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Did You Know? |
- Choosing a college major can significantly impact the future career; below are top 4 useful degrees based on post-graduate employment and median annual wages:
- Computer Science:
- In-demand major with a projected growth rate of 20% (2021–2031).
- Median annual wage: $131,500.
- Skills include programming, web development, and data science.
- Possible jobs: Programmer, Cybersecurity specialist, Data scientist, Web developer.
- Pharmaceutical Sciences:
- Combines biology, chemistry, and other sciences for medicine study and development.
- Expected growth rate: 2% (2021–2031).
- Median annual salary: $128,600
- Biomedical Engineering:
- Prepares graduate for work in medical device development, manufacturing, and research.
- Expected growth rate: 10% (2021–2031).
- Median annual wage: $97,400.
- Possible jobs: Bioengineer, Bioengineering associate, Biomedical engineering manager, Medical device developer.
- Marine Engineering:
- Focuses on marine operating systems (boats, submarines, offshore structures).
- Expected growth rate: 4% (2021–2031).
- Median annual wage: $93,400.
- Possible jobs: Naval architect, Marine mechanic, Naval engineering consultant.
- Of all postsecondary Title IV institutions that include universities, colleges and community colleges in the U.S., as of 2021 there were 5,916 schools,
including 1,892 public schools and 4,024 private schools.
- Harvard University admitted a record number of Asian American students
to its class of 2027. The university revealed that 29.9% of admitted applicants are Asian American; it’s a 2.1% jump from last year’s number. Black and Latino admits dropped, comprising 15.3% and 11.3% respectively.
Native Hawaiian and Native American admits are also down from last year, sitting at 0.5% and 2% respectively. On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court
has found that Harvard and the University of North Carolina's
admissions policy violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
- As of 1/2023 American community colleges tuition and fees averaged $3,860, versus $39,400 at private and $10,940 at public four-year colleges or universities, with many states making community college free.
Half of all Hispanic and 40% of all Black students in higher education are enrolled
at community colleges. Around half of students drop out, within a year, of the community college where they started. Only slightly more than 40% finish within six years. While four out of five students who begin at a community
college say they plan to go on to get a bachelor’s degree, only about one in six of them actually manages to do it.
- In the U.S. just six in ten students who graduate from high school immediately enroll in college; a majority of colleges and
universities across the country accept more than half of applicants, and only 0.4 percent of undergraduates attend one of the Ivy League schools; community colleges serve at least a third of all undergraduates.
- The United States ranks 5th in the attainment of a college degree among 25-64 year-olds, but 12th when considering 25-34 year-olds.
- Fifty three (53) percent of Asian adults 25 and older had a least a bachelor's degree in 2015,
compared with 36% of whites, 23% of blacks
and 15% of Hispanics; and 21% of Asian age 25 and older had an advanced degree, compared with 14% of whites.
- The Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest (first awarded in 1902) and most prestigious international scholarship
program, enabling outstanding young people from around the world to study at the University of Oxford.
The Scholarship has purposely identified young leaders from around the world who, through the pursuit of education together at Oxford, would forge bonds
of mutual understanding and fellowship for the betterment of mankind. Rhodes Scholars are people
who have a vision of how the world could be better and the energy to make a difference – whatever their sphere of interest. As Selection Committees select
on the basis not only of intellect, but also of character, leadership and commitment to service, the Scholar
Program in Oxford aims to build on these Rhodes Scholar qualities, with the first and second-year retreats, workshops and conferences.
- The MacArthur Fellowship is a five-year grant to individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future. The Fellowship is designed to provide recipients with the flexibility to pursue their own artistic, intellectual,
and professional activities in the absence of specific obligations or reporting requirements. MacArthur supports people and organizations working to address a variety of complex societal challenges. The Fellowship program offers a $625,000 award over five years to individuals who have displayed extraordinary creativity in their fields,
encouraging them to further harness their potential in future works. While many recipients come from the performing arts community, the program also includes teachers, scientists, journalists, and humanitarians. In 2015, the Foundation paid out $325.4 million in grants
and program-related investments to organizations and individuals in the United States and around the world.
