Education in the US, and How International Students are Admitted to Colleges and Universities in the US

For those not raised in the US our educational system surely must be confusing – for it is at times just as confusing to those who have been totally education in US schools! It will be my attempt today to bring some clarity to our structure of education.

Our Primary or Elementary and Secondary education is 12 years in length. Primary or Elementary school can be preceded by Kindergarten, Pre-Kindergarten, and Nursery School. Kindergarten is now usually part of a required level of school, but it is not universal. Generally children would enroll in the First Grade of Primary school at around the age of 6 – though this varies state to state.

Primary and Secondary schooling follows several possible structures:

At private schools primary education is 8 years, followed by 4 years of secondary school. The first 8 years is often referred to as “Lower School” while the 4 years that follow are “Upper School”.

At public schools primary education is 6 years long, followed by 3 years of Junior High School, and concludes with 3 years of Senior High school. There are alternate structures where Primary School is 5 years long, followed by 3 years of Middle School, and concluding with 4 years of High School.

In Primary and Middle or Junior high schools the curriculum followed is essentially the same for all students. But at the High school level students can choose to follow one of several curricula or ‘tracks’:

General

Business or vocational

Technical

Academic – within the Academic track several options are possible (but not offered at all high schools):

College or University Preparatory – preparing students for university level admission

Honors –a more demanding preparatory program

“Advanced Placement” or “AP” – a program created by The College Board leading to a series of examinations that will often be granted ‘credit’ by colleges or universities

“Gifted and Talented” or “G&T” – a rigorous academic program for those students with exceptional academic talents preparing them for admission to very selective colleges or universities

“International Baccalaureat” – an international program for university admission

At the conclusion successful students are awarded a “High School Diploma”. Usually the Diploma would not delineate which curriculum a student pursued. The transcript which would report the courses taken and the marks received would provide the reader with the information as to which ‘track’ the student completed. High School Diplomas are issued by the school, or by the city or county or state where the school is located.

The SAT or ACT:

For those students who desire to pursue post-secondary education many colleges and universities, though not all, require external tests to be taken and the score presented to the schools to which the student applies.

The SAT or the ACT tests are not school leaving examinations as many of your own countries have. These tests assist the post-secondary institutions in determining the likelihood of success of the applicant at their schools.

Post-secondary education in the US begins following High school:

Community Colleges are publicly funded by cities, counties, or the states. Community Colleges are “Open Admission” institutions, meaning that any holder of a high school diploma, or are of a specified age, can be admitted; Community Colleges offer two types of programs:

Academic programs are transferrable to four-year institutions and upon successful completion award an Associate of Arts or Science. (International students who attend Community College academic programs would do so on the F-I visa.)

Non-academic programs are technical or vocationalin nature and generally result in various Certificates. Such programs are not transferrable to four-year institutions. . (International students who attend Community College Non-academic programs would do so on the M-I visa.)

Private two-year schools are usually called Junior Colleges.

Colleges offer four-year degree programs, referred to as undergraduate, that result in bachelor degrees, mostly commonly the “Bachelor of Arts”, or the “Bachelor of Science”, although there are many variations of the bachelor degree titles. Colleges typically offer bachelor degrees though many now also offer graduate programs leading to the master’s degree. Undergraduate degrees contain a significant portion of general education courses not directly related to a student’s ‘major’. This is usually referred to as the liberal arts component and is found in any bachelor degree curriculum.

Universities offer a variety of degrees: in addition to the undergraduate bachelor degree, universities also offer graduate degrees in their Graduate School - the Master’s degree, and the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree.

The Master degree is generally one to two years in length and usually requires coursework and a thesis.

The Doctor of Philosophy degree length varies, includes coursework and original research which leads to a dissertation. The dissertation is reviewed by a doctoral committee and is defended by the student to the committee. Students who complete PhD coursework but do not complete a dissertation are referred to as “ABD” – All But Dissertation.

In addition to graduate schools are Professional Schools offering degrees in medicine, law, dentistry, and pharmacy for example. Admissions to such programs require applicants to have a bachelor’s degree or at least three years of undergraduate coursework and specific courses as a minimum. Overwhelmingly the bachelor’s degree is required.

It should be noted that degrees from US colleges and universities are not legal entitlements to practice in one’s profession. In fields such as engineering, law, medicine, accounting, teaching among others it is necessary to take and pass professional qualifying examinations to practice in the profession.

Colleges and universities can be publicly funded, or private (receiving no public funding) or for-profit (where the goal is to make a profit for investors). Tuition at public schools is the lowest cost, private schools would be more expensive while for-profit schools would be the most expensive. For-profit schools tend to market to the non-traditional student who is older and typically employed full-time.

