school in america

I'm going to come out with another one of those funny "language" questions.

In another thread, someone mentioned that they had met their husband in "college" and that he then went to medical school.

You may laugh, but what is "college"? I get a little confused when I hear words like "freshman", "sophomore" and "senior", as well, because I don't know what these represent. Our schooling system is different in Australia. It's time for me to work out what you guys are referring to!

We start here with a year of kindergarten (which may mean something different in the US too?), then a year of pre-school, and then start seven years of primary school. When you graduate from this, you're off to high school (secondary school) for five years (grades 8-12). All pre-tertiary education is free if you attend a public school. Generally you'll be 17 when you finish, although education is only compulsory to age 15. After completing year 12, you may go on to university. In my day you could go straight into a medical degree, which took seven years, but now you do an undergraduate degree in any discipline and enter from that point. "College" generally means a post-compulsory schooling alternative to university, such as a technical college.

Do you see my confusion? Please answer this ignorant (ex) high school teacher!

PS - Incidentally, while university is not free, you do not have to pay up-front. Repayments of a small percentage only commence once a certain level of income is reached.

[Rapunzel]

University = College

They are generally used interchangeably although you are more likely to hear the term "college" (as in, "Back in my college days...") rather than "university" in conversation.

My husband and I both attended a University but we refer to it as 'college' per the cultural norm here.

Thank you! But I'm still confused - how did the couple I mentioned meet in college, after which he went to med school? I wondered if this meant that they met in high school?

[Rapunzel]

Oh, I forgot to add the details of education in America:

You can, of course, go to a private or public school or be homeschooled (such as my children are).

Elementary school: Kindergarten thru fifth grade (some schools now go through sixth grade)

Middle school: 6th-8th grade (although some, again, only have 7th and 8th grades)

High School: 9th-12th grade

After that you can go to either a public or private university or college or a community college or technical school.

After gaining a bachelor's degree (four years generally) at a public or private university or college you can apply for admittance to a professional school (law, medicine, etc). Some degrees require a bit different route (such as architecture which is often a five program combining a bachelor's and master's degree programs).

There are always exceptions to the above: My husband started college (at a university ) at the age of 16 (when most kids are in their 11th grade year in high school). He went to a special program that the University of North Texas has which combines the last two years of high school with the first two years of college - so at the time your peers are graduating with high school diplomas you are ready to enter your third (Junior) year of college!

In regard to high school and college:

1st year- Freshmen
2nd year - Sophomore
3rd year - Junior
4th year - Senior

[Rapunzel]

Thank you! But I'm still confused - how did the couple I mentioned meet in college, after which he went to med school? I wondered if this meant that they met in high school?

Well, my husband and I met in college. I had already graduated from high school and was attending a university. My husband was attending the same university (he was junior year I was sophomore year).

Medical school is a seperate professional school you apply to at the end of college. Law school is similar.

Edit:

So, the order of schooling for an American to become a physician:

Elementary school
Middle school
High school
College
Medical School
Residency (specialty training)
Fellowship (subspecialization training)

So, from the time you start kindergarten to the time you finish medical school is a grand total of 21 years in school! And, that's before residency.

Wow! Headspin! But I think I've got it...maybe....

One difference I noticed is that our undergraduate degrees (say a Bachelor of Arts, or Bachelor of Science) are completed in three years. You can do an extra year to earn honours, if you are selected, but you have the degree in your hands after three years, rather than four. If you take summer semesters as well you can condense it even further (although destroy your holidays!)

All degrees (of any level - eg Bachelor, Masters, phD) are completed at universities in Australia. These are generally very large institutions. Mine now has nearly 32,000 students enrolled. I think that's maybe where I was not understanding the term "college" as used in the States.

I was actually born in NZ and attended some primary (elementary) school there. I believe that at the time (and probably still now) you started kindergarten on the actual day you turned five. This would probably explain the "flexible" approach to starting school. I kind of like that approach too - but then NZ's small enough to do lots of unusual things in whatever way they want to!

[Stella]

In addition, some middle schools are also known as Junior High Schools.

My university (The University of Virginia) didn't use the terms Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior and instead the students were called First Years, Second Years, Third Years, and Fourth Years.

