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Introduction to the US Higher Education System

The U.S. higher education system consists of three types of institutions, Professional Education and Training Institutes (PET), Community Colleges and Universities. PETs provide technical and vocational training to students who want to join the workforce after completing their school education. PETs generally offer vocational and technical training in the fields of health sciences, accounting, technology, computer science etc. A student is awarded a diploma or an associate degree on successfully completing training at a PET. The total time taken to complete training at a PET ranges from 6 months to 4 years. If a student does not want to undergo vocational training and does not want to join a university, then he or she can join a Community College. A Community College mainly offers a 2 years diploma/associate degree in the fields of social sciences, humanities, pure sciences, engineering, business management. However, there are also some Community Colleges that offer 4 years bachelor’s degrees. A student who has successfully completed a 2 years diploma/associate degree from a Community College can move to a University to complete a bachelor’s degree. Furthermore, a student who has completed senior high school (senior secondary education) can directly join a University. Universities, in the United States, offer 4 years bachelor’s degrees, 1-2 year’s master’s degrees and PhDs. Students from India generally go to the United States for a master’s degree, however in the past years, increasing number of students, from India, have also started going to the U.S. for bachelor’s degrees. Thus, in the following paragraphs we will give a brief overview of some of the important Universities in the U.S. We will also briefly explain the process of getting a student visa in order to go to the U.S. for higher education.

Large number of Indian students go to the US for higher education. In 2018, approximately 200,000 Indian students went to the U.S. for further studies. Out of the approximately 200,000 students, nearly 65 percent, went to the US for master’s degrees. Therefore, we’ll look at the master’s level entry requirements at two American Universities in the top 100 world rankings (QS and Times Higher Education) and at one University ranked in the range 751-800 (QS). Furthermore, we will also look at the admissions process at a popular Liberal Arts College in the U.S., which primarily offers undergraduate degrees.