Hey, everybody!
I decided to talk about the process of studying in the U.S. and will try to touch upon most aspects of studying at the university. I want to say in advance that everything I write about is based on my own experience. The whole text below is my opinion and my experience, which is unique to the engineering department. If you don't agree with something or think that something written is untrue, then alas, you will have to live with it and put up with such injustice.
The first difference from Russian universities is that there is no fixed schedule of classes here. Everyone is given a sheet of paper with the items that need to be listened to in order to get a diploma.
The subjects or classes, as they are called here, have a certain order of study. Usually, a student makes his own schedule of classes as convenient as he likes, with restrictions only on the priority of classes, i.e. he cannot take mathematics of the second level until he passes the first level; "chemical processes" cannot be studied until he passes two general chemistries, etc. But it does not matter if a student will take the History class in the first semester or in the last semester
Let's go on.
Each course has a number of credits (or hours) that are counted as a week. For example, 3 credits are twice a week for 1.5 hours, for a total of 3 hours per week. In order for a student to be considered fully occupied (full-time), he or she must have at least 12 credits for each semester, otherwise the status of a full-time student changes to that of a part-time student.
However, if the student has financial assistance from the government or the state, he or she will have problems.
The workload depends on the complexity of the subject and the student's ability: having 16 hours of study is not a problem, but when you add laboratory work, you start to miss the time. More than 17 hours a week it is difficult even for very capable and non-working students.
There is no minimum number of credits, you can take at least one class per semester, but still you have a certain period of time to study, for engineers it is 6 years to get a bachelor's degree (including previous college studies, if any). At the end of this period, if you have not defended yourself, all of your classes will be cancelled (unless there is a valid excuse).
Two other differences are that you can study in the summer, i.e. you can finish 3 semesters per year, not 2 semesters, as in Russia. This significantly speeds up the learning process.
Of course, not all classes are taught in the summer, but it is possible to study less important subjects, such as history or English. Students usually study the first two years of their studies in the summer, while in the third and fourth years, as a rule, they do not study anymore, because they work in companies, gaining experience.
The next difference is that it is possible to enter the university during any semester of study throughout the whole year of study.
All subjects (classes) are divided into two groups: main or professional and secondary. Each student is required to take two courses of English, two courses of American history, two courses of government, and a class of art and sociology (a la psychology, philosophy, history of painting or something similar that can be chosen from a large list of offered classes).
The process of learning during the semester.
There is no concept of "examination session" here. The session here is continuous, you need to constantly work at 100% to pass each subject well.
Each subject has a certain evaluation structure, and it looks like this: during the semester you will have 3 exams, which are evaluated as 15% of the total evaluation, exams are held every month (since the average semester lasts 3 months, it turns out to be an exam every month). These exams cover a certain part of the material in the subject during the month.
At the end of the semester there is a so-called "final week", usually one and a half weeks or two weeks with the final exams.
The final exam is the result of your entire semester of study.
It is usually rated at 30% of the total grade.
In addition, homework is also taken into account, with a total of 11 homework assignments as 10% of the total grade, and there are still tests, 11 of them and the remaining 15% of the grade.
As a rule, the teacher gives the opportunity to substitute one of the worst semester examinations for the final examination, replacing the worst test with the final examination, provided, of course, that the final examination score is higher. The same goes for homework and tests, with one of the worst scores being omitted and counting only 10 tasks, not 11.
The structure of the percentage and number of tests, homework and tests may change, and presentations, laboratory work, projects, and additional assignments may be added for additional assessment. Something may be completely missing (homework, for example, or tests).
The essence of the structure remains the same - during the whole semester you have to work very conscientiously, there is a right to only one mistake.
The situation changes slightly for the final exams, especially with regard to selected profile classes: the lion's share of the assessment is formed from a semester project, individual or group.
At the end of the course, the student has to take a state examination called the "Fundamental Engineering Base", which costs about $200 and is given twice a year, lasts 8 hours and covers a large number of classes related to the profession, both general and specialized.
Without this examination, many companies will not hire you, because after 5 years of work you can pass the exam for the title of professional engineer and get your license, but without a fundamental base you will not be allowed to take the professional exam. And if you don't have a license, you won't be able to sign any project or design yourself, such an engineer becomes useless for the company at some point.
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