United States
In the United States of America, high school students apply to four-year liberal arts colleges and universities, which include both undergraduate or graduate students. Others attend community colleges, who almost always admit all students with high school diplomas, in preparation for transfer to a four year university. Non-traditional students are usually students over the age of 22 who pursue studies in higher education. Students may apply to many institutions 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. Fees are generally charged for each admissions application, but can be waived based on financial need.
Students apply to one or more colleges or universities by submitting an application which each college evaluates using its own criteria. The college then decides whether to extend an offer of admission (and possibly financial aid) to the student. The majority of colleges admit students to the college as a whole, and not to a particular academic major, although this may not be the case in some specialized programs such as engineering and architecture. The system is decentralized: each college has its own criteria for admission, even when using a common application form (the most widely used is The Common Application).
Common criteria includes ACT or SAT scores, extracurricular activities, Grade Point Average, and a general college admissions essay. Further criteria, used to varying degrees, include athletic ability, legacy preferences (family members having attended the school), race, ability to pay full tuition, potential to donate money to the school (development case), desired class composition (esp. diversity, which includes racial diversity, geographical and national diversity, and diversity of interests in the class), perceived fit, subjective evaluation of student character (based on essays or interviews), and general discretion by the admissions office. Importance of various factors varies between universities, and selectiveness varies significantly – measured by admissions rate (which depends both on selectiveness and number and type of applicants), it varies from 100% (school which accept all comers) to below 10%.
- Further information: Transfer admissions in the United States
Read more about this topic: University And College Admission
Famous quotes related to united states:
“Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity—an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“... the yearly expenses of the existing religious system ... exceed in these United States twenty millions of dollars. Twenty millions! For teaching what? Things unseen and causes unknown!... Twenty millions would more than suffice to make us wise; and alas! do they not more than suffice to make us foolish?”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)
“Television is an excellent system when one has nothing to lose, as is the case with a nomadic and rootless country like the United States, but in Europe the affect of television is that of a bulldozer which reduces culture to the lowest possible denominator.”
—Marc Fumaroli (b. 1932)
“In the United States there’s a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“In the United States, it is now possible for a person eighteen years of age, female as well as male, to graduate from high school, college, or university without ever having cared for, or even held, a baby; without ever having comforted or assisted another human being who really needed help. . . . No society can long sustain itself unless its members have learned the sensitivities, motivations, and skills involved in assisting and caring for other human beings.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)