There are several federally funded schools (funded by the US government) including the military academies, and Galludet University in Washington, DC – a school for the deaf.

Terms such as ‘college’ and ‘university’ are not trademarked or copyrighted or in any way protected from misleading use. Therefor some schools called ‘College’ would not be recognized academic institutions.

Recognition / Accreditation:

As the US does not have a Ministry of Education the responsibility of institution recognition falls to a system of accreditation. Accreditation is a process of self-regulation where institutions and programs agree on a set of standard requirements that institutions and programs must adhere to in order to be accredited.

Institutional accreditation:

Institutions are accredited by one of the six regional accrediting associations: New England, Middle States, Southern, North Central, Western or North Western. There are also national accreditors that tend to be specialized, i.e., religious schools, distance education, cosmetology. It is important that students attend institutions that are regionally or nationally accredited.

Programmatic accreditation:

Many – but not all – academic programs are accredited by programmatic or specialized accreditors. There are currently over 100 such programmatic or specialized accreditors, ranging from Allied Health to Business to Engineering to Law to Veterinary Medicine. It is important to remember that not all disciplines have programmatic accreditation; but for those disciplines that do have programmatic accreditors students should attend an institution whose discipline is programmatically accredited.

State-based authorization:

As education is a state, and not a federal responsibility, the laws regarding education varies from state to state. Some states, like Oregon, have very strict laws regarding education. While other states have lax laws or no regulations at all. Lax laws or no regulations often allow diploma mills to operate.

Often terms such as ‘licensed’ or ‘approved’ by states are misinterpreted to mean the same as ‘accredited’. Licensure or approval by a state is really just allows an entity to operate as a business and is not the same as institutional accreditation.

How international students are admitted to US colleges and universities:

There is a process by which international students are admitted to colleges and universities in the US:

  • Complete an application for admission to the school(s) to which they want to be admitted.
  • Submit original copies of their academic records to the school(s) where they have applied. Any document that is not in English needs to be accompanied by an English translation. Many schools require such translations to be ‘certified’ or ‘notorized’ – although the latter does not assure accuracy.
  • Provide financial documentation that they have sufficient financial resources to each and every year of anticipated study. Some schools have scholarships available for international students and the applicant should avail themselves of such scholarships if needed.
  • Applicants need to provide evidence of adequate English proficiency by demonstration through one of the English proficiency tests acceptable to the institution to which they have applied. Lacking sufficient proficiency applicants will have to precede their academic program with a period of intensive English as a Second Language study.

Once all documentation has been received by the US school, the academic records will be evaluated to determine if the applicant meets the standard required to be admitted. The evaluation of foreign educational records might be done ‘in-house’ by university admission officers. However, many institutions will ‘outsource’ the evaluation of records to a credential evaluation service. AACRAO’s International Education Service (IES) is one such evaluation service. IES evaluates foreign credentials for over 1,500 schools and organizations.

It should be noted that credential evaluation services are not regulated by state or federal laws. There is no accreditation of such services, no licensure or approval of such services. There are estimates that more than 300 services exist in North America. Unfortunately some students who apply to multiple institutions might be asked to have evaluations from different services sent to schools to which they apply. And as there is no required adherence to any national standards different services could provide different results for the same credential.

Document Fraud / Non-accredited schools:

It is extremely important that when a student applies to a US college or university that official records be sent from the institution(s) attended directly to the institution(s) to which the student has applied. Fraudulent documents continue to be a problem and receipt of only official documents by US schools will help stem this problem.

Similarly, by applying only to schools that are accredited by legitimate accreditors, students will avoid problems of attending non-accredited schools, or Diploma Mills – schools that have no recognition or legitimacy.

The Evaluation Process:

There are steps credible evaluation services follow when evaluating foreign educational credentials –

  • The institution attended – is the institution(s) attended recognized by the Ministry of Education or some similar ministry. A recognized institution is considered comparable with a US accredited institution. Accredited US institutions can only accept work previously completed at accredited schools, or in the case of foreign-educated applicants, from a recognized school.
  • The credential received – are the credentials received by the applicant actually awarded in the country where they studied. What does the credential represent in the home country? Is it academic, or vocational, or professional training? How does the credential compare with US education? What is the placement recommendation for the foreign credential in terms of where the student should place in the US?
  • Grades or marks received – how do the marks received by the applicant compare with US grades? Are they superior, above average, average or below average?
  • Document appearance and review – are the documents authentic? Do the documents appear to be consistent with previously received documents from the same institution? Or system? Does the sequence of dates seem reasonable? Were credentials received at appropriate ages? Do there appear to be alterations to the documents? Have items of information been obscured? Typed over? (This is why it is so very important that US schools receive copies of official documentation sent directly from the school or schools attended. Fraudulent documents are a problem and a concern by US admission officers.