In high school, I was in a program where I took two classes at my high school and then three classes (each per day) at the local Community College for University credit. When I graduated High School (at 17), I had completed a year and a half of the credits required for a Bachelors Degree. I could have graduated from the University/College much sooner, but chose to stay for the full four years.

So, I started Kindergarten at 4 years old, graduated High School and entered my First Year at the University/College at 17, and graduated from college at 21.

Make sense??

[madeintaiwan]

Wow! Headspin! But I think I've got it...maybe....

All degrees (of any level - eg Bachelor, Masters, phD) are completed at universities in Australia. These are generally very large institutions. Mine now has nearly 32,000 students enrolled. I think that's maybe where I was not understanding the term "college" as used in the States.

The university DH and I went to has 30,000 students as well. It depends on who are talking to. For DH and I, almost all of our friends and our family members who did go to college all went to universities that you speak of (4 year program with 20-30,000 students enrolled). In the US a good number of people go to community/junior colleges (2 year degree AA or just get your prereqs done and transfer to a university to get your BA, BS or Masters or PhD) and small universities. I think the word "college" is used loosely here in the US. DH and I can be kinda snobby about the word college especially coming from CA where there are so many universities that there are a good number of 4 year universities that are known to be glorified junior colleges. End results: University = 4 year degree (BS, BA or greater). College = 2 year degree (AA)

And off of what Stella was staying you can earn "college" credits while in HS by taking approved classes at a junior college or university or by taking AP (Advanced Placement) classes and taking the AP tests. DH started UCD with almost a years worth of credits. Depending on the degree you are getting there are more required units so it can take you longer to get it. My degree was 180 units, I think DH was in the low 200s.

Hope I didn't confuse you.

[DCJenn]

"College" is also indiciative of size (at least on the East Coast). I attended Western Maryland College which had 1200 people total including graduate students. I also went to WMC for graduate school.

Jenn

[Stella]

College is the generic all-encompassing term used in casual conversation. I went to a University, but I would say that "I met my SO in college." NOT "I met my SO in University" as is common elsewhere.

[DCJenn]

and some days they all still act like Pre-K, you know, BEFORE you learn how to share and play nicely in the sandbox...

Jenn

In Ireland:
Montessori (optional) 2.5-4/5

Primary School where you start in junior infants at 4/5
then
senior infants
1st class - 6th class where you leave age 11/12


Secondary school:
1st year- 3rd year (take your junior cert exams)
optional 4th year/transitional year where you take basic maths, english, irish, try out a few of other subjects at senior level and do work experience
then 5th and 6th year you study for your leaving cert, english irish and maths plus 3-5 other subjects

then you go to university/college. Generally people go to medical school straight from secondary school when you finish age 17/18 and medical school+ intern year is 7 years.


in england college is where they study A levels or equivalent and university is after college to sudy your degree.

So, from the time you start kindergarten to the time you finish medical school is a grand total of 21 years in school! And, that's before residency.

Dh and I joke that when he finishes training he'll be in the 32nd grade.

We dh finished residency I threw him a party. We realized at that point that he'd started undergrad (college / university) the same year his cousin started kindergarten. When he finished residency, she was finishing her sophomore year of college.

[Vishenka69]

I think in many countries in Europe, college/university is to learn a trade (profession). What we cover in Liberal Arts here is done in school in Europe.

[Momo]

My DH is from Syria. Over there HS is major...your professional life depends on how well you do in HS. At the end of HS there is a big Exam everyone must take, your future professional training /education depends on your score. The ones w/ the highest marks can go on to Med school, then their are scores that determine who can go to law school, finance school, pharmacy, business. I am not sure what the score ranges are and how they match up to career paths. What I do know is that it's cut throat when you are 16- 18. DH passed w/ marks that allowed him to go to med school upon HS graduation. So like Robyn mentioned they can go off to med school right out of HS. He was 17 years old and a MS1, he was 23 when he finished. He came here @ 26 and did his US residency training. Oh BTW it's ALL PAID for over there. My DD decided to buy English text books only, so he had to pay for those, but he really wanted to improve his English and learn our terminology, because he had a dream/ vision about being trained in America some day!