US education system

meghatronic

meghatronic

meghatronic

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Sorry about this, I have wiki'd but I still don't get it.

Could someone briefly explain the difference in levels between UK and US education?

E.g UK Primary Schooling = US grades x-y, college = z, university = a, etc.
 
Disco Boy said:
Except not really, their college is a bit of a joke.

"Grad school" is about equivalent to a decent degree course at a decent university in the UK.
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See that's what I thought, as I've been talking to a few yanks recently and they have like 4yrs of 'college' and then they were saying they have grad school. And I'm like wtf...
 
meghatronic said:
That bit I understand then, it's just the rest. I.e. is it as simple as US college = UK university (quality aside)?
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In terms of age their college is the same as university here, in that it is straight after school aged 18. In terms of how good the level of education is their college falls far short.

If you are on a degree programme in the UK where you study in the US for a year, you'll be most likely working with "grad students" as that would be a similar level to what you'd be studying if you were to spend that year in the UK.
 
Disco Boy said:
In terms of age their college is the same as university here, in that it is straight after school aged 18. In terms of how good the level of education is their college falls far short.

If you are on a degree programme in the UK where you study in the US for a year, you'll be most likely working with "grad students" as that would be a similar level to what you'd be studying if you were to spend that year in the UK.
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Right, thanks. Basically it isn't arrogant to assume they're a little under us then.
 
meghatronic said:
Sorry about this, I have wiki'd but I still don't get it.

Could someone briefly explain the difference in levels between UK and US education?

E.g UK Primary Schooling = US grades x-y, college = z, university = a, etc.
Click to expand...

The difference is that in the UK, you get an education.
 
I have a friend who is American. She is at college [University] doing an Accountancy Degree. In the 12+ months I have known her, she has only done 1 or 2 classes relating to Accountancy directly. The rest of the time she has done maths, economics, music, latin and history.

My brother also did his Electrical Engineering degree in the USA, took 4 years and he spent a lot of his time doing unrelated subjects.

They seem to favour spending time getting a broad array of subjects under their belt rather than focusing on their actual degree. The net result seems to be they eventuall get their degree, but it took much longer and they picked up a lot of useless stuff on the way!
 
OK, let me break this down.

First 2 years, you take classes which is not related to your major.

Last 2 years, then you take your core classes that is related to your major.

I took European History, French Language, College Calculus, English Literature, Sciene(beginning of the Universe) for my 1st year at uni and they all had nothing to do with my major.

You also have the option of spending your 1st 2 years at a community college and then transfer to a university for the last 2 years.
 
Personally, I think having such a broad education can only be a good thing. You get retrained as soon as you go into industry anyway.
 
The problem is unless you use your knowledge it simply goes away. So all those language, music, english, history or whatever classes would have been completely wasted effort after a couple of years.

Broad education should stay in high school then you need to focus. 2 years at University doing subjects not related to your degree? No thanks, see you in a few.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Personally, I think having such a broad education can only be a good thing. You get retrained as soon as you go into industry anyway.
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Not sure how it is in England, but in University in Scotland you choose elective classes to take in 1st & 2nd year. For example, I have a degree in Applied Computing, in 1st & 2nd year, as well as doing computing, I took Geography and Psychology. Absolute waste of my time though, I'd have been much better getting extra computing classes rather than cramming so much into 3rd & 4th years.
 
SiriusB said:
The problem is unless you use your knowledge it simply goes away. So all those language, music, english, history or whatever classes would have been completely wasted effort after a couple of years.

Broad education should stay in high school then you need to focus. 2 years at University doing subjects not related to your degree? No thanks, see you in a few.
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unfortunately, that's how the education system work in the US.

I had no choice, that was the requirement.
 
The guys I talk to who go to US college... seem to have brilliant classes, much better than ours from what I can gather (comp sci/programming related)
 
jamief said:
Not sure how it is in England, but in University in Scotland you choose elective classes to take in 1st & 2nd year. For example, I have a degree in Applied Computing, in 1st & 2nd year, as well as doing computing, I took Geography and Psychology. Absolute waste of my time though, I'd have been much better getting extra computing classes rather than cramming so much into 3rd & 4th years.
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Alas we don't have that in England :(
 
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