The US Higher Education system is incredibly diverse, as it is left to local and institutional authorities to administer schools. There’s a super elaborate categorization system to attempt to get everything straight: Carnegie Classification of Institutions (it is seriously complicated so don’t attempt to read unless you are mentally prepared for it). To save you the effort of reading it, we’ll instead highlight the key differences between schools, degree types, majors, etc.
A Bachelor’s Degree : The Academic Experience
Typically, successfully graduating from an undergraduate program will grant you a Bachelor’s Degree. To quote the description of a Bachelor Degree by the US Department of Education:
“U.S. bachelor degree programs usually include requirements for breadth as well as depth of study, and students will fulfill what are called liberal or general studies requirements for introductory knowledge in several subjects as well as a concentration in one or more subjects, called a ‘major.’”
This means to complete your degree you need to fulfill two parts:
1. General Education Requirements
This is sometimes also called breadth requirements, distributional requirements, common curriculum, or core curriculum.
Generally, you will need to take at least one class in each of a few specified academic areas (e.g. Humanities & Arts, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, etc.). Some schools also have other unique requirements such as foreign language requirements, or even a swimming requirement (ahem MIT), so do make sure to read up about those!
These requirements can vary in terms of rigidity or flexibility. Some schools are famous for “eliminating all distribution requirements,” so students "study what he chose, all that he chose, and nothing but what he chose" (e.g. Brown University’s Open Curriculum). Other schools are known for their rigorous and specific requirements (e.g. Columbia University’s Core Curriculum, which is a carefully crafted curriculum to cover various areas).
2. Major requirements
Your major is roughly equivalent to your chosen “course” in the UK or SG system. When you graduate, you will be conferred an accredited degree (Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) etc.) in your chosen major.
Different schools offer a different spread of majors that you can choose from. Most schools offer majors in professional/vocation/technical areas, such as Engineering or Architecture, with all other remaining majors being grouped under the general title of Arts and Sciences. Often, universities will group majors from the same professional/vocational/technical area under a “College” or “School” (e.g. College of Engineering, College of Health Sciences, School of Business, etc.) and typically have a large general College of Arts and Sciences (name may vary) for all other majors. Most schools also offer pre-professional pathways, commonly Pre-Law, Pre-Med and Pre-Business. These are not majors per se, rather academic programmes consisting of specific classes one needs to take as prerequisites (or recommended prerequisites) to professional graduate school programmes. Any student from any major –except Pre-Med, which typically requires STEM majors– can take these pre-professional paths.
Not all universities offer the full range of degrees, some are more focused. For example, Harvey Mudd College only offers Science and Engineering majors, 6 different majors to be specific, and 4 joint ones. There are also art and design schools like Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons School of Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While these specialized universities are typically more focused, some of them might have partnership programmes that allow you to opt-in for breadth in other universities. For instance, the Babson Olin Wellesley (BOW) collaboration is a partnership between three colleges specialised in Business, Engineering, and Liberal Arts respectively. You are advised to do your research for more nuanced academic programs in your interested schools.
One unique type of school in the US is the Liberal Arts College (LAC), which tends to be smaller than universtiies. LACs emphasize an undergraduate experience (as opposed to a graduate education) based on a liberal arts curriculum, a broad study of knowledge across the arts and sciences that trains intellectual capacities, as opposed to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum. (Examples of LACs include the NESCACs, a group of 11 LACs on East Coast of the US, and the Claremont Colleges, a group of 7 LACs (5 undergrad, 2 graduate) in Claremont, California on the West Coast.)
Some LACs might have collaborations or affiliations with other universities to allow students to use university resources while still maintaining a independent collegiate identity and environment. These students may have access to their affiliate university’s courses, student clubs/activities, and infrastructure (dining hall, libraries, gym, etc). Students from these LACs may even graduate with an affiliated degree from the university (e.g. Barnard College x Columbia University). However, the admissions and financial aid process, housing, meal plans, and administrative offices tend to be separate. These LACs are great for people who want the best of both worlds (big and small schools), but be careful, because there can be tradeoffs in the experience as you may never have the complete big/small school experience.
The Major Expansion Pack - minors, double majors, and more!
A standard Bachelor’s Degree takes 4 years to complete. However, there are students who choose to cram classes and complete their degree in 3 years, called “accelerating”. Furthermore, some students take additional courses outside of their major to complete what is known as a “minor”. Not all schools offer minors. Minors are like the Lite versions of a major, consisting of reduced coursework and fewer completion requirements. Some departments also offer minors that don’t have a major equivalent, these may be specially designed courses of study in specific focus areas. Your minor does not have to be related in any way to your major, you just have to complete the required classes. You can take multiple minors too, if you wish!
Apart from minors, students can also do joint majors, where you do two majors for one bachelor degree, or double majors (sometimes called double degrees, simultaneous degrees, etc.), where you do two majors for two bachelor degrees.