- John D. MacArthur (1897-1978) was an American insurance magnate, real estate investor and philanthropist who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
benefactor in the MacArthur Fellowships. Since 1978, the MacArthur Fellowship Foundation has paid out $6 billion through more than 23,506 grants and program-related investments to more than 8,565 organizations and individuals. As of December 31, 2016, MacArthur's assets totaled $6.2 billion. Organizations supported by the Foundation work in about 50 countries.
In addition to Chicago, MacArthur has offices in India, Mexico, and Nigeria.
- In the U.S. the vast majority of bachelor's degree students fail to graduate in the expected 4 years.
Instead, only 19% of undergraduate students graduate on time, and around half
of the American students who enter a 4-year school will receive a bachelor’s degree within 6 years. For example, in 2018, only 55% of full-time students and 21% of
part-time students who entered college in 2012 had graduated within 6 years; and only 59% of students who started at any four-year institution in the fall of 2006 graduated by 2012.
- The American public universities with the highest graduation rates:
- The American public universities with the worst graduation rates:
- Granite State College, Concord, New Hampshire (9.1%)
- Harris-Stowe State University, St. Louis, Missouri (10.4%)
- Southern University at New Orleans, Louisiana (10.5%)
- University of Alaska-Southeast, Juneau, Alaska (12.2%)
- University of Maine at Augusta, Maine (12.8%)
- Nevada State College, Henderson, Nevada (13.8%)
- Coppin State University, Baltimore, Maryland (13.9%)
- University of Houston – Downtown, Houston, Texas (14.1%)
- City University of New York, Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, New York (14.7%)
- Empire State College, State University Of New York (15.5%)
- McGuffey's Readers was graded collections of didactic tales and excerpts from great books, reflecting the proper education of young people required their introduction to a wide variety of
topics and practical matters. McGuffey's Readers guide children from learning the alphabet all the way to high school materials, as each volume increased in skill level; they became standard texts in nearly
all states in the U.S. since 1836.
- William Holmes McGuffey (1800 – 1873), a U. S. educator and clergyman,
is remembered chiefly for his series of illustrated readers for elementary school, and is best known for writing the
McGuffey Readers, the first widely used series of elementary school-level
textbooks that educated millions of Americans. Mr. McGuffey helped to organize the public school system of Ohio, and served as the president
of the Woodward Free Grammar School in Cincinnati, OH, one of the earliest public schools in the U.S.
More than 120 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960.
He was very fond of teaching children as he geared the books toward a younger audience.
- There are about 25% U.S. medical schools offer combined undergraduate/MD programs for high school students.
The combined BS/BA-MD programs allow students to apply to medical school straight out of high school.
Essentially, if admitted, students will spend two to four years at the undergraduate college completing their BS or BA degrees along with premedical requirements. Afterwards, they will proceed to the
medical school affiliated with the undergraduate institution for their MD without having to apply again. Some of these programs are accelerated, meaning that students would get their BS or BA and MD in 6
or 7 years rather than the traditional 8. Many of the universities and medical schools that offer this program are not “top tier” schools.
- There are over 100 MD-PhD combined programs affiliated with medical schools in the U.S.
Timeline for MD-PhD training is often divided into three stages,
termed 2-4-2 based upon the typical number of years required to complete each stage. After completing a 4-year undergraduate degree, and since the average time to complete a biomedical PhD in the U.S. is about
six years, by integrating the didactic components of training, dual MD-PhD degree training may require less time to complete than if each degree were pursued independently. The MD-PhD dual degree takes
approximately 7-8 years to finish plus 3-7 year residency program.
- Most MD-PhD candidates earn their PhD in biomedical laboratory disciplines, such as cell biology, biochemistry, genetics,
immunology, pharmacology, physiology, neuroscience, and biomedical engineering. MD-PhD trainees are research scientists who solve mechanisms underlying disease, combined with their passion to treat patients in a clinical setting.
Around 65% of MD-PhD graduates spend more than 50% of their work time doing research, about
75% of MD-PhD graduates are in academic medicine or pharmaceutical company positions that make use of their interests in both patient care and research, 68% go into academics and 16% go into private practice; the rest work in industry,
research institutions or other various opportunities. Most universities that offer this combined MD-PhD program are “top tier” medical schools.
