hey

how long is highschool, college and university in America?

Highschool till you're 18? And then 3 years college? University 5 years?

In Germany you go straight to University after school.

Tahu

High school is four years.

College is traditionally four years as well for a bachelor's degree, but more and more people are taking anywhere up to six years to complete multiple degrees, or combination bachelor/master's degree programs. And of course there's graduate programs. It's really about how long you want to go for -- colleges won't really kick you out when you're paying them money unless you're also flunking dismally

Thanks for your answer and university? You go there after College?

Practically speaking, college and university are synonymous in the U.S. Going to college could mean going to a college *or* going to a university. The *actual* difference between the two is that colleges are narrower in scope. Colleges can be part of a larger university, or entities by themselves. To give you an example, I earned degrees from both the college of arts and sciences, and the college of engineering when I attended Virginia Tech, which is a university. However, I refer to the time I spent there as time I spent in college.

Confused yet?

yeah I am confused. *smile*

Thank you so much. So after highschool you can go to University or college but you mustn't do both?

Clark went to University and Lois too? Lois in Metropolis and Clark to?

There isn't a both. College and University mean the same thing. ie: my daughter did 4 years of high school, 4 years of college, now going to another college for her masters. Both colleges have the name University in them but it is College.
I know it's confusing.

Clark went to a college in the State of Kansas.

Sue

ok this is confusing but I get it finally. Thank you both.

In the sense that you're asking the question... college is university, and you attend it after high school. When an American says they went to college, there is no implied difference between a college and a university. College is the education you get after high school.

thank you for your fast reply. I'm stuck in my story because I didn't how the whole thing is in America but I guess it isn't so different to Germany after all.

Okay, I'd like a little bit of enlightenment about American education, too!

So, okay, how old are you when you start school? Five? Six?

Is school for the youngest kids called elementary school?

How long does elementary school last?

How old are you when you start high school?

Is there anything between elementary school and high school?

How old are you normally when you go to college, provided you go there right after finishing high school?

I'd much appreciate the information. Thanks!

Ann

This can vary from state to state, depending on what the cut off for the school year is. In California, the cut off is that the child should turn 5 by December 2 of the year that he/she starts kindergarten, but parents have the discretion to delay their child's entry if they feel that they're not ready. So some kids are as young as 4 when they start kindergarten; some can have just turned 6 (although that's less common). If you want an average age, 5 would probably be right.

Yes, regular schooling starts in elementary school, although many kids have already had 1-2 years at a nursery school or preschool prior to starting kindergarten.

Most elementary schools go from kindergarten to Grade 6, although some end at Grade 5.

That is middle school or Junior High. It usually goes from Grades 6-8 or 7-8, depending on the school district.

That would depend on how old you were when you started kindergarten. I think all high schools in the US are uniformly set at Grades 9-12, so if you were 5 when starting kindergarten, then you'd be 14 when starting Grade 9.

Following the previous example, a person would turn 18 during his/her senior year (Grade 12) of high school, and then start university that fall.

Hope this helps...

Kathy

Thanks a lot, Kathy! Yes, it does. So different states have slightly different rules. No wonder I haven't been able to understand exactly how old kids are when they go to elementary school, middle school, high school and college, then!

Ann

And then you have people who choose not to go to college right away, or take classes here and there and work your way to a degree or whatever. Like me! =D Instead of college I joined the Army right out of highschool. I'm taking college classes when I can, and I hope to have some sort of degree by the time I get out. Then, according to my contract with the Army, I'll have a good amount of money to go to college with, and can go one to whatever's next school wise.

Almost all. The local public school where I grew up had the middle school covering grades 7-9 and the high school covering 10-12.

I'm not sure why, but I suspect it had something to do with class size. Not only is NJ the most densely populated states in the country, but EBHS is one of the top public schools around. So, it's not uncommon for people to move into town to get their kids into a better school and then move to a neighboring town with lower taxes when the kids graduate.

I think there were about 800 people in my graduating class. With that many students, it makes sense to split things a little more evenly.

I'm not sure how common that is, though. I'm pretty sure that there are at least a few more schools that do the same.

On a completely different note, I'll just mention that "Elementary School" is sometimes called "Grammar School." The words are entirely synonymous. It just depends on region and personal preference.

Paul

Where I grew up, we didn't call it Middle School, we called it Jr. High School. And, like Paul's, my Jr. High was from 7 - 9, and then High School was 10 - 12. We also had over 700 in my H.S. graduating class, so that could well have something to do which the break-down of grades in each school.

As for college vs. university, I went to the State University of NY (SUNY), College at Oswego. The word "College" referred to the campus I went to, where classes were given to undergraduates (B.A. degree). "University" referred to the entire system, including colleges, graduate schools, research centers, etc. (Or to larger campuses within the SUNY system which included these elements.)

A community college is for 2 years. After graduating from a community college, many students continue their education at a regular 4-year college (or university). In that case, they only take the last 2 years, as their community college counts as the first 2.

