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'Higher education in the United States' refers to colleges and universities within the United States.

Contents

Overview

List of schools

Admissions

Process

Rankings

2007 movement

Finances

Government coordination

Examples

See also

References

Notes

External links

Overview

The American university system, like the American educational system in general, is highly decentralized because the U.S. Constitution's Tenth Amendment reserves all unenumerated powers (one of which is education) "for the States respectively, or
to the people." Thus, except for the United States service academies, the federal government does not directly regulate universities. Such a degree of autonomy in higher education is rare.
American universities have developed independent accreditation agencies to vouch for the quality of the degrees they offer. The accreditation agencies rate universities and colleges on criteria such as the quality of their libraries, the publishing records of their faculty, and the degrees which their faculty hold.
Although most educational institutions in the U.S. are non-profit, some are for-profit. Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above.
Two-year colleges offer the Associates degree (A.A.) and four-year colleges offer the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Sciences (B.S.) degree. These are usually primarily undergraduate institutions, although some might have limited programs at the graduate level. Universities service both undergraduate and graduate student bodies. Graduate programs grant a variety of Master's degrees including M.B.A.s or M.F.A.s. The highest academic degree is the Ph.D. Medical schools award M.D.s while law schools award the J.D.
Four - year institutions in the U.S. which emphasize the liberal arts are liberal arts colleges. These colleges traditionally emphasize interactive instruction (although research is still a component of these institutions). They are known for being residential and for having smaller enrollment, class size, and teacher-student ratios than universities. These colleges also encourage a high level of teacher-student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate student TAs (who teach the classes at Research I and other universities). The colleges are either coeducational, women's colleges, or men's colleges. Some are historically black colleges. Some are also secular (or not affiliated with a particular religion) while others are involved in religious education. Many are private. Some are public liberal arts colleges. In addition, colleges such as Hampshire College, Pitzer College, Sarah Lawrence College, Bennington College, New College of Florida, and Reed College offer experimental curriculums.
Public and private universities are research-oriented institutions which service both an undergraduate and graduate student body. These institutions usually have a large student body. Introductory seminars can have a class size in the hundreds. The interaction between students and full-time faculty is limited as compared to liberal arts colleges. Many undergraduate classes are taught by graduate student TAs.

List of schools

Main articles: List of American institutions of higher education

Admissions

Main articles: College admissions in the United States

Process

Students can apply to some colleges using the Common Application. There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a student may apply, though an application must be submitted for each. With a few exceptions, most undergraduate colleges and universities maintain the policy that students are to be admitted to (or rejected from) the entire college, not to a particular department or major (This is unlike college admissions in many European countries, as well as graduate admissions). Some students, rather than being rejected, are "wait-listed" for a particular college and may be admitted if another student who was admitted decides not to attend the college or university.

Rankings

Two well known college and university rankings guides offer annual issues which rank colleges and universities. They are the ''U.S. News and World Report'' [1] and ''The Washington Monthly's '' "College Rankings" issue.[2]

2007 movement

Main articles: Criticism of college and university rankings (2007 United States)

On 19 June, 2007, during the annual meeting of the Annapolis Group, members discussed the letter to college presidents asking them not to participate in the "reputation survey" section of the ''U.S. News and World Report'' survey (this section comprises 25% of the ranking). As a result, "a majority of the approximately 80 presidents at the meeting said that they did not intend to participate in the U.S. News reputational rankings in the future." ^[1] However, the decision to fill out the reputational survey or not will be left up to each individual college as: "the Annapolis Group is not a legislative body and any decision about participating in the US News rankings rests with the individual institutions." ^[2] The statement also said that its members "have agreed to participate in the development of an alternative common format that presents information about their colleges for students and their families to use in the college search process." ^[2] This database will be web based and developed in conjunction with higher education organizations including the'' National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities'' and the ''Council of Independent Colleges.''
On 22 June 2007, ''U.S. News and World Report'' editor Robert Morse issued a response in which he argued, "in terms of the peer assessment survey, we at ''U.S. News'' firmly believe the survey has significant value because it allows us to measure the "intangibles" of a college that we can't measure through statistical data. Plus, the reputation of a school can help get that all-important first job and plays a key part in which grad school someone will be able to get into. The peer survey is by nature subjective, but the technique of asking industry leaders to rate their competitors is a commonly accepted practice. The results from the peer survey also can act to level the playing field between private and public colleges." ^[4]In reference to the alternative database discussed by the Annapolis Group, Morse also argued, "It's important to point out that the Annapolis Group's stated goal of presenting college data in a common format has been tried before [...] ''U.S. News'' has been supplying this exact college information for many years already. And it appears that NAICU will be doing it with significantly less comparability and functionality. ''U.S. News'' first collects all these data (using an agreed-upon set of definitions from the Common Data Set). Then we post the data on our website in easily accessible, comparable tables. In other words, the Annapolis Group and the others in the NAICU initiative actually are following the lead of ''U.S. News''." ^[4]