- While Canada,
Estonia,
Finland,
Germany,
Hong Kong,
Netherlands,
Japan,
New Zealand,
Shanghai (China),
Singapore,
South Korea and
Taiwan
are the countries that have top-performing from primary school to 12th grade education systems in the world,
the best countries for education from primary school to university are
United Kingdom,
United States,
Canada,
Germany,
France,
Australia,
Switzerland,
Sweden,
Japan, and
Netherlands.
- The University of Farmington, advertised as based in Michigan state, was run by undercover agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to expose "pay-to-stay" immigration fraud.
The fake university was set up in 2015 to try to catch foreign nationals who had initially traveled to the US on student visas and wanted to stay in the country. It advertised tuition for undergraduates at $8,500 a year and $11,000 a year for graduate students.
In February 2019, a total of 130 students (including 129 from India) of this fake University of Farmington were arrested and charged with civil immigration charges, and face possible deportation (if convicted).
- The fake University of Northern New Jersey was by undercover agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to expose "pay-to-stay" immigration fraud in 2016. Twenty-one people,
who acted as brokers for more than 1,000 foreigners who sought to maintain student and work visas, have been arrested after US authorities set up this fake university to expose immigration fraud; most these foreign nationals involved in the scheme came from China and India.
- Most student loan borrowers are young adults between the ages of 18 and 39; however, consumers age 60 and older are the fastest growing age-segment of the student loan market; in 2015,
they owed an estimated $66.7 billion in student loans.
- Almost 1.5 million foreign students have been allowed to stay and work in the U.S. after graduation as part of a work permit program.
The number of students authorized to work under the “optional practical training (OPT)” program has grown 400 percent since 2008. The top public schools for graduates in the OPT program were City University of New York’s Baruch College, with 18,500;
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with 13,700; and UCLA, with 13,600. The top private, non-profit schools were the University of Southern California, with 27,100; New York University, with 26,800; and Columbia University, with 22,600.
- DeVry University and its parent company have agreed to a $100 million in 2016 to settle a separate Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging that they misled prospective students with ads that touted high employment success rates and income levels after graduation.
- Colleges with links to their SEC filings or under federal investigations.
- In 2016, approximately 90 students from China attending the University of Washington (UW) were defrauded of approximately one million dollars in tuition money due to a tuition payment scam,
which promises a five percent reduction on tuition payments for students who use a third party service to process the payments to the college/university.
- Harvard University produced more leaders of the country than any other institution; Yale University
comes second in the list of the most common routes to becoming president; the US Military Academy is third;
Princeton University is fourth; and the College of William and Mary is fifth.
- 2016/2017 starting pay of graduates of well-known U.S. universities/colleges:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): $78,300
- U.S. Military Academy at West Point: $76,000
- U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis: $72,900
- Stanford University: $70,800
- U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs: $68,800
- Princeton University: $65,700
- Harvard University: $65,200
- Rice University: $62,300
- University of Pennsylvania: $62,200
- Duke University: $61,300
- Dartmouth College: $60,800
- University of California - Berkeley: $60,500
- Brown University: $58,600
- Georgetown University: $55,400
- University of Chicago: $53,000
- In 1988 Tue Nguyen, a "boat person" who spoke no English when he fled Vietnam in 1979, has earned a record seventh degree, a doctorate in nuclear engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where Nguyen has five bachelor of science degrees--in physics, computer science and engineering, electrical engineering, mathematics and nuclear engineering--and
a master of science degree in nuclear engineering.
- There were about 427,000 international undergraduates at U.S. colleges and universities in the 2015-2016 school year.
The top groups were China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, India and Vietnam. The international students annually spend around $21 billion in the United States on tuition, fees, housing and living expenses.
- Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, and Sweden are the top countries for overall best countries ranking in education.
- College graduates from the class of 2014 owe an average of nearly $29,000 in student loan debt.
- One year after college, just under two-thirds of borrowers were repaying their undergraduate loans.
