US of A Uni(s) Question (from a Yuropoor)

>>8997549
Northen Yuropoor here wondering the same thing. Someone please respond to these questions ASAP!!

>>8997557
Also it would seem, that people get into uni, then so their thing and after that they go to grad school..? Here we do all of our uni time at the same place (in some cases people do their bachelor some place and their master a different place), but in american movies it seems a bit like this is not the case. Someone please explain this.

And is there a difference between a college and a university?

>>8997562
Same. There are tons of things about US Unis that we see through entertainment, and to me at least, they seem like a goddamn Paradise of some sorts.

You still need to complete your major-specific coursework. Apart from that, though, if you want to take photography as a physics major there's nothing stopping you if you're ahead of schedule. It just won't count as progress towards your major.

>>8997569
Why aren't all of your time filled up with major-specific coursework? What sort of pleb-tier education do you guys get?

>>8997569
Yeah, but how does that work, exactly? Say I'm 18 YO, I've apllied to, [Random Uni] and I want to be an engineer or something. What, do you just... choose subjects? You can just take two subjects? or three? How big is the subject matter? How long are semesters? When do you get the textbooks?

>>8997575
Wait... you get Major Specific subjects? I'm studying physics and I have stuff like Chemistry, Programming, Linear Algebra & Differential Equations all in the first semester/3 months time.

>>8997580
I'd count linear algebra and differential equations as major specific, because their aid-subjects (as in you need them to do physics)

>>8997589
they're*
Sorry. I swear, I'm not illitterate.

>>8997589
... they're aid-subjects...*
Sorry. I swear, I'm not illitterate.

>>8997589
Yeah, but would you put that together, in a span of just 3 months? For fuck's sake, after High School I knew how to do derivatives, limits and integrals. Now I've been here for 8 months or so, and have about 1000pgs worth of matter at each subject, and everything is brand new stuff! Like, sheesh, ease up a bit. I'm struggling for passing grades, because the arseholes have cut down the examination time but increased the number of exercises during finals. I mean, sure, I expected that considering the way the system works, but... jeez.

>>8997597
Sorry, but that actually sounds pretty standard to me. It's only 4 courses anon, come on.

Australian unis are something in between I think.
You apply for a specific degree (BSc, BA, BEcon...) then to graduate you need a major, to get a major you have to do at least 2 level 1, 2 level 2, and 4 level 3 units in that subject (8 units/year for 3 years). The other 16 units are elective, you can use them to get a double major (4/4/8 units in one area), two different majors, minors or do other random stuff.

>>8997609
They're not the only courses. They're jumbled with Chem, Programming, General Physics, Differential Geometry, Labs I&II, Vectoral Analysis & Infinitesimal Calculus. Each one of them has a subject matter of 700-1000pgs. Time available is what, 4 months? 2 months for each semester.

>>8997549
>you can only get into a specific branch
which sadly is true, even though German universities fap on their "Humboldtsche Ideal" which most of the times is just a circlejerk and a lie rather than the truth.
>semester 3 months
you know semester stands for six months, literally
and this is how long the semester is at the TUM, from april first to september 30th and from october 1st to april 30th.
>you can't choose your classes>everything is mandatory
you can choose to do more and every bachelor's program HAS to have electives; in Germany also staatexamen have electives
>each textbook is about 1000pgs
dunno about non-STEM, but I wanna see a book covering the scope of the lecture and not much beyond that with 1k pages.
Fuck even powerpoint presentation lecture fucking slides which are DISGUSTING rarely reach 1k and like 16 of them fill an ordinary page of a book
>most subjects are thrown away after one semester and you never use the knowledge again
depends on the major; in CS: some yes; in maths: hell no, in physics, baaarely, more nope, in electrical engineering: yes
and yet everybody majoring in those fields should know them; this is why they are mandetory

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27KB, 406x278px

>>8997635
>EE
>yes
Yeah well, that's just your opinion, and it's wrong.

