Though American higher education institutions are diverse, they are generally divided into the following categories

Undergraduate study

Community and Junior College provides a 2-year program for students who have completed high school or secondary school. Courses are either Terminal, leading to jobs, or Academic, preparing the student for transfer to a 4-year time college or university to finish his or her education. Associate in Arts (A.A.) or Associate in Sciences (A.S.) degrees are commonly awarded to junior college graduates.

• Technical Institute
• Liberal Arts College or University
• The Bachelor’s Degree

Graduate study

Graduate and Professional School Provides post-university study leading to the Masters or doctoral degree.

• The Master’s Degree
• The Doctorate Degree

Non-Degree study

Students who want to take classes but aren’t pursuing a degree will apply to be classified as special students. Colleges and colleges are becoming more unable to admit special students unless they are enrolled in another institution for a degree or pursuing training that is not available there. Non-degree students do not have access to any of the resources available to degree students. Non-degree students do not have access to any of the resources that degree students do, such as the restricted library and internet access, and they are frequently limited in the number of credits that they can take.

Accreditation

If you want to study in the United States, you should always go to an accredited university. An institution is accredited if its academic program, professors, and academic facilities meet the minimum requirements set by an organization approved by the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation and the United States Department of Education. Accreditation by a regional body, such as the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools or the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, refers to the whole organization and can be provided for up to 4 levels Associate, Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees are all available. Only the related areas are accredited by a specialist body. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, for example, accredits engineering colleges. Foreign students do not enroll in degree programs at non-accredited institutions or departments.

Professional training

Many professions’ training can only be obtained by postgraduate study. Thus, a law degree takes three years after completing a four-year Bachelor’s degree; medicine takes four years after completing a Bachelor’s degree, and social work takes two years after completing a Bachelor’s degree. Other professions, such as dentistry, veterinary medicine, and architecture, usually require four years of general college work before admission to the fourth year.

The credit system

Undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States are awarded based on the number of courses completed successfully. Credit hours, semester hours (for schools on the semester system), quarter hours (for schools on the quarter system), or simply hours or credits are earned for each lesson. The number of credits gained by each course is related to the number of hours spent in the classroom, although this is not always the case. For example, a three-hour (actually 50-minute) class meeting three days a week would be expected to offer a student three hours of credit for the semester or term. An intense seminar, on the other hand, would meet once a week for two hours and be a three-credit course. One class hour is normally considered to be equal to two or three laboratory hours. An academic load for an undergraduate student is usually 15-17 units per semester or 12 to 15 units per quarter. The average graduate student takes 9-12 units per semester.

The grading system

Students are based on completed course work, and most colleges and universities use letter grades, with A denoting excellent or exceptional performance, B denoting above-average performance, C denoting average performance, D denoting below-average performance, and F denoting failure. The percentage values and point scales mentioned below are roughly applicable To earn a degree, an undergraduate student must maintain a C or 2.00 overall grade point average and a B or 3.00-grade point average in his or her major area. Some schools can use a Pass/Fail grading system, in which only two grades are possible. The student either completes the course and earns credit, or fails and does not receive credit. Many schools combine the pass/fail option with the alternative assessment. In this case, a student may take a set number of courses for a Pass or Fail grade, while the rest of his classes are graded using the traditional A-F scale. IMPORTANT NOTE The Belgian and American grading systems are not equivalent in any way. As a consequence, when providing information to U.S. colleges about the courses you often report the findings in their original format, such as 15/20. Do not try to translate the Belgian method into words that are familiar to Americans. The grade point average is often used to assess a student’s academic standing (GPA). This is the sum of a student’s grades over all of his college years or for each term. Divide the total number of grade points by the total number of credit hours to get the grade point average. For instance, suppose a student enrolls in four 3-unit courses and receives the following results A is for Business 101; B is for Introduction to Business Law; A is for Mass Media and Marketing, and B is for Computer Science Techniques Applied to Business. The following formula is used to calculate the average  

Grade	Units or Hours	Grade Points	GPA
A = 4.0	* 3	12
B= 3.0	* 3	9
A = 4.0	* 3	12
B= 3.0	* 3	9
	12	42	3.5