College/university process

15 comments

1. What you’re describing is entering college as an “undecided” major. This is common for people who are attending community college or who have rich parents. My college didn’t even allow them because they admitted people by major.

   So yes some people do do that but it is a small minority of students. Community college is different because that is where people are advised to go to take cheap classes to figure out what they like/want to do. Also some people just take community college classes for fun/personal betterment without actually looking to complete a degree.

2. university and college are often used interchangeably, but within a university there are divisions called colleges that focus on arts, science, engineering, etc. and within those are specific programs like electrical engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering that all exist in the college of engineering

   At some schools you apply specifically to a program. At some schools you get into a college first and try some classes and apply for a program. At some schools you just get into the school and then become an “undecided” or “general studies” major until you decide which program you want, but generally you have the *option* of getting into a specific program immediately and this is the standard.

   I haven’t seen the Sopranos but it’s a bit surprising she’s taking law classes; generally law is a professional degree (Juris Doctorate). We don’t really have a Bachelor of Law

3. From what I understand, American universities tend to have different academic requirements than their counterparts in other countries.

   So, for instance, there might be a sciences or mathematics requirement for a non-STEM degree, humanities requirements for an engineering degree, etc. Almost everyone has to take a second language.

   Then you have your core (ie, what you came for) and maybe a few electives (what-the-hell courses).

   This is intended to turn out rounded graduates.
   Since most universities offer different options for the electives, this can look random.

   A popular option is to go to a community college, get your basic requirements sorted less-expensively, then transfer to a bigger college or university to work on your major.

4. Accredited U.S. universities require a certain number of categorial classes regardless of major, so a lot of times if you aren’t 100% sure what to major in, you can at least start knocking out that part of the curriculum.

   For example, almost any major requires a cultural awareness class, a global awareness class, a logic class, a core literacy/composition class, and core mathematics, among others.

   There are subsets for this too: any science degree regardless of discipline will require a bunch of lower-level lab science classes before progressing into the major’s program track. Any humanities degree usually requires a minimum count of foreign-language classes (or correlated history labs, etc etc, it varies a little by school).

   Finally, all majors allow anywhere from 20-30+ of the (usually) 120 required credits to be pure electives, which if you end up changing majors, is where your old major’s courses end up counting for credit. If you never change majors, you might get to the end and have complete freebies available to fill the credit count, so you can take stuff like bowling or dance, or subjects that aren’t in your career path but that capture your interest. It helps keep the overall difficulty level manageable because at the end your major’s courses are as difficult as they get (for undergraduate level).

5. Many universities here will have a specific program or equivalent for those who are undecided, an undeclared program. Outside of this, most bachelors programs have general distribution requirements that require you to take a certain number of credits in given fields, or areas, that may or may not be within your major, these are very broad. (The idea is that this helps to “round out ones education”)

   What many people, but not all, do is for the first year take general distribution classes and get them out of the way. This acts to fulfill two tasks at the same time. It not only fulfills the aforementioned general credit requirements, or at least chips away at them, but it also helps students explore interests, and ultimately helps people make a decision on a major. (I did not do this, but I have heard it is a solid strategy for people who don’t know what they want to specialize in.)

   Hope that helps.

6. Most schools don’t require you to commit to a major/course of study until your second year (like spring-ish of your second year).

   We do not have an A-level (or Commonwealth) equivalent. Some universities require you to commit to a general school (like arts & sciences versus engineering), but you still have flexibility within the school. Many universities allow you to transfer between schools (including mine–I switched and then switched again).

   Worldwide, the American university system provides incoming students the most flexibility of any first-world country I am aware of.

   ​

   P.S.: We don’t generally respect bachelor degrees in law. You need a Juris Doctorate to practice in almost every state.

7. Most schools don’t require you to commit to a major/course of study until your second year (like spring-ish of your second year).

   We do not have an A-level (or Commonwealth) equivalent. Some universities require you to commit to a general school (like arts & sciences versus engineering), but you still have flexibility within the school. Many universities allow you to transfer between schools (including mine–I switched and then switched again).

   Worldwide, the American university system provides incoming students the most flexibility of any first-world country I am aware of.
   P.S.: We don’t generally respect bachelor degrees in law. You need a Juris Doctorate to practice in almost every state.

