Higher education in the United States is an option

Higher education in the United States

is an optional final stage of

formal learning

following

secondary education

.

Higher education

, also referred to as post- secondary

education, third stage, third level, or tertiary education occurs most commonly at

one of the 4,726

Title IV

degree-granting institutions, either

colleges

or

universities

in the country.

[1]

These may be

public universities

,

private universities

,

liberal arts

colleges

, or

community colleges

. High visibility issues include greater use of the

Internet, such as

massive open online courses

,

competency-based education

,

cutbacks in state spending, rapidly rising tuition and increasing student loans.

[2]

Strong research and funding have helped make American colleges and universities

among the world's most prestigious, making them particularly attractive to

international students

, professors and researchers in the pursuit of academic

excellence.

[3]

Contents

[

hide

]

?

?

?

1 Statistics

2 Types of colleges and universities

o

2.1 Community colleges

o

2.2 Liberal arts colleges

o

2.3 Universities

3 Student funding

o

3.1 Grant, scholarship, and work study program facts

o

3.2 Student loans

?

4 History

o

4.1 Colonial era

o

4.2 19th century

o

4.3 Impact of 19th-century colleges

o

4.4 Law and medical schools

o

4.5 20th century

?

?

?

?

4.5.1 Roman Catholic colleges and universities

?

4.5.2 Community colleges

5 Funding of schools

6 Admission process

7 International study and student exchange

8 Government coordination

?

o

8.1 Coordination institutions

o

8.2 Academic employment

?

9 Selected issues

o

9.1 Rankings of tertiary institutions

o

9.2 Financial value of degrees

o

9.3 Socioeconomic status

o

9.4 Race

o

9.5 Gender

o

9.6 Undocumented Students

o

9.7 MOOC

?

10 Criticism

o

10.1 Cost and finances

o

10.2 For-profit schools

o

10.3 Indebtedness

o

10.4 Academic standards

o

10.5 Political views

o

10.6 Geographic considerations

?

?

?

?

11 See also

12 References

13 Further reading

14 External links

Statistics[

edit

]

As of 2012, the latest figures available in 2015, the US has a total of 4,726

Title

IV

-eligible, degree-granting institutions: 3,026 4-year institutions and 1,700 2-year

institutions.

[1]

The US had 21 million students in higher education, roughly 5.7% of

the total population.

[4]

About 13 million of these students were enrolled full-time

which was 81,000 students lower than 2010.

[4]

:table 224

A US Department of Education

longitudinal survey

of 15,000 high school students in

2002, and again in 2012 at age 27, found that 84% of the 27-year-olds had some

college education, but only 34% achieved a bachelor's degree or higher; 79% owe

some money for college and 55% owe more than $$10,000; college dropouts were

three times more likely to be unemployed than those who finished college; 40%

spent some time unemployed and 23% were unemployed for six months or more;

and 79% earned less than $$40,000 per year.

[5][6]

Types of colleges and universities[

edit

]

See also:

List of American institutions of higher education

and

List of

state universities in the United States

Harvard University

:

Harvard Yard

with freshman dorms in the background.

The Great Dome of

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(MIT), a

university adopting the polytechnic university model.

Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a

vocational

,

business

,

engineering

, or technical curriculum (like

polytechnic

universities

and

land-grant universities

) while others may emphasize a

liberal arts

curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above, being a comprehensive

university.

In the US, the term

institutions: stand- alone higher level education institutions that are not components

of a university, including 1)

community colleges

, 2)

liberal arts colleges

, or 3) a

college within a university, mostly the undergraduate institution of a university.

Unlike colleges versus universities in other portions of the world, a stand-alone

college is truly stand-alone and is not part of a university, and is also not affiliated

with an

affiliating university

.

Almost all colleges and universities are

coeducational

. During a dramatic transition in

the 1970s, all but a handful of

men's colleges

started accepting women. Over 80

percent of the women's colleges of 1960s have closed or merged, leaving fewer than

50 in operation. Over 100

historically black colleges and universities

(HBCUs) operate,

both private (such as

Morehouse College

) and public (such as

Florida A&M

).