Oh, and another name for elementary or grammer school is grade school. That's what we called it, anyway.

As Aria said, to an American, college and university are pretty much synonymous. The only difference that I can see is that College is part of a univeristy (The College of Arts and Sciences,) etc. An American, like I, would say "I went to college at Indiana University in Bloomington." I might also say I went to *a* university, but never to "University".

Nan

My mom, a former university professor, would like to add that universities can grant Ph.D.s while schools that only call themselves colleges do not. In California, the community college system provides associate degrees and transfers to the university system after 2 years (designed to accept students with lower GPAs, students returning to education or taking classes slowly, and as a cheaper alternative to clear undergrad requirements). There are two university systems - UC and Cal State. According to the original master plan, California State University system was designed to educate working professionals (the original teacher colleges). The University of California system was designed to edcuate adademia - only UC schools have Ph.D. programs. Recently, the Cal State schools have tried to start Ph.D. programs, but they're only allowed to do so in collaboration with other universities. (But all of that is California only information, part of our state's master plan.)

Also, there is supposed to be a differnce between a middle school and a junior high school. Originally, most schools were K-8 or 9-12...there was nothing between elementary and high school. Then, to shield them from the older kids or for school size issues, they pulled the 7th and 8th graders into their own junior high schools, organized in the same way as typical high schools (6-7 periods where the students go to different teachers). However, people began to understand that pre-teens/young teens had unique characteristics and needs that weren't being met by this system (according to the famous book, they were "Caught in the Middle.") Junior highs continued to exist, but some schools were reorganized into middle schools, in which 7-8 grade students were put onto teams...they rotated among the same 4 core subject teachers. Those teachers could collaborate with each other, implement cross-curricular lesson plans, and meet as a team to help their shared students. Middle schools could also do things like reorganize the day into block schedules (2 hour blocks instead of 1 hour classes), and language arts/social science teachers could open their classroom walls and teach the two classes together. 6th grade was brought into the middle schools to transition those kids from a single teacher environment to one in which they had 2 core teachers, then rotated to PE/exploratory; this was designed to ease them into the multiple teacher system. But due to financing/class size/assorted reasons, many of the middle schools really just ended up being junior highs with a different name. In the last couple of years, some schools have gone back to K-8, but not many.

Susan (whose graduating class had 832 students at a 9-12 high school with an enrollment of over 3200, and who teaches at a 6-8 middle school with over 1500 students!)

oh my god this is so confusing.

In Germany kids go to kindergarten at the age of 3 till 6 then to school till they are 19. After the school you can go to University or start working and get an education.

Tahu

I started school at 3. I went to a Catholic school (such a terrible school btw), and we had 2 years of pre-school before the K-8.

Jen

Guess I'll toss in my two cents' worth. When I started kindergarten (at age 5 because my birthday's in May), I lived in Kansas, and there were so many Air Force kids in the system that there that they had morning and afternoon classes which were completely separate. My mother stunned the enrollment board when she told them that her son was most definitely NOT a morning person, and could she please enroll me in afternoon classes? They people smiled and said, sure, no problem!

Turned out that nearly all the other parents (mostly mothers) were doing whatever they had to do to get their little darlings in morning classes, because most of them went down for a nap after lunch. I got the impression that some of the kids in the afternoon classes had parents who extremely unhappy about it.

I'm still not a morning person, by the way. But I'm getting better...

I went to an elementary school that was only Kindergarten through 3rd grade. There was a second elementary school next door that was grades 4 through 6. I know they were different schools because they had different names. I think that system was extremely unique. I've never seen it anywhere else. I didn't attend the second school. My mom moved all four of us kids to a Charter school that was K-12. I attended there for a year. My family moved to another city and I was enrolled in a K-6 elementary school. I then attended junior high, which was 7-9. High school was next. All the high schools in my school district were 10-12. My graduating class had 864 people. I am now attending Utah State University and my major is in the College of Education and Human Services.

Horribly confusing, I know!

Jen

How schools are organized is a state by state matter at most. It can vary school district by district. I haven't heard of any that don't run K-12 with 18 being the last year but how they break it up in that is up to them.

If this is a Early Years story kindergarten didn't used to be standard. I'd imagine that Clark didn't go to one and Lois did. I'm saying that as it would give her a advanced start on education and get her out of the house which fits her parents attitudes.

The first elementary school I went to was one of two in the town. When I went there, both schools were K-6, and took kids from different parts of the town. Sometime in the past 10 years, they've gone to the same setup yours was. The school I went to is now K-3, and the other school is 4-6.

In my area, it's further split up. There was preschool, of course. Then Kindergarten at age 5. Primary school was K-2, elementary was 3-5, middle 6-8, and high school 9-12.

As far as college or university, think of it this way: A college focuses on basic education in a few fields. A university would go into more depth over a wider range. Most universities contain a number of colleges, but if you go to a smaller school, it may be a single college on its own.