For joint majors, schools usually offer a specific list of joint majors, so you may have less flexibility in the sense that you cannot take any two majors and make it a joint major. Your coursework will consist of more interdisciplinary classes, and will have a heavier workload overall than a regular major, but the degree is still designed such that you can finish it in 4 years. Usually, joint majors were formed because too many people have historically chosen a particular pairing of double majors, so the school decided to streamline it into one joint program.
For double majors, neither of your majors have any bearing on each other, so you can take any two majors you want. However, since you will be earning two degrees, it is twice the workload, and people sometimes take longer than the usual 4 years to complete a double major. Of course, this is usually not as scary as it sounds because some classes can fulfill a requirement for both your majors, so you can “kill two birds with one stone”, essentially.
With good planning, joint majors and double majors are very doable, and a very attractive option for those who want to pursue multiple disciplines, or simply cannot decide on what they enjoy more.
If none of the listed majors appeal to you, you might have the possibility to build your own major. They may be called something like “Special Major” or “Special Concentrations.” There are some schools (e.g. Brown, Duke, Cornell, Yale, Harvard) that give you the freedom to do this. For instance, Cornell’s College Scholar Programme allows you to customise a major and exempts you from other general education requirements. These programmes involve a lot of independent study and planning, as you have to propose your own syllabus and find professors to mentor you. You generally need to prove that your proposed course of study is not already covered by an existing major.
The beauty of it all is that you are usually only required to declare one major by the end of your second year and you can add majors and/or minors till you graduate. You don’t need to worry about deciding now, as you will have plenty of time to figure out what you want to do while trying to fulfill your general education requirements!
Beyond the Bachelor degree
Most schools will offer a selection of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programmes. There are some schools that offer only undergraduate programs (e.g. liberal arts colleges) or only graduate and above.
This matters because this may have implications on the quality of your education, and the kinds of opportunities/classes you will have. For instance, if your school is a larger research university offering programmes at the graduate level or higher, it could mean that your professors conduct significant amounts of research in addition to teaching courses. You might also have more breadth of graduate-level materials and programmes, and possibly more opportunities to get involved in research. On the other hand, your professor’s attention might be more focused on the graduate students producing research, and less on the quality of teaching or engaging with the undergraduates. It is a trade-off that is not impossible to walk around and situations are different across universities; feel free to talk to seniors to find out more.
What your Academic Year might look like
There are two common systems amongst US universities: the semester system and the quarter system. In the semester system, the academic year is divided into Fall and Spring. Each session is 15-17 weeks (4 months) long with a winter break in between the Fall and Spring semesters and a Summer Break after Spring. Most schools in the US run on this system.
In the quarter system, the academic year is divided into four sessions: Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer, with the summer session usually being optional (only for students who want to complete classes in advance). Each session is about 10 weeks, and there is usually a short break (few days to a week) between each quarter. Some schools that use this system are University of Chicago, Stanford University, and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Many community colleges also use this system.
During each semester or quarter, you can choose up to a certain number of classes to take. Generally, there isn’t a hard and fast prescribed progression of classes for most majors, so choosing your classes each academic session is completely up to you. Certain majors like those in professional / vocational / STEM areas tend to have more major requirements (i.e. a larger fixed set of classes you must complete to earn your degree) and upper-level classes usually require that you complete specific lower-level classes first (pre-requisites), so these degrees can be less flexible, but there is generally no mandatory order in which you need to take these classes. Undergrads usually spend their first 1.5 years completing general requirements which are meant to expose you to different academic areas. This will help you decide on your major later on.
Generally university education is much more hands-off and independently directed, relative to a Singaporean JC system. Classes are conducted through a combination of lectures and discussion sections. Lectures are where your professor will deliver the material, and discussion sections are meant to help you reinforce the material, ask questions, and interact with your peers. For technical classes, there will be labs, where instructors will go through more hands-on skills. Whether attendance is mandatory for each of these class components really depends on the class and the professor, it is difficult to generalise. As with all things, you get what you give, so the more you invest in participating in class and getting to know your professors and classmates, the more you will get out of your academic experience.
Your university may also offer seminars, where class sizes are smaller and every class is a discussion section with your classmates and professor. Usually you come prepared to seminars having read some required readings (e.g. a whole book, chapters from a book, research papers, articles), your professor begins with an introductory spiel, and then you move into class discussions. Both humanities and STEM subjects can have seminars.
Examinations
For STEM classes, examinations are usually the timed written exams you may be used to. Some classes may offer projects (either individually or in small groups) in place of written exams. For Arts and Humanities classes, you will be required to write graded papers, or sit for a timed exam where you need to write a series of short essays. Some classes may include in-person oral presentations as part of the exam. Other components of your final grade commonly include regular assignments and class participation.
Anything else I should know?
The above provides a brief summary of the important things you should understand about the university system in the US. If you want a better idea of what studying in certain universities are like, you can talk to a senior, or look out for our upcoming blog posts that feature more specific student life!
US Universities: Seniors QnA
University of Pennsylvania
Harvard
Up Next in the Starter Pack: Wah, Applying to Singapore Universities
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