Higher education created

accreditation organizations

independent of the

government to vouch for the quality of their degree. The accreditation agencies rate

universities and colleges on criteria such as academic quality, the quality of their

libraries, the publishing records of their faculty, and the degrees which their faculty

hold, and their financial solvency. Nonaccredited institutions exist, such as Bible

colleges, but the students are not eligible for federal loans.

Community colleges[

edit

]

Community colleges are often though not always

two-year colleges

. They have

open

admissions

, with generally lower tuition than other state or private schools.

Graduates receive the

associate's degree

such as an

Associate of Arts

(A.A.). Many

students earn an associate degree at a two-year institution before

transferring

to a

four-year institution for another two years to earn a bachelor's degree.

[7]

Four- year colleges usually have a larger number of students, offer a greater range of

studies, and provide the

bachelor's degree

, mostly the

Bachelor of Arts

(B.A.) or

Bachelor of Science

(B.S.). They are either primarily

undergraduate institutions

(i.e.

Liberal Arts Colleges) or the undergraduate institution of a university (such as

Harvard College

and

Yale College

).

The DeSeversky Mansion on the

Old Westbury

campus of

New York Institute

of Technology

.

Saint Anselm College

, a

New England

liberal arts college

Liberal arts colleges[

edit

]

Four-year institutions in the U.S. emphasizing the

liberal arts

are

liberal arts colleges

,

entirely undergraduate institutions and stand-alone. They traditionally emphasize

interactive instruction although research is still a component. They are known for

being

residential

and for having smaller enrollment, class size, and higher

teacher-student ratios than universities. These colleges encourage a high level of

teacher-student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full- time

faculty rather than graduate student

teaching assistants

(TAs), who teach classes at

some

Research I universities

and other universities. Most are

private

,[

according to

whom?

] although there are

public liberal arts colleges

. Some offer

experimental

curricula

, such as

Hampshire College

,

Beloit College

,

Bard College at Simon's Rock

,

Pitzer College

,

Sarah Lawrence College

,

Grinnell College

,

Bennington College

,

New

College of Florida

, and

Reed College

.

Uni versities[

edit

]

Universities are research-oriented educational institutions which provide both

undergraduate and graduate programs. For historical reasons, some universities

such as

Boston College

,

Dartmouth College

, and

The College of William & Mary

have

retained the term

Graduate programs

grant a variety of

master's degrees

(like the

Master of Arts

(M.A.),

Master of Science

(M.S.),

Master of

Business Administration

(M.B.A.) or

Master of Fine Arts

(M.F.A.)) in addition to

doctorates

such as the

Ph.D

. The

Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher

Education

distinguishes among institutions on the basis of the prevalence of degrees

they grant and considers the granting of

master's degrees

necessary, though not

sufficient, for an institution to be classified as a university.

[8]

Some universities have

professional schools

. Examples include

journalism school

,

business school

,

medical schools

which award either the

M.D.

or

D.O.

,

law schools

(

J.D.

),

veterinary schools

(

D.V.M.

),

pharmacy schools

(

Pharm.D.

), and

dental schools

.

A common practice is to refer to different units within universities as

colleges

or

schools

, what is referred to outside the U.S. as

faculties

. Some colleges may be

divided into

departments

, including an

anthropology

department within a college of

liberal arts and sciences within a larger university. Few universities adopt the term

Purdue University

is

composed of multiple colleges

—

among others, the College of Agriculture and the

College of Engineering. Of these Purdue breaks the College of Agriculture down into

departments, such as the Department of Agronomy or the Department of

Entomology, whereas Purdue breaks down the College of Engineering into schools,

such as the School of Electrical Engineering, which enrolls more students than some

of its colleges do. As is common in this scheme, Purdue categorizes both its

undergraduate students (and faculty and programs) and its post-graduate students

(and faculty and programs) via this scheme of decomposition, being a topical

decomposition that focuses on an academic sector of directly related academic

disciplines.

Public

California

State

University

,

Office

of

the

Chancellor

in

Long

Beach

,

California

Ezekiel W. Cullen Building

on the campus of the

University of Houston

The Main Building on the campus of the

University of Texas at Austin

The American university system is largely

decentralized

.