Not US, but posting for a (top) UK uni in maths or physics:

>you can only get into a specific branch
>first two years there are mandatory classes (about 50% of classes), a couple electives within the department, and a free elective from any department
>third/fourth year, every class is an elective from the department (although some are required as a corequisite for most, or have certain prereqs from the previous year),
>optionally, one elective from any department at a higher level (ie: a second/third year class in some department) or a language class
>each semester has 2-3 months, two semesters a year, not including exam season
>most classes are year long, with some exceptions in second year
>every class has a recommended textbook, and a small list of other recommendations, although it's not compulsory to buy it, and you can get it in the library
>we usually get course notes, sometimes with just statements and no proofs
>most classes will have prereqs and it is useful to know them, but most of them go briefly over the material needed
>you do a project on your final year

>>8997659
For Oxbridge you have 3 terms of 8 weeks in a year, the rest are holidays. All the course work is crammed in termtime and exams are usually at the end of the third term (Trinity term). You also have to get a 2.i in 2nd year and 2.i average in 2nd and 3rd year to do a 4th year masters. Otherwise you graduate after 3rd year with a BA instead of MPhys/MMath/MMathPhys

So first you apply to a university in which you typically declare which major (program of study) you want to do. For most majors your first two years will be general electives covering ethics, languages, art, music, etc you can choose these and also lower level classes needed for your major like math and physics courses prereqs and just base courses which have to be completed to progress in the major. The 3rd year will still be some prereqs but also the start of technical electives, electives within your major which you can choose. Usually they have predefined specializations which have many different tech electives in them and you have to do at least 3 or 4 courses in the specialization you choose. Example: i chose photonics for EE undergrad so I took 2 classes over photonics and lasers and 2 over electromagnetics stuff. 4th year is typically a senior design project or thesis project and all classes are tech electives. Even though I chose photonics, i can still take whatever tech electives from say communications as long as I have all my specialty courses done.

Most colleges do semesters (fall: august-december, spring: january-may, summer: june-august) some do quarterly with fall, winter, spring, summer.

GPA is grade point average. Most colleges do a 4.0 scale meaning grades are worth:
A= 4.0 = 94%+
A- = 3.66 = 90% - 93%
B+ = 3.33 = 87%+
B = 3.00 = 84% - 86% and so on..
Then total GPA is calculated by averaging the GPA gained from each class. Also each class GPA will be worth more if it has more credit hours. So an A in a 4 credit hour class is worth more than an A in a 1 credit class.

Ive only had multiple choice tests in gen electives like intro to religion 101, nothing in STEM courses.

Some places use college and university interchangeably but usually a university encompasses the whole campus and a college is a just a part of the uni. So at my uni they have the college of arts and sciences, college of engineering, college of business etc..
Will continue

>>8997719
So number of classes per semester depends upon the individual, but typically semester for EE to graduate in normal 4 years is 15 to 17 credit hours or about 5-7 courses, with each needing it's own book or a book from a previous prereq class. Many gen elective and lower level books arent very useful after the class, but I saved my upper level EE books for reference later in grad school and maybe save them for job too. 18 is the max credit limit for engineering college at my uni and you have to get permission for any more.

I dont know what you mean by community stuff, but internships and research can be counted as 3 credit hours at my uni.

Most people just go for 4 year bachelors and find jobs. For math, physics, and some other STEM majors grad school is highly recommended to get a related job. Grad school is 2 more years for a masters and 4-6 more years for a PhD. Here you can go straight from undergrad to PhD if you have a little research experience, unlike some European schools where a masters is needed to apply for PhD. PhD here will include coursework in the first years and then research, where as i know at some european schools it is 3-4 years for PhD and all research as masters contains all the coursework.

>>8997719
whats a good gpa? in the uk, over 70% would be considered good

>>8997619
So that's 7 (or 8) courses over 2 semesters..? Still pretty standard. Quit whining.

>>8997754
A 2.4 gpa is required in major courses to graduate in EE at my uni. A 3.5+ is good for most top grad schools, 3.7+ maybe 3.8+ for top phd. Average gpa depends per uni but at mine average EE gpa is about 2.8-3.0 at graduation. 6 of us had a 3.7+, maybe 1 or 2 with 3.9+ out of about 75 total EE majors

>>8997733
So, people who do not go to grad school only have a bachelor's degree?

>>8997769
Also 3.0 gpa is cutoff for most jobs although with good internship experience you can still get a job with 2.4+ . Maybe research development jobs or top security clearance jobs are 3.7+.

>>8997770
Yeah, bachelors is earned through 4ish years of undergrad. Grad school is for masters and phd

>>8997778
Is it possible for anyone to get a job, with only a bachelors?
Here the only ones who will get a job with just a a bachelors are engineers.

