Well, I’m no expert on the British system, but I believe students in the US have more “core curriculum” courses – general education stuff they have to take regardless of their major. At a typical American university, all students might have to take a lab science, a social science, one or two introductory level college writing courses, enough foreign language courses to reach intermediate-level proficiency, etc. Sometimes you can “place out” of some of these courses through high school coursework or test scores, but still, most students spend the first year or two fulfilling the general ed requirements.
Actually, yes. That’s pretty much what happened fridays and saturdays. We’d start drinking after classes friday and sober up sunday morning, finish our homework and get ready for a 100 hr week between classes, work, and studying.
There’s a reason why the student health center has 5 therapists who work part time there.
I burned out twice in 4 years…
But by GOD I learned a crap load of biology.
I have no idea how it works for schools on the semester system, but here is a list of the classes that I have to take: http://www.rit.edu/~672www/Requirements/Biotech.html
Here’s a list of a typical four year schedule: http://www.rit.edu/~672www/Requirements/Biotechsched.html
Each school year consists of three ten week terms.
I’m on the semester system. We have 2 16 week terms. I believe each school varies so I wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference unless I saw your curriculum.
The myth about the sinking library (blah blah, didn’t account for the weight of the books, blah blah blah) is particularly persistant at my college. The building I’m sitting in now (computer lab) was, so I hear, originally a library or maybe built to be a library or something. I don’t know if that part is true. Anyway, the bottom floor is 3/4 underground - on purpose. But it kind of lends credibility to the whole sinking building thing.
well, most of my high school teaches made college out to be a grave yard. “If you think THIS IS HARD” just wait til you get into college!
Really. College was a walk in the park compared to high school. Neither of them were really difficult, of course, but altogether, high school was more demanding.
High School Biology = dissect a frog and identify its parts.
College Biology = study the multiple part answers I give you which will be on the test tomorrow
I’m finding college not easier, but far less stupid than high school.
High school: Read the chapter, write a bullet-point outline, summarize it in 3 paragraphs or less, pass it in before class, and then do the same thing for the next chapter tomorrow night.
College: Read a couple of chapters and be prepared to talk about them in discussion section.
Hm. My university required… well, it’s been a while, either 128 or 132 credits to graduate. That’s 33 semester-hours a year; meaning either 2 semesters of 15 and 18, or 12-18 hours per semester plus up to 9 in summer school plus December, May, or August “session” classes (3 credit hours, classes 3 weeks long, you can only take one class in each month). I was on scholarship, full tuition paid for 4 years… so you bet your bippy I took every class I could get my hands on that looked interesting. I graduated with 150+ hours after deciding not to take my last summer session.
*Challenging classes: Well, the core classes were a waste of oxygen. Being in a lecture hall with 175 students, 150 of whom would rather be asleep (and 5-10 of whom who are at any given time) is NOT the best part. Sitting in a conference room with 8 other students presenting your research and realizing that you don’t have to translate the French quote because everyone in the room speaks French…that’s the best part. Busting your ass for a hard-earned B in a graduate-level course and watching your writing get better on every paper with a professor that really cares about the subject is worth every penny (even if you don’t have to pay the tuition yourself) and every minute.
*Gaining weight: Well…thanks to some nifty birth control methods, I tanked on 40 pounds my first year in college. After stopping said birth control methods, I lost 15 pounds the first week and dropped the rest immediately thereafter. Then I got married and gained 20 right back (damn, but my husband could cook). Guess that answers the sex question, too…
*Parties: I don’t drink, so I didn’t do any of the standard party stuff, but the gaming group we started in college is still going strong. Hell, one of my friends still has his gaming group from college, and he’s in his early 40’s now. It’s not all about making gazillions of friends for some of us, it’s finding a few folks you’re going to keep.
*Job: My degree is in the classics; my last two jobs have been tech support and working for an answering service. My writing skills helped me put together a smashingly good resume for someone who’d never been employed, providing the first job. I used my Latin experience to learn tech support-- it’s amazing what learning to communicate clearly in a new language will do for your ability to communicate clearly in the one you already speak. Also, I got to tutor everyone in the office on pronouncing the few phrases of Spanish we have to know (the office is closed, please call back after 7/8/8:30 in the morning; I don’t speak any Spanish; just a moment, please) and one glorious night got to take a call in French.
Whee! Four years of education for five minutes of work!
Seriously, I’m glad I went to college and got the beginning education that I did, because I now know how to find the rest of the education that I want.
Corr
Docklands writes:
> 4 years is a push to finish in the US? I completed my Bachelor
> of Arts in Mathematical Sciences in 3 years and that was
> completely standard. I reckon I averaged 14 hours a week
> work and managed to come away with a double first. What do
> you guys do for 4 years? Is it more depth or more breadth?
(To make things easier to understand in the following post for Brits, I’m going to use just the terms “university” and “secondary school,” even though as an American I would typically use “college” and “high school,” respectively.)
What you’ve got to understand is that university education in the U.S. and the U.K. are rather different things, even though people usually begin them both at 18. People finish their secondary education in the U.S. with considerably less knowledge in the fields that they will be studying at university. Remember, there’s nothing like A-levels and O-levels (or whatever they’re called now) in the U.S. Students at high schools in the U.S. take about 16 year-long courses during their four years there, and each course is graded throughout the year with regular tests and a year-end final. Each of these is sort of like the equivalent of an O-level course. (Well, at least if the student is in a college preparatory course, but a large proportion of the students in American secondary schools are in a course where they are mostly studying things like home economics, industrial arts, business, agriculture, etc.) Americans may be slightly more advanced in this general sort of knowledge than Britons are at the point that they finish secondary school. Note that about 90% of Americans finish secondary school (if we include those who finish it later by taking the GED test), while only 30% to 50% of Britons stay in school until they are 18.
Both Americans and Britons finish secondary school at 18, but Americans have not taken courses that are the equivalent of what Britons have to study to pass their A-levels. This level of knowledge is more like the first (and sometimes the second) year of university for an American. Thus when an American enters university, he or she will probably be about a year behind a Briton entering university in his knowledge of the subject he will be majoring in. It’s not surprising then that American university courses are generally four-year courses, while British university courses are generally three-year courses. Furthermore, American univerities require some general education courses outside one’s major, while British universities don’t.
There’s a number of slight variations in all the things I’ve just written, but doubtlessly someone will chime in to make those corrections. For instance, I’m mostly talking about England and Wales here. I’ve been told Scottish univerities are slightly different in ways that I don’t completely understand. You know, I’ve really got to write up a FAQ on the differences between American and British education so I can just post a link to it whenever this discussion comes up.