Public universities

are

administered by the individual

states

and

territories

, usually as part of a

state

university system

. Except for the

United States service academies

and

staff colleges

,

the

federal government

does not directly regulate universities. However it can offer

federal grants and any institution that receives federal funds must certify that it has

adopted and implemented a drug prevention program that meets regulations.

[9][10]

Each state supports at least one state university and several support many more.

California, for example, has three public higher education systems: the 10-campus

University of California

, the 23-campus

California State University

, and the

112-campus

California Community Colleges System

. Public universities often have a

large student body, with introductory classes numbering in the hundreds and some

undergraduate classes taught by graduate students.

Tribal colleges

operated on

Indian reservations

by some

federally recognized tribes

are also public institutions.

Many

private universities

also exist. Among these, some are

secular

while others are

involved in

religious education

. Some are

non- denominational

and some are

affiliated with a certain sect or church, such as

Roman Catholicism

(with different

institutions often sponsored by particular

religious institutes

such as the

Jesuits

) or

religions such as

Lutheranism

or

Mormonism

.

Seminaries

are private institutions for

those preparing to become members of the

clergy

. Most private schools (like all

public schools) are

non-profit

, although some are

for-profit

.

Student funding[

edit

]

Students often use

scholarships

,

student loans

, or

grants

, rather than paying all

tuition

out-of- pocket

. Several states offer

scholarships

that allow students to attend

free of tuition or at lower cost, for example

HOPE Scholarship

in

Georgia

and

Bright

Futures Scholarship Program

in

Florida

. A considerable number of private liberal arts

colleges and universities offer full need-based financial aid, which means that

admitted students will only have to pay as much as their families can afford (based

on the university's assessment of their income).

[11][12]

This can turn some of the

most prestigious institutions into the cheapest options for low- income students.

[13]

In most cases, the barrier of entry for students who require financial aid is set higher,

a practice called need-aware admissions. Universities with exceptionally large

endowments may combine need-based financial aid with

need-blind admission

, in

which students who require financial aid have equal chances to those who do

not. .[

citation needed

]

Financial assistance comes in two primary forms: Grant programs and loan programs.

Grant programs consist of money the student receives to pay for higher education

that does not need to be paid back, while loan programs consist of money the

student receives to pay for higher education that must be paid back. Public higher

education institutions (which are partially funded through state government

appropriation) and private higher education institutions (which are funded

exclusively through tuition and private donations) offer both grant and loan financial

assistance programs. Grants to attend public schools are distributed through federal

and state governments, as well as through the schools themselves; grants to attend

private schools are distributed through the school itself (independent organizations,

such as charities or corporations also offer grants that can be applied to both public

and private higher education institutions).

[14]

Loans can be obtained publicly

through government sponsored loan programs or privately through independent

lending institutions.

Grant, scholarship, and work study program facts[

edit

]

Grant programs, as well as work study programs, can be divided into two primary

categories:

Need-based financial awards

and

merit- based financial awards

. Most

state governments provide need-based scholarship programs, a few also offering

merit-based aid.

[15]

Several need-based grants are provided through the Federal

Government based on information provided on a student's

Free Application for

Federal Student Aid

.

[16]

The federal

Pell Grant

is a need-based grant available from

the Federal government. The federal government also has two other grants that are

a combination of need-based and merit-based: the Academic Competitiveness Grant,

and the National SMART Grant, but the SMART grant was abolished in 2011 with the

last grant awarded June 2011. In order to receive one of these grants a student must

be eligible for the Pell Grant, meet specific academic requirements, and be a US

citizen.

[14]

A student's eligibility for work study programs is also determined by information

collected on the student's FAFSA.

[14]

Need-based financial awards are money or

work study jobs provided to students who do not have the financial resources by

themselves to pay for higher education. The intent of need- based financial aid is to

close the gap between the required cost to pay for the higher education and the

money that is available to pay for the education.[

citation needed

]

Merit-based financial awards are money given to a student based on a particular gift,

talent, conditional situation, or ability that is worthy of the monetary award,

regardless of economic standing. The intent of merit-based financial aid is to

encourage and reward students who exhibit these qualities with attendance at a

school of higher education through the financial incentive. Not only does

merit-based assistance benefit the student, but the benefit is seen as reciprocal for

the educational institution itself, as students who exhibit exceptional qualities are

able to enhance the development of the school itself.

