor" subjects, or one
might be called your "concentration" and you might
"double-concentrate" or else focus on just one subject. In the UK a
"course of study" refers to _all_ your academic work. You might
enroll in a 3-year course for a degree. In the US, a "course" is a
class in a particular subject; it typically lasts just one term and a
student typically takes (enrolls in) 4 or 5 courses for a full-time
course "load", each course meeting several hours a week.

Most US colleges have two terms a year (called the fall and spring
"semesters") possibly with an optional summer school, but some are on
a "quarter" system, with fall, winter, spring and summer terms. As I
recall, the UK system has three terms over about 9 months, with
quaint (to us) names like "Michelmas" and I forget the others.

In the US system, the courses for your major subject make up between
a quarter and a half of all the courses you must take to earn a
degree. Some colleges have "distribution requirements," meaning that
students must take courses outside their major area of study - some
minimum number in the humanities, social sciences and sciences
regardless of what their majors are, sometimes a math requirement or
a foreign language requirement. There is usually a variety of course
offerings to choose from, any one of which can satisfy a requirement
for a course in that broad field.

In addition to the major and distribution requirements, more courses
are usually needed for the degree. These are "elective" courses and
can be in any subject at all. (Sometimes the major is composed of
specific required course and a number of electives within the major
subject area.)

So you see there is a lot of choice. One of the challenges of
college here is to choose wisely - to get a good start in a major
subject but also to learn something of a broad variety of subjects.
One of my colleagues expresses it this way: if you are interested in
science, you should also take some courses in areas where there is
_not_ just one right answer to each question, but where many opinions
are defensible. You should also take courses that require you to
write papers; skillful writing is in demand in all fields, but
undergraduate science courses often require only short answers on
exams and homework.

Having spent a year in the British system, I think the final level of
education is fairly similar. British A-level preparation is more
advanced than our high school courses (most of them), and students
there spend three years at university in one major subject area, or
one with related minor subjects. In the US, we enter college
(meaning university, not in the British sense of college) less well
prepared on average and come from such a variety of high schools that
figuring out what level of course to start in can be a hard task.
But we get to take a variety of subjects at a slightly older age,
when the added maturity helps us to understand them better
(especially the humanities and arts.) We take 4 years to get a
bachelor's degree, and spend a minimum of about half that time in our
major area - two full years vs the three of the British system. But
in postgraduate education, the British system (in science) proceeds
directly to research work with little or no further formal class
time; the US system spends about a year in graduate courses before
starting research. So by the time of the PhD we come out very equal.
I did my 4 year chemistry major here, did a year (the 3rd year
honours biochemistry course) at Bristol, and returned to the US for
grad school, primarily because I didn't want to have done the less
demanding undergraduate _and_ graduate degrees.

The major weakness of the British system, to my mind, is its lack of
choice. It's not possible to decide after a year that you'd rather
be a historian than a physicist. The major weakness of the US system
is its lack of structure - you have to put some thought into getting
an education that fits you to enjoy the finer things in life and for
a career. Schools that have distribution requirements may help with
these choices more - but in practice, few of us learn well from being
forced to take a course we don't want to.

Another difference between the two systems is that US students are
much more likely to study sequentially at more than one university,
adding up credits from each to earn a degree from one. This practice
can add to the chaos of our very loosely organized system. It's a
natural outgrowth, though, of the basic plan of adding up separate
courses (classes) to meet degree requirements, in contrast to the
British system of entering a course of study that has the whole three
years planned more coherently.

Many of the mentees on this list claim to know exactly what careers
they want before they've ever been to college. Many will find that
it's very common, once in college, to discover new fascinating
subjects and even to change majors several times. It's perfectly
sensible to look for a college that offers a good program in the
subject or subjects that you expect you will major in - but change is
at least as typical as single-minded devotion.

I've tried to contrast some of the confusing jargon of both
educational systems, but I'm sure I left some out. If you'd like to
send me a list of confusing technical terms I would try to define
them - bearing in mind that the precise meaning may be different in
different US colleges! It's confusing now, but you _will_ find your
way.