After school proms and far-wells to old friends, American teenagers have a summer to decide what kind of life-path they’ll choose. A lot of them agree to start working in some family business or for an employer as they cannot afford studying further. Post-school education in the USA is commonly paid. But many want to continue studying, often combining it with some job. There are generally four types of institutions which provide higher education.
The first type is technical training institutions (TTI) with courses ranging from short-term (6 months – 1 year) to long-term (1 – 4 year). These institutions teach how to get skilled in such areas as mechanics, accounting, programming, and different utility services.
To the second category belong community colleges, funded by local government. Students here can get an Associate Degree in different spheres in two years of study. Then they are free to work or get transferred to four-year colleges.
The third type is college which provides Bachelor Degree in Arts or Science after four years of studying but don’t have post-graduate education programs. There are also pedagogical colleges and art colleges standing a bit aside, where a student can learn teaching, or filming, or performing in circus or ballet.
And the last and most sufficient type is university, which also may consist of a number of colleges. But this is not the same like previous type of institutions – college is taken like a division of a university in this sense. Universities also provide Bachelor Degree alongside with post-graduate Master and Doctor (PhD) Degrees.
There function more than 150 universities in the USA. By payment conditions they are divided into public and private. Public are also paid but partially by a state and partially by a student. That’s why over 80% of US students choose public universities. Private enterprises provide very high-standard education but they are quite difficult to get to. Applicants are selected on the base of their school records, letters of recommendations, preliminary exams and interviews. To the ternary of the most prestigious and established universities belong Harvard, Princeton and Yale.