Points for discussion

2. In England, university entrance is based on the results of A-level exams, but there are a number of steps which many of the pupils go through in the two years before university. Here are some of the main ones. How many of them are also necessary in your country?

1. Visit the careers office at school.

2. Discuss their choice of universities with their teacher or headteacher.

3. Send off for prospectuses from various universities (brochures which describe the university and its courses).

4. Visit the universities they are interested in (go to ' open days').

5. Apply to universities by filling in a form listing five choices.

6. Take school exams: the results are used to predict A-level results, and are recorded on university applications.

3. Read the following extract, published in a newspaper, from the diary of a 'lower-sixth' student (a student in the first of her two years of study leading up too the A-level exams). In what order did she take the steps above?

February

Mum still nagging me to write to universities, but I haven't quite got round to it.

March

Have finally sent off for some prospectuses – and actually found them quite interesting. Have spent several lunchtimes in the careers room.

May

Plodding on with four A-levels as well as all other activities. Went to an open day at Bristol and am thinking much more seriously about university.

June

The month lower-sixths dread: time for the exams on A-level predictions for university are based. I survive and I'm pleased with my marks. Maybe they will make my parents realize that I do have the balance between work and other activities right.

July

Been to more open days, and my attention has been focused a lot more on university. I have to sort out my application immediately after the summer holidays. Had an interview with the headmistress to discuss Oxford. The good news is that she says I could hardly be a stronger candidate. The bad news is, I really don't know whether I want to go to Oxford after all.

September

This is it, the upper-sixth. I've finally made a decision about Oxford – I really don't want to go there. I do want to go to Exeter. I've given up my Saturday job, and I've made a resolution to get down to some serious study. A-levels are closer than we think.

4. Is applying for university easy or stressful in your country? How did it seem to be for the writer of the diary?

5. Optional: Write some entries for your diary on one of these:

Exam week at school or college.

Making career plans.

A typical week at school or university.

Reading for comprehension

Read the text and comment on the statements in the exercise that follows.

Higher Education in the USA

America has had a great respect for education from its earliest times. Education is now the most important factor in determining a person's social role and economic prospects. Universities were founded in the earliest days of the settlers who had come across from England. Harvard College was founded by religious refugees form Cambridge, England in 1636, only fifteen years after the Pilgrim Fathers had landed, and there were eight other colleges before 1776, though for a long time they had few students.

Under the United States Constitution, the Federal government has no power to make laws in the field of education; each state is fully responsible within its own territory. The Federal government can give financial help.

For a very long time America has led the world in higher education, quantitatively at least. In 1825 England still had only two universities, Oxford and Cambridge. The United States already had over fifty colleges for a smaller population. By now, in addition to hundreds of junior colleges (with two-year courses), teachers' colleges and special schools, there are over 2000 universities, colleges or other institutions with four-year courses leading to bachelors' degrees, though only some of these provide postgraduate work as well, for masters' degrees and doctorates.

Nearly half of the people aged nineteen are in full-time education, but only half of these successfully complete full four-year courses for bachelors' degrees. Some attend junior colleges with two-year courses (from which they may transfer); most start full four-year degree courses. Most students receive federal loans to cover part of the cost of their studies; much smaller numbers receive federal grants, or scholarships or bursaries from other sources. Virtually all pay part of their costs themselves, from family contributions or from part-time work or both.

Most students aiming at bachelors' degrees take the four years (freshman, sophomore, junior and senior) consecutively at the same institution, but some interrupt their courses. Some start late in life and may spread their courses over several years. For each stage of the course it is necessary to gain adequate average grades over a number of courses, and credits gained at one stage can be accepted for a later stage after an interval, if necessary with change from one institution to another. For the freshman year, courses usually cover a wide range, and with each year later there is scope for more specialization. Essentially, the system by which a person becomes a college graduate is a progression from that which makes him or her a high school graduate.

About one-fifth of college graduates continue with studies for masters' or doctors' degrees, in their own major subjects or for professional qualifications in law, medicine, business, etc., which involve two to four postgraduate years. Postgraduate schools admit students on the basis of their grades in bachelors' degree studies, and require minimum-level passes in appropriate preparatory subjects.

Most college students are in 'public' institutions, a minority in 'private' ones. Every state has its full university system, and in a big state there are many separate state campuses, general and special, at different levels. In terms of research output, and of Nobel prizes won by academic staff, the most prestigious is the University of California at Berkeley (across the bay from San Francisco). It and the University's campus at Los Angeles are the two major institutions in the California state system, but there are many dozens of other campuses in that system. Other states have parallel systems, often with one principal campus, with up to 50000 students, in a small town in which the university is the main focus of activity. Most big cities have their own city-funded universities – in some cases with several campuses – often separate from the state system. In general state and city colleges now charge tuition fees which cover a minor part of their costs, at least for state or local residents – though students from other states pay several times as much.

The oldest, and in some ways the most prestigious, colleges are private, funded partly from their endowments, partly by contributions from business and, above all, former students. A few receive some state or city grants as well. But in general they need to charge high fees for tuition, averaging about five times the rates charged by equivalent state colleges for local residents.

Some of the best-known universities are the oldest ones in the Northeast, known informally as the Ivy League. These include Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. The research carried on at Harvard and its newer neighbour in Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has contributed to prosperity of the Boston area, though other private and public universities nearby also have some share in this development. These colleges are quite small, but there also the yet smaller institutions of the Little Ivy League, as well as many hundreds of other private colleges all over the United States. Their variety is extreme. Some students prefer a smaller college for the sake of the closer contact with the professors than in the state colleges, some for religious or other reasons. But some of their graduates go on to state university postgraduate courses.

The individual young person knows that his or her prospects of success in life depend on education more than on any other single factor. So there is an ever-increasing demand for educational opportunities. At the same time, it is generally recognized that even from the material point of view, economic development up till now has owed much to the skills and abilities which grow through education, and for the traditional Americans, respect for learning is reinforced by a doctrine that it is an investment that brings the community an economic return as well as social and cultural improvement.

Exercise 10. Say: true, false or no information.

1. Religious refugees from Oxford founded Harvard College.

2. The Federal government makes laws in the field of education.

3. In 1825 the United States already had over 50 colleges for a smaller population.

4. Nearly half of all people in the US aged 19 take a 'gap year'.

5. It takes students 5 years to get bachelor's degrees.

6. Postgraduate schools admit students on the basis of their school grades.

7. Most big cities have their own city-funded universities.

8. Some of the oldest colleges receive support from the banking system.

9. The Ivy League includes Harvard, Berkeley and Princeton.

10. Learning brings the community in the US an economic return as well as social and cultural improvement.