Students can apply to some colleges using the Common Application. With a few exceptions, most graduate colleges and universities maintain the policy that students are to be admitted to (or rejected from) the entire college, not to a particular department or major. (This is unlike college admissions in many European countries, as well as graduate admissions.) Some students, rather than being rejected, are “wait-listed” for a particular college and may be admitted if another student who was admitted decides not to attend the college or university.
- Allied Health Professions Admission Test(AHPAT)
- Dental Admission Test(DAT)- (United States)
- Graduate Management Admission Test(GMAT) – (US)
- Graduate Record Examination(GRE) – (US and Canada)
- Law School Admission Test(LSAT) – (US and Canada)
- Miller Analogies Test(MAT)
- Medical College Admission Test(MCAT) – (US and Canada)
- Optometry Admission Test(OAT) – Optometry Admission Test
- Pharmacy College Admission Test(PCAT)
- Veterinary College Admission Test(VCAT) – no longer administered; American veterinary schools now use either the GRE or MCAT
- California Basic Educational Skills Test
- Wiesen Test of Mechanical Aptitude (WTMA)
US colleges and universities offer diverse educational venues: some emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum (like polytechnic universities and land-grant universities) and others emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above, as comprehensive universities.
Students can apply to some colleges using the Common Application. With a few exceptions, most undergraduate colleges and universities maintain the policy that students are to be admitted to (or rejected from) the entire college, not to a particular department or major. (This is unlike college admissions in many European countries, as well as graduate admissions.) Some students, rather than being rejected, are “wait-listed” for a particular college and may be admitted if another student who was admitted decides not to attend the college or university.
The term “college” refers to one of three types of education institutions: stand-alone higher-level education institutions that are not components of a university.
- community colleges
- liberal arts colleges
- a college within a university, mostly the undergraduate institution of a university.
Almost all colleges and universities are coeducational. A dramatic transition occurred in the 1970s, when most men’s colleges started to accept women. Over 80% of the women’s colleges of the 1960s have closed or merged, leaving fewer than 50. Over 100 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) operate, both private and public.
Some U.S. states offer higher education at two year “colleges” formerly called “community colleges“. The change requires cooperation between community colleges and local universities.
Four-year colleges often provide the bachelor’s degree, most commonly the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.). They are primarily either undergraduate only institutions (e.g. liberal arts colleges), or the undergraduate institution of a university (such as Harvard College, Yale College, and Columbia College).
Higher education has led to the creation of accreditation organizations, independent of the government, to vouch for the quality of degrees. They rate institutions on academic quality, the quality of their libraries, the publishing records of their faculty, the degrees which their faculty hold, and their financial solvency.[citation needed] Accrediting agencies have been criticized for possible conflicts of interest that lead to favorable results.[92] Non-accredited institutions exist, but their students are not eligible for federal loans.
Community colleges
Community colleges are often two-year colleges. They have open admissions, usually with lower tuition fees than other state or private schools.[ Graduates earn associate degrees, such as an Associate of Arts (AA).
The College Promise program, which exists in several forms in 47 states, is an effort to encourage community college enrollment.
Liberal arts colleges
Four-year institutions emphasizing the liberal arts are liberal arts colleges. They traditionally emphasize interactive instruction. They are known for being residential and for having smaller enrollment and lower student-to-faculty ratios than universities. Most are private, although there are public liberal arts colleges. Some offer experimental curricula.