That's the technical perspective. In general speach, no one goes "to university." In casual speech, you always go "to college" -- but if your college was part of a university, when someone asks "Where did you go to college?" you'll tell them which university.

There is also homeschooling, where the parents of the child(ren) teach them at home instead of sending them to public education.

However, Homeschoolers tend to follow the guidelines of the state they are in.

Some homeschooled children advance faster than their public school conterparts because they have personalized attention and the schooling tends to be incorporated into every facet of life. The 'loss' of knowledge over summer break tends to not happen to them, because of this.

We had two homeschooled individuals enrolled into the college I went to. Both were 15 years old, but had tested out as high school graduates. Both had well-rounded personalities. And both graduated by the time they were 19.

James

I'm from a rural area, myself. Our school was K-12, meaning it started with kindergarten (children start at age 5) and went through 12th grade (18 years old - highschool graduation). Now it has pre-K, which is for four-year-olds, but there are only a limited number of spots available and so there's a "lottery" to see which kids get to go. When I graduated high school (less than ten years ago) there were between 700 and 800 children in the entire school, and my senior class was 45 people (only 43 of which actually graduated)

At the time, children didn't start changing classes (and having different teachers for each subject) until seventh grade.

Because the school was small, I had the same English teacher in eighth, ninth, eleventh, and part of tenth grades. I had another for part of tenth grade, and another for seventh and twelfth grade. One of these teachers also taught French and drama.

I also had the same math teacher for eighth grade through twelfth.

I also had the same history teacher two years and the same science teacher for eighth, ninth, eleventh and twelfth grades.

The term "college" refers to a University, but also to the smaller "schools" or fields of study. College/School of Business, etc. Generally this is not referenced, and people use the term college for post-secondary education to achieve an associates or bachlor's degree. You would say "I'm going to college after I graduate high school."

I'm glad you mentioned this, James. I was going to mention this too. While I attended public schools growing up, my husband and I decided that homeschooling was the best option for our family.

Definitely true. Some states require yearly standardized testing. Others allow the use of private accredited "umbrella" schools. And in some states, like Virginia, there is also a religious exemption statute for families that feel that homeschooling is part of their religious convictions. HSLDA, Home School Legal Defense, has a website that shows what the homeschool laws are for each state, if anyone were to need that info for potential fanfic info, by the way.

This is definitely one of the benefits I've seen with the kids I know who are homeschooled. Although my kids do swim team in the summer, so I definitely treasure a little break from teaching in the summer. However, we use that time to pursue other kinds of educational endeavors, like lots of "free reading time". I do like that we can vacation at odd times, however. We took our Spring Break in February to do DisneyWorld when it was not so crowded, and so while the school takes their break we work on through.
In any case, I was glad to see some positive attention about homeschooling from someone, as most of what the media usually highlights is abuse situations. I am not attacking the public school system here, so please no one take it that way. I have friends who are teachers and I respect them greatly for what they do.

Just sharing my knowledge of the subject.
Thanks,
Marcy

I have a friend who was homeschooled for a while because they were flunking- it really helped them. But I've also heard of kids who watch old videos all day for their home schooling. It depends entirely on the parents and kids, but I think generally homeschooling is pretty good.

Okay now why I really posted was to tell about my crazy school system (apparantly I'm in a ranting mood today- usually I'm a lurker but whatever) We have TWO kindergarden through second grade schools, a school for third and fourth grade, one for fifth through seventh, one for get this- the eighth grade, and our high school 9-12. Our high school also has a preschool in the building- and there's a class you can take where you help plan activities and such for them- Child psycology two.

To make things more complex there's a catholic private school which is k-6, various other preschools, and one of the k-2 schools is revamping. Next year they will go to various places, including the high school. We've had workers making new walls and doors-apparantly to seperate them from us high schoolers, not that it really does so. Also they'll be taking over a lunch, so we'll change from three to two lunches- for the same number of kids Already lunches are crowded and there are a few kids each lunch who are late back to class- not because they eat slow, but the serving line's too long.

And my town's not really a big one. The whole things a little odd. Before I moved we had a k-6 school, a 7-8 and the high school.

oh, both of these are in MA by the way.

/me blinks. Grammar school? Really? Over here, a grammar school is a state school for 11-18 year olds, and only those who have passed a set of entrance tests may attend - ie, they're for the academically elite. Mostly, they've been replaced by Comprehensives, which take all children irrespective of academic ability.

Yvonne

Yep. It's another one of those usages devised just to confuse people on opposite ends of the pond.

Yes, it's a neverending source of fascination, Rivka. There seem to be so many words which we share but ascribe utterly different meanings to.

Yvonne

Indeed.

Did I ever tell you the story about when my mom was in England (she was 14 or so at the time) and a friend of her dad's asked if she wanted him to knock her up in the morning?

If you're in the mood for a laugh or two, check out this website . For example, under the entry "fag," the author writes: "One of the most amusing e-mails I've had concerning this page was from an American who had arrived at her company's UK offices to be told that the person she was looking for was 'outside blowing a fag'."