Finances

With the exception of the federal service academies, tuition is charged at almost all American universities. There are four schools that, if you can get in - and admissions is highly competitive - the tuition is free:
The Cooper Union, in NYC
Olin College, in Massachusetts
The Curtis Institute of Music, in Philadelphia
The Yale School of Music, in New Haven - part of Yale University
The Cooper Union only offers art, architecture and engineering. Olin is only engineering. Curtis and Yale are both music. And although tuition itself is covered by the university, there will be various fees involved.
Students often use scholarships, student loans, or grants, rather than paying all tuition out-of-pocket. Public universities receive funding from individual states, and residents of the state that supports the university typically pay much lower tuition than non-residents.
Most universities, public and private, have endowments. A January 2007 report by the National Association of College and University Business Officers revealed that the top 765 U.S. colleges and universities had a combined $340 billion in endowment assets as of 2006. Harvard University's endowment is the largest of any educational institution at $29 billion. ^[6]
Richard Vedder, an Ohio University professor and member of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, has been a vocal critic of how institutions of higher education are financed. In his 2004 book, "Going Broke by Degree," Vedder says that tuition increases have rapidly outpaced inflation; that productivity in higher education has fallen or remained stagnant; and that third-party tuition payments from government or private sources have insulated students from bearing the full cost of their education, allowing costs to rise more rapidly.^[7]

Government coordination

Every state has an entity designed to promote coordination and collaboration between higher education institutions.

Examples

★ Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

★ Alabama Commission on Higher Education

★ Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board

★ The Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education

See also

★ Carnegie Basic Classification

★ Claremont Colleges

★ College admissions in the United States

★ Five Colleges (Massachusetts)

★ Five Colleges of Ohio

★ Historically black colleges and universities

★ Liberal arts colleges in the United States

★ Little Ivies

★ Ivy League

★ Men's colleges in the United States

★ Public Ivy

★ Seven Sister Colleges

★ Seven Sisters of the South

★ Women's colleges in the United States

References

★ , Christopher Avery, , , Harvard University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-674-01620-3

★ Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning: The , Howard Greene, , , HarperCollins, 2000, ISBN 0-06-095362-4

★ Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will change The Way You Think About College, Loren Pope, , , Penguin Books, 2006, ISBN 0-14-303736-6

★ Jacques Steinberg. ''The Gatekeepers.'' New York: Penguin Group, 2002.

★ The Insider's Guide to the Colleges, 2008 (34th edition), Compiled and Edited by the Staff of the Yale Daily News, , , St. Martin's Griffin, 2007, ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36689-6

★ Occupational Outlook Handbook, United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, , , , 2006-2007,

Notes

1. More Momentum Against ‘U.S. News’
2. ANNAPOLIS GROUP STATEMENT ON RANKINGS AND RATINGS
3. ANNAPOLIS GROUP STATEMENT ON RANKINGS AND RATINGS
4. About the Annapolis Group's Statement
5. About the Annapolis Group's Statement
6. NACUBO Endowment Study
7. Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much

External links

★ How To Choose a College That's Right For You - ''NPR''

★ The right college the right fit: is the perfect college out there waiting for you? Absolutely! But you need to do your research. Get introspective, check your facts, then go out and find it

★ Searching (and Searching) for the Right College Fit - ''Chronicle of Higher Education''

★ Teens, parents should avoid College Selection Hysteria - ''The Capital''

★ Guide to U.S. schools for international students