My daughter's been accepted for a Sutton Trust/Fullbright scholarship and she's just started the process of applying for a (first) degree in the US (FWIW in these early stages she's looking at small New England colleges - possibly as a consequence of watching too much Family Guy - at present she seems very taken with St John's). On Sunday was the parents session where we given a brief introduction to the US university system. Something I'm well aware of is the fact that you don't apply to study something in the US but just to study at a University. What's the approximate UK equivalent of a US first degree as all of the American scientists/engineers (no medics - I'm assuming that 4 years of college, 2 years of pre-med and 4 years of med school effectively wiped them out financially) I've worked with were already doctored and they came here for their first post-docs - something that always surprised me were their levels of teaching experience.
The “level” of your degree will be based on your GPA (Grade Point Average) once you’ve accumulated enough hours to graduate. I believe that the “Latin designation” you’re given (Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude etc etc) is based on your performance compared to peers in the same graduating class at your institution, rather than how it is in the UK where there is a grade you’re required to reach in order to be given a First or whatever. So the closer your GPA is to 4.0, the better you’re doing. I’m not sure about NE, or anywhere else in the nation, but I know in TX you’re required to complete 30 hours of core classes split across basic college level English, Maths, Science, History classes before beginning to focus on your major area of study. I found it to be a monumental waste of time and money - which may not be an issue if she’s on scholarship, but if it’s anything like college in TX, she should prepare herself to spend at least the first couple of semesters academically under-challenged.
Thanks @luke_golden. It was a bit of an eye-opener that what you've studied in (high) school doesn't really matter or limit want you want do at university (or college) it's all about your ACT (Sutton Trust/Fullbright don't do SAT) score. The money aspect is very frightening as back of a fag packet calculations suggest that to come out of the US system with the equivalent for entry to a UK PhD scheme (3+1 BSc + MSc) would be 4 years of college and 2 years of grad school could be (I know very, very few students pay full-whack) $300K... I have heard, possible unfair, rumours that the first couple of years in the US University system are approximately equivalent to 3-4 'A' levels. The entire "Liberal Arts" thing seems to me to be a bit 'wakny' especially after what I've read about St John's College.
The first year of US degrees is pretty foundational by UK standards. With students coming from a variety of different US states and there being no standardised national educational curriculum, universities can't assume students will arrive knowing X. As a result, the first year tends to be a bit of a level set. If you arrive at a US university being very, very well educated you may very well find the first year to be a bit of a doss. Things ramp up later, obviously.