8. Thanks everyone!!

9. We do choose, however in the US there is a focus on holistic well rounded education. Like your first two years you’ll find yourself taking more of what are usually called General Education requirements.

   They generally make sure that everyone is able to write at a university level, have some knowledge of literature, at least one experience in a lab setting, etc. This is seen as essential because even if you’re an engineer you’re gonna have to write something someday and it’s better to have some experience at not sounding like someone who’s only ever done formulas. Additionally, philosophy classes are often classes where you’re taught how to reason your thoughts and stances on things, good if you ever intend to vote imo.

   An additional benefit is that it allows us to get some experience outside of our field which helps us know if what we’re studying is really what we want to do for life.

   Like 17 yr old me was an idiot, I didn’t trust her to get a fucking tattoo, why would she be any better at deciding our entire life path. (15 yr old me thought history teacher or saleswoman, 17 yr old me had no fucking clue so we chose anthropology, 22 yr old me is applying for agrotechnology PhD programs)

10. In American unis there is (normally) a certain number of credits required to be completed outside of the major, often called General ed requirements (my school called them breadth requirements). some people are saying it helps for those who are thinking of switching majors or are undecided are not entirely wrong but these are secondary to the actual reason.

    Universities in America want to produce well rounded graduates who can write a paper when they need to, understand an article they see in the news, engage in discussions about topics outside of their area of expertise, maybe do some more advanced math due to some surprise situation (you get the point). This practice of producing holistic scholars who can excel in a wide number of academic situations dates back to the ancient greeks and their core educational philosophy of “a desire for universal understanding”. This is now referred to as liberal arts and is a core tenet of american universities

11. FYI, in the US, a law degree is postgraduate degree so we do not have Bachelor of Law or some equivalent. Students hoping to become lawyers will major in Pre-Law programs, but often their actual major is something like Social Studies or Philosophy. Medical School is also a postgraduate program, so students hoping to become medical doctors will major in Pre-Med programs, but typically their actual major is Biology or Chemistry.

12. That’s exactly it. Undergraduate you can choose to focus on whatever you want. And change your mind. But then you need to go to law school or medical school.

13. With a 4 year bachelor’s degree, you have to take a number of general education classes, usually that’s about the only classes you take freshman year, unless you know what major you’ll be in, such as business, then you would also take intro classes like accounting 1 and such.

    Typical gen ed requirements include an English/language arts class, 1 or more math classes, a communications class, a science class, a business class, and a social studies class.

    Way back in my day, as an undeclared major, if I recall my first year of college included History of Western Civilization I & II, Professional Research & Reporting, statistics, intro to sociology, biology, art history.

14. If you go to college knowing what you want to do for a career, then you’ll have a prescribed set of courses to meet those requirements. But even if you know you want to be a high school math teacher for example, you’ll still be required to take some general education classes in other fields (like science and humanities). The idea being to give a more well rounded education. So your first year you might take calculus and secondary education alongside philosophy and art and physics. But then usually by your 3rd year you’re taking more classes focused on your field of study (in the above example math and education).

    But to answer the other part of your question, it is pretty common to go to university right after high school and a lot of kids don’t know exactly what they want to do for a career at that point. But if you know you want a college degree, then you can start college as undecided/undeclared where you’ll take a bunch of intro classes your first year to knock out your general education requirements and explore what you might want to Major in.

15. In the US, college education includes a foundation of interdisciplinary studies (called Gen Ed). The idea is that when you run into situations where you have to interact with other disciplines outside of your specialty either in work or elsewhere in life (more common than many people expect) you are prepared to. These will usually be structured as there being a list of classes you can pick from to fill each category. For example, it’s common to require a math class, a physical science class, a social science class, and a humanities class but not specify exactly which class must be taken for any of those. The exact requirements vary by school.

    So, many college students spend their first year mostly just taking those Gen Ed classes. For some students, they already know what degree they want and they are specifically choosing the classes that will help them work through their degree. However, there are some students who know they want a college degree but aren’t sure what they want to study yet. Many of these students will instead use the Gen Ed classes as a chance to get an introduction to many fields and so they can pick which one they want to specialize in.