>>8997782
Yeah most people do bachelors and can get a job. Math and physics are the two I know of where you wont really get a job related to your major unless you get a masters or phd typically. It is possible to get jobs with bachelors in those, but it is just more difficult.

>>8997719
>For most majors your first two years will be general electives covering ethics, languages, art, music, etc
That's the purpose of highschool. The chemistry undergrad program here consists of:
>First year
General and Inorganic
Math
Stoichometry
Physics
Organic
Numerical Methods
>Second year
Analytical
Physical
Physics II
Organic II
Inorganic II
English (lol)
Some classes of your choice (things like Electrochemistry, Crystallography etc.)
>Third year
Physical II
Analytical II
Biochemistry
A lot of labs and apprenticeship
More classes of your choice

No bullshit courses like Chicano Studies.


>Most colleges do semesters (fall: august-december, spring: january-may, summer: june-august)
It's not a semester if it doesn't split the year in two halves. We don't have classes in the summer, only exams.

>>8997802
Idk they just call them semesters
Chemistry at my uni (probably midtier for chem, im EE) is:
>1st year
Calc 1
Fundamental Chem 1
Chem jobs seminar?
Language course lvl 1
Gen elective

Fundamental chemistry 2
Elementary quantitative analysis
Calc 2
Language course lvl 2

>2nd year
Organic chem 1
Org chem lab
Physics 1
Calc 3
Technical communications class

O chem 2
O chem lab 2
Physics 2
Physics 2 lab
Public speaking type class

>3rd year
P chem 1
Chemical biology
Biochem lab
Undergrad research
Arts elective
Gen elective

P chem 2
P chem measurements
Research again
Ethics elective
Science elective

>4th year
Inorganic chem 1
Analytical chem 1
Labs for the two above
World studies elective
Chem upper level elective
Thesis 1

Final semester is all electives and some chem electives and thesis 2

Tbh after looking this over chem here is pretty easy major for courseload. Physics and engineering and math have much more technical elective courses and higher course loads

>>8997833
Also, the calc and fundamental chem courses can be done with in high school with AP credit for non brainlets

>>8997576
about 2-3 months before the semester starts you register for classes. you can take anything you want. anything. you (or someone) is paying for it, so they don't care what you take. if you want a degree in something, such as engineering, you would talk to the engineering department and get a checklist of classes you need to get that specific degree. its up to you to register for the right ones in order to get your degree. the semesters are about 4 months long. you get your books whenever you buy them. you can take 1 class if thats all you want to do, you can take 6 or 8 if you want to as well, whatever you think you can handle. like i said, you are paying for it.

>>8997549
University in the US has a large amount of variance and freedom.

I have a degree in math from University of California Santa Cruz. I'll walk through the classes and how I was allowed to go through school

>enter school by applying to whatever major you want
>start school with whatever classes you want
>you have 2 years to choose a course of study for your major
>if you did not take enough classes in a particular subject and you can't pick, you usually get thrown out
That's the general formula for most schools. Schools get to decided if they are on semester or quarter system. Almost all schools are semester or quarter with a few exceptions. For me personally, I had so much freedom in the number of classes I could take in one term that I graduated in 3 years instead of the usual 4. I'll now say what classes I took while an undergrad.
>First year:
all physics and math. The physics was totally optional. I just wanted to learn physics. In math I studied vector analysis, linear algebra, differential equations. For physics I took mechanics, waves/optics, and elctromagnetics
>Second Year
Math and computer programming courses. The programming courses were optional. I learned C, MATLAB, and assembly. For math I learned Techniques of Proof, Classical Geometry, Complex Analysis, and Linear Dynamical Systems.
>Third Year:
Took electrical engineering courses and the final math courses. I took circuit theory, advanced electromagnetics, signal analysis, and optical electronics. For math I took advanced problem solving strategies (to prep for Putnam Exam), Advanced Linear Algebra, Number Theory, and a research seminar.

There were also some classes I didn't include because they weren't that important. Also we had to take a bunch of humanities courses to graduate as well. I took several writing and ethics courses. They were actually kind of helpful because when people start talking about something that isn't STEM I actually know what's going on.

South American here, someone please could clarify what the fuck is a minor and a major? Here you just study a career, for example, Medic, EE, Physics, Psychology and such

>>8998610
In USA, Australia & Canada

A Major is the main carreer, the field in which a student focuses during the course of his/her degree. Usually requires 10 credits.

