Wide Academic Choice

The U.S. educational palette is incredibly diverse: you will definitely find a university that you want to call “home” and study programs you love. The U.S. educational system offers:

•  Programs at over 4,900 accredited colleges, universities, and institutes;
•    More than 2000 fields of study;
•    Public and private universities;
•    Small liberal arts colleges, big research universities, and everything in between;
•  Co-ed and women’s or men’s only colleges;
•    Academic and vocational training, and many more options.

In addition, a variety of settings (for example suburban or rural areas, etc.), coupled with a myriad of climates, further diversify your choice – describe your dream university in details, and most likely the USA has it!

Educational institutions

You may have noticed that U.S. higher education institutions come under various names: colleges, universities, institutes (e.g. Middlebury College, Princeton University, or Massachusetts Institute of Technology). "School" is also used in informal communication, like in "at my school in Florida we have many students from Romania".

So what are the differences between the three?
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Romanian students generally choose to enroll at 4-year colleges or universities to get their Bachelor's degree. An alternative to this path, more U.S. student-friendly though, is to start your undergraduate education in a 2-year college and get an Associate degree, then transfer to a 4-year institution to complete your degree.

Most U.S. schools enroll both men and women, but there are also single-sex colleges. The College Board lists around 50 women's colleges and over 60 men's colleges.

Some institutions are public (around 40%) and some private (around 60%). Public universities sometimes include the words "state university" in their title. They tend to have a big student population and generally accept more students than private universities. The largest universities in the U.S. are all public, for instance Michigan State University, Ohio State University, University of Texas.

Liberal arts philosophy

The seven liberal arts of the medieval university curriculum were Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy. What does this have to do with modern liberal arts education at U.S. universities?

The liberal arts philosophy is a unique feature of the U.S. higher education system and one of its greatest strengths.
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Some of the advantages of pursuing a liberal arts education include:

• It fosters a spirit of free inquiry: you are encouraged to reflect upon the world around you, examine and analyze it;
• It emphasizes the importance of effective communication, strength of character, flexibility and creativity of thought;
• A liberal arts education provides you with the tools to identify, understand and rigorously evaluate arguments from a wide array of topics;
• You are encouraged to follow your passions and interests, not what others assume that will lead  to marketable skills;
• It develops mental habits that help you develop your own opinions and beliefs, based not on the authority of others, but on your own sound judgment;
• It deepens the specialized knowledge of a discipline with a comprehensive world view.

No institution can teach you in four years everything you will need to know in life. But by teaching you how to learn and how to organize ideas, the liberal arts institution will enable you to learn faster, more thoroughly, and permanently.

"In order to ensure a broad liberal arts education, Trinity requires students to take at least one course in five areas – Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Numerical and Symbolic Reasoning."
Ştefan Timiraş, student at Trinity College, CT, class of 2015

Personalized curriculum         

The personalized curriculum distinguishes the U.S. system from others in the world. Instead of focusing on a particular subject for the whole duration of your university studies, you are encouraged to choose from a variety of courses in your field of interest. This helps you become a well-rounded person, more sensitive and perceptive regarding the world around you.
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Research opportunities

U.S. academic culture is characterized by meritocracy. This means credit is given fairly and enthusiastically whenever it is due, be it that a student shows special aptitudes or interest for a subject or they come up with a great proposal for a new club or activity on campus.

In the U.S., universities are at the forefront of research, so you will constantly be in contact with professors who not only pass on knowledge from their field of study, but are actively contributing to exploring uncharted academic territory, an exciting (and usually remunerated) activity that you could be a part of.
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"Complementing academics, University of Richmond has one of the biggest undergraduate summer research programs in the country. Last summer, the university funded 217 students, with many others being funded by professors’ external grants. You can do research in any discipline, from sciences to history, art, or foreign languages. Most research takes place on campus, but sometimes your projects make you travel. Some of our friends spent their summer studying climate change effects on plants in an Oregon forest, scuba diving in Florida Keys to study tropical reef sponges, studying indigenous populations in Central America, or doing archaeological excavations in Greece. "
Ana Neferu, class of 2013, Catalina Cumpanasoiu and Alexandra Badiceanu, class of 2015, University of Richmond, VA  

There’s more to Penn than schoolwork and friends. Many people do their own research; sometimes even multiple research projects! The university normally pays for the expenses of undergraduate students who participate in conferences. In addition, many students who do research receive funding for their projects through the university and get published in top journals while working with some of the best professors in their field. The university encourages research and scholarship, along with academic achievement. If you are interested in other areas than research, there are over 200 clubs to join and even be a president of. If the club you’re looking for does not exist, you can start your own!
Laura Micu, University of Pennsylvania alumna

Law, Medicine, Dentistry, Business

In Romania, if you want to be a lawyer, dentist, or doctor you enroll in law, dentistry, or medicine Bachelor’s courses and go on 4 or 6-year undergraduate programs. Not so in the USA.
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For example: Business  You first get a BA in Economics, Physics, Literature etc. (4 years of study) and then you go on an MBA = Master of Business Administration (1-2 years of study). Consequently, you will get an MBA after around 4-5 years of study.

Want to know more? Full details in the Graduate Admissions section