Financial aid has also been found to be linked to increased enrollment. A study

conducted by the

National Bureau of Economic Research

found that an increased

availability of any amount financial aid amounts to increased enrollment rates.

Evidence also suggests that access to financial aids also increases both “persistence

and compe

tition”. Further benefit has been noted with academic

-based scholarships,

augmenting the effects of financial aid by incentivizing the scholarship with

performance-based requirements.

[17]

Many companies offer tuition reimbursement plans for their employees, in order to

make the benefit package more attractive, to upgrade the skill levels and to increase

retention.

[18]

Student loans[

edit

]

Main article:

Student loans in the United States

In 2012 student loan debt owed in the United States totaled more than $$1 trillion.

[19]

In 2012, total student loans exceeded consumer credit card debt.

[20]

Many different types of loans can be taken out by a student or the student's parents

in order to pay for higher education. In general these can be divided into two

categories: federal student loans and private student loans.

Federal student loans

There are five kinds of student loans available through the government:

Perkins

Loans

,

subsidized Stafford Loans

, unsubsidized Stafford Loans,

direct loans

, and

PLUS

loans

. A student's eligibility for any of these loans, as well as the amount of the loan

itself is determined by information on the student's

FAFSA

. The interest rate and

whether or not interest accrues on the loan while the student is in school depends of

the type of Federal loan.

Private student loans

Students can also acquire loans privately, through banks, credit unions, savings and

loan associations, or other finance companies (ref. article pg. 3). Private loans are

typically used to supplement federal student loans, which have a yearly borrowing

limit. However, private loans typically have more rigid repayment policies.

Education tax credits

US tax payers may be eligible for tax credits designed to help make higher education

more affordable. There are two different tax credits meant to help defray the costs

of higher education: the

Hope Tax Credit

and the

Lifetime Learning Tax Credit

.

History[

edit

]

Main article:

History of higher education in the United States

The following text needs to be

harmonized

with text in

History of

higher education in the United States

.

(May 2015)

Colonial era[

edit

]

Religious denominations established most early colleges in order to train ministers.

Harvard College

was founded by the colonial legislature in 1636. Harvard at first

focused on training young men for the ministry, and won general support from the

Puritan government, some of whose leaders had Attended Oxford or Cambridge .

The

College of William & Mary

was founded by Virginia government in 1693, with

20,000 acres (81 km

2

) of land for an endowment, and a penny tax on every pound of

tobacco, together with an annual appropriation.

James Blair

, the leading

Church of

England

minister in the colony, was

president for 50 years

, and the college won the

broad support of the Virginia gentry. It trained many of the lawyers, politicians, and

leading planters.

Yale College

was founded in 1701, and in 1716 was relocated to

New Haven, Connecticut. The conservative Puritan ministers of Connecticut had

grown dissatisfied with the more liberal theology of Harvard, and wanted their own

school to train orthodox ministers. New Light Presbyterians in 1747 set up the

College of New Jersey, in the town of Princeton; much later it was renamed

Princeton University

.

[21]

19th century[

edit

]

Many Protestant denominations, as well as the Catholics, opened small colleges in

the nineteenth century.

[22][23]

The Catholics, especially, opened a number of

women's colleges in the early twentieth century.

All of the schools were small, with a limited undergraduate curriculum based on the

liberal arts. Students were drilled in Greek, Latin, geometry, ancient history, logic,

ethics and rhetoric, with few discussions and no lab sessions. Originality and

creativity were not prized, but exact repetition was rewarded. The college president

typically enforced strict discipline, and the upperclassman enjoyed hazing the

freshman. Many students were younger than 17, and most of the colleges also

operated a preparatory school. There were no organized sports, or Greek-letter

fraternities, but literary societies were active. Tuition was very low and scholarships

were few. Many of their students were sons of clergymen; most planned

professional careers as ministers, lawyers or teachers.

[24]

Impact of 19th-century colleges[

edit

]

Summarizing the research of Burke and Hall, Katz concludes that in the 19th

century:.

