condary

Chapter10PostcondaryEducation:Admissions

Inthislecture,I’mgoingtotalktoyouaboutpostcondaryeducationinthe

’llgiveyousomefactsandfiguresaboutcollegesand

universitiesintheUnitedStatesandsomegeneralinformationaboutadmission

lsomakeafewremarksaboutcommunitycollegesandfinishupby

givingyouanideaofwhatkindsofstudentsmakeupthestudentbodyonatypical

.

Let’trecentfiguresIhavereveal

thereare4,182publicandprivatefour-yearandtwo-yearcollegesintheUnited

angefromfulluniversitieswithdiverprogramstosmaller

themareaccredited,

whichmeanstheschoolsmeetcertainstandardstbyinstitutionalandprivate

plyingtoaschool,youwouldprobablywanttomakesureitwas

oughtherearemoreprivatecollegesthanpublicones,over

three-quartersofstudents,precily78percent,areenrolledatpubliccolleges

thesmallprivateschoolsmayhavefewerthan100students,

whereassomeofthelargestateuniversitysystemsmayhave50,000ormorestudents.

Mostoftheschoolsarecoeducationalalthoughsomeofthemareprimarilyforwomen

hoolsmayofferonlyoneprogramofstudy

alcostforattendingoneof

theschoolsmaybelessthan$5,000ayearorasmuchas30or40thousanddollars

choolsarelocatedall

over—inindustrialareas,agriculturalareas,largecities,andsmalltownsina

widevarietyofclimates.

Withsuchawidevarietyofsizes,kinds,andlocationsofschools,itprobably

won’tsurpriyoutofindoutthatadmissionsrequirementsatthecollegesand

erelativelyeasytobeadmittedtowhereas

r,mostschoolswillaskundergraduate

applicantstosubmittheirhighschooltranscriptswitharecordoftheirgrades

andtestresultsfromoneofthestandardizedtestsregularlyofferedtohighschool

tcommonofthestandardizedexamsistheScholasticAptitude

Test,tswhoareapplyingtograduateschoolare

usuallyaskedtotakeother,morespecificstandardizedexamsdependingonwhich

mple,somestudentsarerequiredtotakethe

GraduateRecordExam,tsapplyingtoabusinesscollegewill

probablyhavetotaketheGMAT,andstudentsapplyingtolawcollegewillhaveto

bablyknowabouttheTOEFLexam,whichmostforeignstudents

xams,

includingtheTOEFL,areallpreparedbyacompanythatisindependentoftheschool

xamshavecomeunderalotofcriticismlately,buttheyarestill

r,

mostschoolstrytolookatthewholestudentandconsiderfactorsotherthansimply

thefactorsmaybeextracurricularactivitiesin

school,ethnicbackground,workexperience,hoolswillhave

hools,

privateaswellaspublic,tryveryhardtohaveastudentpopulationwithawide

emostprestigiousandmosthighly

competitivecollegesanduniversitieswillnottakeonlythostudentswiththe

highestgradesandstandardizedtestscoresbutwillconsidertheotherfactors.

Nevertheless,schoolsofthistype,suchasStanfordandHarvard,havesomanymore

peopleapplyingthantheycanpossiblyacceptthatstudentswhowanttogetinto

ral,medicalandlaw

colleges,bothprivateandpublic,areverydifficulttogetinto,and,onceagain,

testscoresonstandardizedexamscanbeextremelyimportanttothoapplyingto

theschools.

However,forstudentswhowanttoattendastatecollegeoruniversityintheir

ownstate,itmaybeenoughtograduatefromhighschoolintheupperthirdoreven

ysurprithoofyouwhocomefrom

aneducationalsystemthatishighlycompetitive,asysteminwhichonlyasmall

percentageofstudentswhopassaverydifficultnationwidestandardizedhighschool

beevenmoresurpridbywhatIhave

totellyouaboutcommunitycolleges.

AninterestingfeatureofeducationintheUnitedStatesisthetwo-year

itycollegesthatarepubliclysupportedoffersomewhat

differenteducationalopportunitiesthanthoofferedbyaniorcollegeora

,admissionsrequirementsatpubliccommunitycollegesareusually

’susually

,it

tionandfeesareusuallyquite

tsoftenliveathomebecauthistypeofschooldoesnothave

tworeasons,manypeoplewhoareunabletogotoafour-year

collegeoruniversitycanhaveanopportunitytotakeclassforcollegecredit.

Finally,communitycollegesoffertwo-yearprogramsthatcanleadtoanAssociate

theprograms,butnotallofthem,arevocationalinnature.

oplemaybe

takingonacourortwoinsomefieldthatparticularlyintereststhemandmay

eoplemaybegoingtocommunitycollege

full-timeandplanningtotransfertoafour-yearcollegeoruniversityupon

,somuchfor

communitycolleges.

IpromidtotellyoualittleabouttheactualstudentbodyonatypicalU.S.

’sstartwithsomestatistics,andthenwe’lldiscusstwoitemsthat

hemillionhighschoolgraduatesin2002,

an90percentoftho

enreprentedhalfofthehighschoolgraduates,but

ctstatisticsare:percentoffemale

eakdown

thestatisticsracially,wefindthatwhitestudentnrolledincollegeingreater

uresarepercentforwhite

graduates,percentofblackgraduates,

toffull-timestudentsin2002wereeither

mberjumpstopercentforpart-timestudents.

Thatlaststatisticmakesmorenwhenweconsiderthatbesidesthestudentswho

arefromeighteentotwenty-twoyearsoldthatoneexpectstofindonacollegecampus,

ybepeoplewhoattendpart-time

toupgradetheirskills,peoplewhoarechangingcareers,orretiredpeoplewhostill

,foreignstudentsareoftensurpridathowpoorly

ly,atverylect

schoolsthestudentsareusuallyverywellprepared,butatlesslectiveschools,

illremember

theeducationalphilosophywediscusdinthelastlecture,youwillunderstand

sintheStatessimplyadmitalotmorestudentsthanisusualinmost

,mostyoungAmericanuniversitystudentshavenottraveled

inothercountriesandarenotverywellverdininternationalmattersanddonot

nstudentsusuallyfindthem

friendlybutnotverywellinformedabouttheircountriesorcultures.

Inbrief,youcanethateducationalopportunitiesandadmissionsstandards

tmaybequitedifficulttogainadmission

tosomecollegesanduniversitiesbecauoftheverylargenumberofapplicants,

probablyanystudentgraduatingfromhighschoolwithreasonablegradescanfind

tudentshopingtoenter

graduateschoolwilloftenfaceverystiffcompetition,whetheratprivateorpublic

udentswhostartatacollegeoruniversitywillnotfinishinfour

willreturn

llgotoschoolfull-timeand

llnotworkwhilegoingtoschool,butmostwillworkat

sometimeorotherduringtheirschoolyears.

We’reoutoftime,xtlecture,I’lltalktoyouaboutarelatively

newdevelopmentineducation,ldbeofinteresttotho

ofyouwhowanttoattendcollegebutcan’tbecauoflivingfarfromacollege,

busyschedules,orforotherreasons.