- Around two-third of the American leaders who received graduate degrees went to a top 10 graduate school in their field.
- The number of Chinese students in the U.S. reached 235,597 in the 2012-2013 academic year, the last period for which the figure is available, up 21.4% from 2011-2012. This made one Chinese in four foreign students on U.S. campuses.
Chinese families often pay third-party recruiters fees ranging from $6,000 to $10,000, with "bonuses" for admission to the top universities in the U.S.
- As of 8/2014, the average college cost, with housing and meal plan included, for undergraduate in-state students attending a four-year public college or university was $18,943 and $32,762 for out-of-state students. At two-year public schools, in-state students paid an average $11,052.
The average cost to attend a private, four-year nonprofit college is $42,419, including room and board.
- In 2012, 53.5% of Russian adults held at least 4-year college/tertiary degrees, 52.6% for Canada, 46.6% for Japan, 46.4% for
Israel, 43.1% for the U.S., 41.7% for South Korea, 41.0% for Australia, 41.0% for the U.K., and less than 4% of Chinese adults had tertiary qualifications.
- In the U.S., according to The College Board, during the 2013–14 academic year, the average cost of tuition, room and board at a private nonprofit four-year college and at a public four-year college were $40,917 and $18,391, respectively.
- U.S. universities awarded 750,000 master’s degrees each year; among the top 20 in 2012 were University of New York (2nd),
Columbia University (3rd), Harvard University (15th), Liberty University (8th) (awarded 5,093 master's degrees), John Hopkins University (awarded 4,785, ranked ninth),
and the George Washington University (GWU) (awarded about 3,900 master’s degrees, ranked 18th in the nation). The online unit of the for-profit University of Phoenix, which awarded about 18,600, ranked first!
- The ‘‘Pay as You Earn’’ program, effective Dec. 21, 2012, allows eligible student-loan borrowers to cap monthly payments to 10 percent of discretionary income, and have their loans forgiven after 20 years.
An earlier version of the program allows borrowers to pay 15 percent of their discretionary income for up to 25 years, after which the rest of their loan is forgiven.
- A study conducted by Harvard University finds that for-profit colleges/institutions/universities educate a larger fraction of minority, disadvantaged,
and older students, who often end up with higher unemployment and “idleness” rates and lower earnings than do comparable students from other schools, and that they have far greater student debt burdens and default rates on their student loans.
For-profit colleges are often attractive to non-traditional students. With their myriad of online, night and weekend offerings,
for-profits provide a lot of flexibility. Many for-profit colleges are also interested in serving minority, low-income and first-generation college students.
- As a per study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, applicants who list for-profit college credentials on their resumes don't
get called back by potential employers as frequently as graduates who hold other kinds of degrees.
- Tuition and fees at for-profit colleges averaged $15,130; compared to $3,264 at two-year public colleges for in-state students and $8,893 at four-year public colleges for in-states in the 2013-2014 academic year.
- Unlike credit cards and mortgages, student-loan borrowers cannot wipe out the debt through bankruptcy.
- In the U.S., while 347,985 students earned business degrees in 2009, only 15,496 grads walked away with a degree in mathematics.
- An average 13.4 percent of student-loan borrowers who entered repayment in fiscal year 2009 defaulted within three years; 47 percent of them attended for-profit colleges and universities.
The lowest default rate is Midwestern University (Ill) and the highest one is ITT Technical Institute (Ind).
- In China, people with some college education make up about 9 percent of China’s population in 2012, up from 3.6 percent in 2000;
by comparison, more than one-third of Americans have some college education.
- In New York city, students are required to take a test to study at 9 specialized high schools, which were designed for the best and the brightest.
In 2012, 733 of the 12,525 black and Hispanic students who took the exam were offered seats (6%).
For whites, 1,253 of the 4,101 test takers were offered seats (31%). Of 7,119 Asian students who took the test, 2,490 were offered seats (35%).
- Attending college is a smart choice; a person who held a professional degree has a $4.2M wealth accumulation over a career, compared with a Doctoral degree graduate's $3.5M, $2.8M for Master's degree, $2.4 for Bachelor's degree, $1.8M for 2-year college's degree, $1.6M for some college, $1.4M for high school graduate, and $1M for less than high school.
