Higher education institutions and the students they serve are diverse and not easily categorized. This disorder is characterized by a diversity of individual institutional goals and missions, types of degrees offered, financial and management structures, and even curricula, course content, and teaching methodologies. Institutions of higher education and the students they serve are diverse and not easily categorized. This disorder is characterized by a diversity of individual institutional goals and missions, types of degrees offered, financial and management structures, and even curricula, course content, and teaching methodologies. Institutions of higher education and the students they serve are diverse and not easily categorized. This disorder is characterized by a diversity of individual institutional goals and missions, types of degrees offered, financial and management structures, and even curricula, course content, and learning methodologies.

To understand how this informal and vaguely structured “system” of diverse institutions serves the wide range of needs of American society, it is necessary to identify some of the main features that define the main types of institutions found in American higher education. In 1983, Robert Birnbaum noted that institutional diversity can be defined by several categories of institutional characteristics. The most useful of these categories include defining differences in terms of the following aspects of institutional diversity: systemic, structural, constitutive, and reputational.

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The group of eight universities united in the Ivy League enjoy the highest prestige in the world. They have the highest tuition fees in the country and the most rigorous admission standards. This honourable group includes Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Yale University. The oldest university in the country is Harvard, founded in 1636. From 1693 to 1749 four more universities appeared in the United States: the College of William and Mary (in Virginia), Yale, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The remaining universities are divided territorially: Midwestern, Northern, Southern, and Western.

American universities are more than just institutions of higher learning. Each is a research center, pioneering developments in every field of knowledge and producing groundbreaking discoveries. The recognized reputation of the teaching staff also plays its role – if you come to an American university, you can be sure that you will be taught not only by people with fundamental theoretical knowledge, but also with a wide range of practical experience.

The technical equipment of university laboratories can make other academic institutions pale with envy; the wealth of libraries, nowadays not only “paper” but also electronic, is striking; the organization of the educational process, as well as of everyday life and leisure time of students, satisfies the most demanding requirements. Finally, the “weight” of an American diploma in the global labor market is still beyond competition. Investing money in higher education made in USA, you can be sure that they will bring a return.

The U.S. has a multistage educational model, according to which education is divided into cycles. The first of these is called the Undergraduate Program, which lasts four years and culminates in a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS) degree. The American system of higher education is very flexible. Thus, if the first two years of the Undergraduate program imply learning a number of basic disciplines, obligatory for all, during the last two years students can choose among a rather long list of courses they are interested in.

The next step is the master’s degree in the United States, which is called the Graduate and leads to the award of the Master’s degree (Master’s Degree, ph.d.). It takes about two years to complete a master’s degree. The program usually specializes in an area previously studied at the undergraduate level. At the end of the course, graduates write and defend their master’s thesis.

Some majors in America can only be completed through a master’s degree program. A master’s degree in the U.S. is a postgraduate degree and allows you to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) as well as Masters of Arts (MA), Masters of Science (MS), and other degrees. The duration of a master’s degree program at U.S. universities varies from one to two years. Often, master’s degrees require work experience in the field for which you wish to study, but some programs do not require experience.
To enter graduate programs at U.S. universities, an applicant must provide:

a letter of motivation,
supervisor references,
a diploma of master’s degree,
proof of passing an English language proficiency test.
It should be noted that at first sight Master’s programs in the USA are available for everyone, but the initial impression, which is formed on the basis of the information from advertising booklets, is often deceptive.

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Although there is no national system of higher education, all states have developed some type of public postsecondary education system. There are several ways in which these systems are structured and organized. State colleges and universities differ both in the way they are governed and in the way they are coordinated as part of a larger state system. All states assign responsibility for public colleges and universities to governing boards, and there are three basic types of governing board structures: consolidated governing systems, segmented systems, and single institution boards. Consolidated boards are responsible for all public institutions of higher education in a particular state, although in some states this may apply only to four-year institutions. Segmented systems have different governing bodies for different types of campuses; in some states this may mean that public research universities are governed by one board, the state’s general education colleges by another board, and community colleges by another board.

States that use single-institution boards give autonomy of governance to each state campus, allowing each to have its own board. State boards vary in the extent to which they have formal governance authority and in the extent to which they simply coordinate activities in the public higher education sector without any substantive decision-making authority. States that use single-institution boards give autonomy of governance to each state campus, allowing each to have its own board. State boards vary in the extent to which they have formal governance authority and in the extent to which they simply coordinate activities in the public higher education sector without any substantive decision-making authority. States that use single-institution boards give autonomy of governance to each state campus, allowing each to have its own board. State boards vary in the extent to which they have formal governance authority and in the extent to which they simply coordinate activities in the public higher education sector without any substantive decision-making authority.

Public institutions in these systems tend to fall into one of three main categories: universities, public colleges, and community colleges. Public universities typically award a full range of degrees (master’s and doctoral degrees), tend to focus on research, and tend to have large enrollments. Public colleges are usually smaller in size, may serve a specific region of the state, and usually offer both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Community colleges are two-year colleges that provide associate degrees, preparation for transfer to four-year institutions, vocational education and training, and a large number of continuing education offerings. Some public institutions have been identified as land-grant institutions. Land granting institutions were first established by the Morrill Act of 1862.

Private institutions are more difficult to characterize than their public counterparts. Private institutions encompass the full range of missions and structures of American higher education. The most prestigious and carefully selected institutions, whether Ivy League research universities or small liberal arts colleges, are private; but so are the lesser-known institutions.

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