[25]

1.

The nation's many small colleges helped young men make the transition from rural farms

to complex urban occupations.

2.

These colleges especially promoted upward mobility by preparing ministers and thereby

provided towns across the country with a core of community leaders.

3.

The

elite

colleges

became

increasingly

exclusive

and

contributed

relatively

little

to

upward social mobility. By concentrating on the offspring of wealthy families, ministers

and a few others, the elite Eastern colleges, especially Harvard, played an important role

in the formation of a Northeastern elite with great power.

Law and medical schools[

edit

]

There were no schools of law in the early British colonies, thus no schools of law

were in America in colonial times. A few lawyers studied at the highly prestigious

Inns of Court

in London, while the majority served apprenticeships with established

American lawyers.

[26]

Law was very well established in the colonies, compared to

medicine, which was in rudimentary condition. In the 18th century, 117 Americans

had graduated in medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland, but most physicians in the

colonies learned as apprentices.

[27]

In Philadelphia, the Medical College of

Philadelphia was founded in 1765, and became affiliated with the university in 1791.

In New York, the

medical department of King's College

was established in 1767, and

in 1770 awarded the first American M.D. degree.

[28]

20th century[

edit

]

At the beginning of the 20th century, fewer than 1,000 colleges with 160,000

students existed in the United States. explosive growth in the number of colleges

occurred In bursts, especially 1900-1930, in 1950-1970. State universities grew from

small institutions of fewer than 1000 students to gigantic campuses with 40,000

more students, as well as a network of regional campuses around the state. In turn

the regional campuses broke away and became separate universities. To handle the

explosive growth of K-12 education, every state set up a network of teachers

colleges, beginning with Massachusetts in the 1830s. After 1950 they became state

colleges and then state universities With a broad curriculum.

Roman Catholic colleges and universities[

edit

]

Main article:

History of Catholic education in the United States §

Colleges and universities

The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities was founded in 1899 and

continues to facilitate the exchange of information and methods.

[29]

Vigorous

debate in recent decades has focused on how to balance Catholic and academic

roles, with conservatives arguing that bishops should exert more control to

guarantee orthodoxy.

[30][31][32]

Community colleges[

edit

]

Major new trends included the development of the

junior colleges

. They were

usually set up by City school systems starting in the 1920s.

[33]

By the 1960s they

were renamed as

Junior colleges grew from 20 in number In 1909, to 170 in 1919. By 1922, 37 states

had set up 70 junior colleges, enrolling about 150 students each. Meanwhile,

another 137 were privately operated, with about 60 students each. Rapid expansion

continued in the 1920s, with 440 junior colleges in 1930 enrolling about 70,000

students. The peak year for private institutions came in 1949, when there were 322

junior colleges in all; 180 were affiliated with churches, 108 were independent

non-profit, and 34 were private Schools run for-profit.

[34]

Many factors contributed to rapid growth of community colleges. Students parents

and businessmen wanted nearby, low-cost schools to provide training for the

growing white collar labor force, as well as for more advanced technical jobs in the

blue collar sphere. Four years colleges were also growing, albeit not as fast; however

many of them were located in rural or small-town areas away from the fast-growing

metropolis. Community colleges continue as open enrollment, low-cost institutions

with a strong component of vocational education, as well as a low-cost preparation

for transfer students into four-year schools. They appeal to a poorer, older, less

prepared element.

[35][36]

Funding of schools[

edit

]

Since the

Great Recession

U.S. universities have transitioned from federal grants to

corporate funds and have been

University of Maryland

Northrop Grumman

has funded a cybersecurity

concentration, designs the curriculum in cybersecurity, provides computers and pays

some cost of a new dorm. At Ohio State

IBM

partnered to teach

big data

analytics.

Murray State University's engineering program was supported by computer

companies. The

College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering

at State University of

New York in Albany received billions of dollars in private sector investment.

[37]

ITT Educational Services Inc, a big operator of

For-Profit Schools

, warned in July 2014

it could face restricted funding from the U.S. government for failing to file timely

financial reports.,

[38]

Admission process[

edit

]

Main article:

College admissions in the United States