[TAG] Issue #106

[Mike Orr]

On Sat, Sep 25, 2004 at 12:09:37PM +0100, Thomas Adam wrote:
> I'm at University (is that what you call College over there?) 

"College" in the US means a university, community college, trade school,
technical school, etc.  Universities have four-year degree programs, and
some have graduate programs and research.  Community colleges offer a
two-year "associate's degree" that's accepted at universities as
equivalent to the first two years.  Some jobs (e.g., nursing) require
only an associate's degree.  Community colleges, trade schools, and
technical colleges also offer "certificate programs".  These are not
recognized by universities but get you into certain jobs (e.g., chef,
auto mechanic, computer hardware technician, X-ray operator, MS Office,
multimedia, programming languages, etc).  A trade school is more
likely blue-collar focused, and a technical college is likely to have
the most computer courses, but there's so much overlap between the three
there's no real difference.  Some universities have certificate programs
on the side, and some private "colleges" offer four-year degrees.
A college can also mean a group of specialties within a university (the
College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering).

So when Jimmy said he went to college, Americans probably assumed a
university, and Europeans assumed something else.

>I understand that the College system works differently over there, and that
>you have to finance yourself?

Public colleges are owned and subsidized by the states.  Most states
have a big "University of STATE", a big "STATE State University", several
smaller regional universities, and tons of community colleges.  Private
schools are unsubsidized and cost more.

Where I live, a community college costs $770/year for state residents
(subsidized), or $2,500/year for non-residents (unsubsidized).  That's
for 15 hours/week.  A public university costs $4,500/year for residents
or $16,000/year for non-residents.  A private university costs $21,000/year.
So it ain't cheap.  The cost has been rising faster than the inflation
rate for many years.

There's a federal Financial Aid progam that coordinates grants, loans,
and work study from a variety of sources.  You have to fill out a bunch of
paperwork every summer and send in your parents' income tax return.
Note the similarity with the American healthcare system, which also has
a lot of paperwork and no guarantee of benefits.  "Work study" means a
summer job where the employer has applied to a government program that
reimburses something like 75% of the salary.  So the company gets cheap
labor in return for some minimal requirements (e.g., allowing you to
study when there's no work to do).  Most work study jobs are at the college
itself.

--
-Mike Orr (aka. Sluggo), mso at oz.net  (iron at sense-sea-MegaSub-1-465.oz.net)
   http://sluggo.kicks-ass.org/                  Cxu vi parolas Esperante?