What are the types of American universities? First, private universities.
1 Top private schools
Among the top 30 universities in the United States over the years, private universities occupy 27 seats all the year round. In addition to the well-known Ivy League universities, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, University of Southern California, California Institute of Technology and Duke University are all top private universities in the United States.
These schools have top academic influence in the world. Historically, they were usually established by big entrepreneurs and chaebol. For example, the University of Chicago was founded by oil tycoon john rockefeller, Carnegie Mellon University was founded by steel tycoon James Carnegie and banking tycoon Mellon, and Vanderbilt University was founded by chaebol Vanderbilt. The establishment of these schools also fully shows that not only the American government, but also the whole American society attaches great importance to education, which can be said to be private education.
The main economic source of private universities is donations from alumni and large enterprises, with sufficient funds and high teaching level; However, the tuition and living expenses of these private schools are huge, which is unbearable for many ordinary American families, especially at the undergraduate level, where students mainly come from the upper class and elite in the United States.
2 Church University
In the United States, social thought is relatively free, so there are many sects of various religions, and there are also many private schools established by church donations, including many high-ranking church universities. For example, Georgetown University, Boston College, Notre Dame University, Brigham Young University, Southern University of Health Science and Technology, these schools not only have the characteristics of private schools, but also have extremely strict school rules and regulations, which is also one of the important characteristics of church universities.
At the same time, American law stipulates that no one or institution may interfere in the internal affairs of the church university and give it room for full development. The teaching level and scientific research strength of these schools are no less than those of top private schools. Among the top 300 universities in the United States, there are nearly 45 universities from churches, accounting for 1/7 of the total.
The second category-public universities
1 National Public University "Big U University"
The American public university system is divided into four types. The first is a university named after the state, which is called University+ Big U in English. These universities are all national universities (equivalent to our 2 1 1985). It is usually the university with the highest level of teaching and scientific research, the greatest academic influence, the largest number of students and the most complete disciplines in the state, and its comprehensive ranking is usually between 30- 170 in the United States.
Because of the obvious social class differentiation in the United States, most people's children will choose the big U in their state first according to their own achievements. On the one hand, close to home, no need to travel far, and the tuition burden is light. On the other hand, the quality of education is absolutely the best in the state. So in general, if we compare the lateral thinking of China people, most big U universities are equivalent to key universities in various provinces of our country, such as Shandong University, Hunan University, Wuhan University and so on. For China students, these schools are very suitable, the cost is not as expensive as that of top private schools, the quality of education is not worse than that of private schools, and the overall cost performance is very high.
Moreover, some public universities (big U) are not just one school, but are composed of different public universities in the state. This kind of university has no distinction between a general school and a branch school, and is a relatively independent university. The prefix of the school name is the unified university name, and the suffix is the branch (city) name. This kind of big U is also called "big U system", and the most famous one is the University of California system, referred to as UC system. If you ask an ordinary American what schools he thinks are good, he will tell you about Los Angeles and Berkeley in UC system first, and then the big U in his state. In addition to UC system, foreigners often hear about University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, Indiana University, University of Maryland, University of Illinois, University of Iowa and so on.
2 National University System "Su"
The state university is called Su for short, and it is usually "state university with state name" or "state university with state name". This university or university system is the second kind of public university, which is usually established by the state government. Financially, it mainly depends on the state government to allocate funds according to the proportion of education funds, which is correspondingly affected by the state's annual fiscal revenue. When the economic situation is good, the education funds are plentiful, but when the economic situation is bad, the education level of the state university system is usually one level lower than that of the big U, which is equivalent to saving one in China.
State universities usually consist of a university system, and each campus is independent of each other. It is an independent school in essence, but it is supervised by the academic director of the state system (appointed by the state government), and each campus teaches independently and awards degrees independently. To some extent, because the state university system is scattered in several major cities or counties in the state, this type of school is more like a university that popularizes people's higher education in the state, and the tuition fees are relatively cheap, especially for students this week.
Of course, although the overall level of the state university system is slightly lower than that of the national public university system, there are still many schools with strong teaching and scientific research strength and high comprehensive ranking. Well-known universities, such as Ohio State University, State University of New York at Stony Brook, State University of New York at Buffalo, Indiana State University, Michigan State University, and North Carolina State University, are among the top 100 universities in the United States.
3 East, West, North and South (directional vocabulary)+State University
The name composition of such universities is somewhat special, and they are usually public schools named after "East, West, North and South+State Name", such as Northern Michigan University, western kentucky university University and Texas Western University. This kind of university is usually the main part of the state public university system. The scale of the school is usually not too large, the disciplines are incomplete, and there are few postgraduate majors in the school. The number of students is usually between 1 1,000 and 3,000, and the tuition is relatively cheap.
Many students with poor economic ability and relatively low academic performance in the United States usually choose these universities to complete their undergraduate studies. Because these universities mainly focus on basic education, they are numerous in the United States. Therefore, it is difficult to see them in the top 300 in the USNEWS rankings over the years, and individual institutions such as university of central florida rank around 190.
4 community colleges
Community colleges in the United States are quite large, with more than 1200 community colleges and more than10 million registered students. The average age of community college students is 29 years old, and 40% of them are under 2 1 year old. Older college students over 60 are also common. Among them, 60% students study while working. Only a few community colleges have attached dormitories. 38% of the funding for community colleges comes from the state government, and tuition income accounts for about 20%. Local government funds are close to 20%, and the rest are supplemented by other forms of funds. The most important characteristics of community colleges:
First, the tuition is quite low, with an average of $2,000 per person/year, which is the cheapest among all university systems in the United States;
Second, the entry threshold is very low, and there are basically no specific performance requirements;
Third, two-year system. Most of the majors offered by community colleges are two-year programs. At the end of the study, they will get a certificate of completion. Students can choose employment or transfer to the public university system in their state according to their GPA scores in the past two years to complete their last two years.