A Minor is a secondary concentration of courses that often complements the Major.
Usually requires 4 credits.

In other countries, like United Kingdom, students usually focus just on a single area of study

Students may pursue a minor to provide specific specialization and thus make themselves more attractive to employers.
It is not uncommon for a physics major to minor in computer science or an economics major to minor in mathematics.

Engineering students frequently take a minor in mathematics, as they already have most course credits needed for the purpose.
Additionally, a minor may be used to pursue an Hobby. A engineering student may decide to minor in Music.

A student who declares two academic majors is said to have a double major. A coordinate major is an ancillary major designed to complement the primary one. A coordinate major requires fewer course credits to complete.

>Source
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_(academic)
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_(academic)

>>8998645
I'm a mech eng student who did a second major in economics, biggest waste of time.
I wish I had done a second major in comp sci instead.

Now I'm teaching comp sci to myself in my spare time from the recommended texts in the sci wiki.

>>8998600
how did the putnam go?

>>8998610
in australia you pick a degree (science, business, arts, engineering,....).

for science the majors are physics, chemistry, biology and so on
business has marketing, accounting, finance majors

each degree has core units that must be completed to graduate
each major has core units that must be completed to graduate

for a single degree single major you have a minor, which may be more advanced subjects relating to your major or subjects not related to your major at all (e.g. if a business major wants to do 4 units of astrophysics).

you can't study as many classes as you want like you can in the US , and nearly all universities here don't make you study gen ed subjects.

some people double major (e.g physics+chem) , which doesn't leave much room for elective subjects

some people study double degrees (science/arts) but you don't study 2 degrees worth of subjects

>>8997833
Only 34 classes? HOLY FUCK here (south america) the full program has 58 classes (5 years)

>>9000732
You have to compensate for the spics though

>>8997549
Large state school, known in state but not really out of state. Formerly mech eng with cs minor, but turned out I enjoy autistically writing code.

There's a very big difference between engineering school and liberal arts (the latter including math and hard sciences).
The plan is to graduate in 4 years, many people don't. 2 Terms/Year, Normally around September-December and Feb-May
US uni is not pass fail. You are graded on a system out of 4 points. Any good uni won't let you graduate with anything under a 2.

Liberal Arts:
>Can declare major instantly as long as you're in the university. You could sign up for a
>More freedom in choosing classes/less prereqs.
>Above because core program is significantly smaller. The program >>8997833 listed is a good example. If you cut out the fat and non-major classes you'll notice you could definitely fit everything needed for undergrad chem into 3 years. Also you get a lot more electives, which are classes that you get to choose.
>SO MANY gen eds. In addition to your major classes, you need to take a year of foreign language, an art class, a history class, a social science class. Like one every term. I don't even remember all the ones you need to take I just remember I need one art class then I'm done with mine.
>Standards are lower than engineering. Does that mean engineering is harder than liberal arts like math and physics? No, it just means you can get away with underperforming. You just need a C to pass gen chem 1 to not have to retake it here.

>>9000818
Engineering:
>You're exempt from many of the non-major requirements. I'm exempt from having to take literally 4 more classes that are unrelated to my field of study.
>Extremely standardized. Any program worth a shit is accredited, which means it has to follow the standard class list no matter where you are in the country. You only choose like 1-3 classes your final year, other than that everything is mandatory.
>Classes are linked. You fail a single class in a year, you're getting held back.
>Most eurofags probably did the first year or even two of american uni when they were 16-18. The joke that burger uni = europure high school comes from the inconsistency in american high school. The same uni could have 2 first years in the same program, one that doesn't know how to take a derivative and the other one already finished with vector calc.
>You fail a class you're a second class citizen. I know someone who failed a class and they could only repeat the year if they had room after they let in all the kids taking it for the first time
>If you fail 2/5 or don't average a 3.0 in your first 5 engineering classes (roughly your first 1.5 to 2 years) you're kicked out. Study something else or go to a different uni.

Tl;dr: engineering is like to 1 year of catch up for kids who didn't learn shit in high school then is rigid and uniform. arts and sciences take more unrelated classes, minimum graduation requirements are low but you're expected to take more than the minimum.

>>9000732
What courses are you required to take?