Arakin 4 kurs new 001 176. indd

Institutions of higher education in the US
College admissions for undergraduate study in the United States 
usually take place during the senior year of high school (usually 
around the ages of 17 or 18). While dates and deadlines vary, the 
entire application process usually begins in the autumn and concludes 
in the spring of the last year of high school.
Students must apply separately to each school they wish to attend. 
Colleges and universities usually have their own application forms. 
There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a 
student may apply, unless the student is applying under early decision 
programs or some early action programs. The majority of under-
graduate colleges and universities admit students to an entire college, 
and not to a particular department or major, unlike the practice in 
many European countries and graduate admissions. (However, there 
are some programs, such as architecture or engineering, which are 
often admitted due to curriculum demands.) Decision letters (except 

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in early action and early decision) are usually mailed to applicants in 
the spring. Students may be accepted to the institution, rejected 
outright, or wait-listed. Wait-listed students may be later admitted 
if another student who was admitted decides not to attend the college 
or university.
Admitted students may also be awarded financial aid. There are 
two kinds of financial aid: need-based aid, awarded entirely on the 
financial specifics of the student’s family, and merit-based aid, given 
to students judged to show exceptional academic promise.
Depending on the size and values of the school, admissions criteria 
can vary from being almost entirely formulaic to involving significant 
subjective judgment regarding the student’s “fit” for the institution. 
Criteria include standardized test scores (generally ACT and/or SAT), 
class rank, grades (as shown in the high school transcript), degree of 
extracurricular involvement, and leadership potential. Many col-
leges also rely on personal essay(s) written by the applicant and let-
ters of recommendation written by the applicant’s teachers and 
guidance counselor. Institutions place different weight on these cri-
teria: for example, some schools do not require or even accept the 
SATs for admission.
Although most educational institutions in the U.S. are nonprofit, 
some are for-profit. Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms 
of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or 
technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts cur-
riculum. Many combine some or all of the above.
Two-year colleges offer the Associates degree (A.A.) and four-year 
colleges offer Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Sciences (B.S.) 
degrees. These are primarily undergraduate institutions, although some 
might have limited programs at the graduate level. Universities service 
both undergraduate and graduate student bodies. Graduate programs 
grant a variety of Master’s degrees including M.B.A.s (Master of Busi-
ness Administration) or M.F.A.s (Master of Fine Arts). The highest 
academic degree is the Ph.D. Medical schools award the M.D. (Doctor 
of Medicine) while law schools award the J.D. (Doctor of Laws).
Liberal arts colleges are four-year institutions that traditionally 
emphasize interactive instruction (although research is still a compo-
nent of these institutions). They are known for being residential and 
for having smaller enrollments, class sizes, and student-teacher ratios 
than universities. These colleges also encourage a high level of teacher-
student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time 
faculty rather than graduate student TA’s (who teach the classes at 

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Research Institutions and other universities). The colleges are either 
coeducational, women’s colleges, or men’s colleges. Some are histori-
cally black colleges, or secular, while others are involved in religious 
education. Many are private. Some are public liberal arts colleges.
Public and private universities are research-oriented institutions 
which service both an undergraduate and graduate student body. 
These institutions usually have a large student body. Introductory 
seminars can have a class size in the hundreds, but lab groups are 
generally smaller and more intimate. The more popular sports schools 
are typically larger universities, though not exclusively.