The US includes 4,360 institutions of higher education, of which 2,832 offer four-year undergraduate degrees. For those interested in heading to the US for a bachelor’s degree, there are many options available in terms of size, location, and focus/character of school. Learning to decipher these options comes with a brief glimpse into the history of higher education in the United States.
America’s oldest institutions of higher learning were private (think Harvard or King’s College, renamed Columbia after the Revolutionary War), initially only admitting upper-class white males. In time, higher education opened up to other groups starting with gender and race-based schools, such as women’s-only colleges, often affiliated with those all-male private institutions (such as Radcliffe College at Harvard or Barnard College at Columbia), and separate sex institutions for Black students (such as Morehouse and Spelman Colleges in Georgia). As the country grew and diversified, public university and college systems emerged offering easier access and lower tuition costs. Faith-based groups also founded their own schools of higher learning, providing religious education and promoting religious values on campus (such as the Catholic University of Notre Dame in Indiana).
As higher education expanded, a plethora of options grew as well, making it easier for each unique student to find a home. Here are a few of the more common options available today.
Colleges: This term refers to smaller institutions that focus primarily on undergraduate education and don’t have doctoral programs or major research facilities. Colleges can exist as separate institutions or as part of larger universities.
Universities: These are larger institutions that include both graduate and undergraduate teaching in a wide variety of disciplines and frequently house major research facilities for the advancement of educational knowledge.
Public universities and colleges: These types of schools are funded by local and state governments and tend to be less expensive for those who reside within the school’s state or region. Some examples of this type of school include the University of California and State University of New York systems. These universities tend to have much larger student populations than their private school counterparts and may include different campuses around the state.
Private universities and colleges: These types of schools rely primarily on tuition and donor support for their funding, and while tuition costs may be higher than at public universities, there are often more opportunities for merit and need-based scholarships and financial aid for American students (many private universities and colleges include international students in their aid programs, but not all do, so please do your research here). Some examples of this type of school include the University of Chicago or Bowdoin College in Maine.
Within these broad categories, there is a world of choice depending on your gender, racial, or religious identity, social values, and educational interests. Here’s a peek at what some of these schools can look like:
Liberal arts and sciences colleges: These institutions are focused on undergraduate education in the liberal arts and sciences, including humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and natural sciences. The student populations at these schools tend to range from 1,800 to 4,000, boasting small classes and professors focused on undergraduate teaching. These schools may be rural, such as Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, a school that prides itself on intellectual curiosity and playfulness, valuing cooperation over competition. Schools can also be quite urban, such as Occidental College in the heart of Los Angeles, which boasts values of diversity and service and where students spend as much time learning in the city as they do in class.
Single-sex and race-based institutions: While these types of schools may have been the norm in the early 20th century, today, the US has approximately 26 private women’s colleges and universities, primarily liberal-arts and sciences based, and 107 historically Black colleges and universities, some public and some private. These types of institutions can offer historically marginalized groups educational communities committed to their growth and achievement.
Faith, values, and interest-based institutions: Finally, there continue to be faith-based schools promoting religious education and values as well as a multitude of other institutions with their own specialities and characters. Babson College in Massachusetts is known for its dedication to entrepreneurship, and Berea College in Kentucky has not charged tuition since its founding in 1892; students all participate in a work program where they pay off their tuition as part of their educational programs.
Some great ways to start researching US colleges and universities include checking out the Fiske Guide to Colleges, available in both print and online, and the US Department of State’s Education USA site dedicated to international applicants. Our educational consultants also LOVE constructing college and university lists! ????