- By 2020, it predicts that 65% of all jobs will require bachelor's degree or higher.
- The average debt of a 4-year college student was $25,250 in 2010.
- Each year around 20,000 students receive a full scholarship that covers all costs.
- In the U.S. only 58% of 4-year college students graduated on time.
- Caucasian students are 40 percent more likely to win private scholarships than minority students.
- Most states in the U.S. do not allow graduates from online law schools to become licensed to practice law as an attorney.
- As per the 2012 OECD report,
- The U.S. ranks 14th in the world in the percentage of 25-34 year-olds with higher education (42%).
- The odds that a young person in the U.S. will be in higher education if his or her parents do not have an upper secondary education are just 29% - one of the lowest levels among OECD countries.
- The U.S ranks 28th in the percentage of 4-year-olds in early childhood education, with a 69% enrolment rate.
- Across all OECD countries, 30% of the expenditure on higher education comes from private sources, while in the U.S., 62% does.•Teachers in the U.S. spend between 1,050 and 1,100 hours a year teaching – much more than in almost every country.
- In 2012 Herguan University, an unaccredited school, was served with a notice of intent to withdraw its SEVP certification.
Former Herguan's CEO, Jerry Wang, has been indicted on visa fraud charges, and was sentenced to 12 months in prison in 2015.
- In 2011, Tri-Valley University (TVU), an unaccredited school, was raided by the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement for operating as a front for illegal immigration.
TVU's founder and owner, Susan Su, was arrested on indictments by a Federal Grand Jury on 33 counts.
- In 2011 University of Northern Virginia, an unaccredited school, was raided by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The university was closed on July 16, 2013 by order of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, due to its failure to achieve accreditation.
- The Harkin report found that the average cost to earn an associate-degree (2-year degree) or a program certificate at for-profit colleges is about four times as much as those at community colleges and public universities.
- In 2010-2011 the University of Phoenix, the largest for-profit college, received $1.2 billion in Pell grants; however, two-thirds of its associate-degree students leave before completing their 2-year degree.
- Among 30 for-profit colleges, an average of 22.4% of revenue went to marketing and recruiting, 19.4% to profits and 17.7% to instruction. Their chief executive officers were paid an average of $7.3 million annually, except the chief executive of
Strayer Education, made about $41 million in 2009.
- Unlike traditional nonprofit colleges, for-profits are prohibited from getting more than 90 percent of their revenue from federal financial aid funding.
They are also subject to new “gainful employment” rules that link access to federal cash with graduates’ success in finding jobs.
- Most for-profit universities and institutions are virtual schools that provide their education online.
For-profit schools tend to focus on job-specific curriculums, such as business administration, medical billing and web design. Most of these often fail to provide programs properly accredited by agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Education, and their degrees are often not recognized. Academic standards of online schools are not as challenging and rigorous as traditional schools.
- Around 13% of students at community colleges and 48% at four-year public universities take out loans compared with about 96% of students at for-profit schools.
- Senator Thomas Harkin, who is responsible for oversight investigation of Federal dollars going to for-profit schools, raised the issues
about the conflict of interest of the American Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC), a national accrediting agency that accredits many for-profit colleges, accepted compensation directly from the schools receiving its accreditation awards.
- For-profit colleges, such as University of Phoenix, Everest Institute, and Potomac College, usually draw in less educated students into the classroom.
The U.S. government is investigating the business practices of for-profit colleges, including the one that they made money from these students by helping them to obtain federal student aid, requiring their families to co-sign the loan, despite the student being adults and leave them in heavy debt with a worthless degree.
- Americans spend about $4.7 on graduation gifts annually.
- About 30% of U.S. college students with loans dropped out.
- Students from a family with annual income between $50,000 and $100,000 are more likely to win scholarships than those of a family who make less than $50,000.
- Around 14% of U.S. students students majoring computer science are women.
- While the adult education program, which is designed for adults, teaches basic remedial lessons, continuing education is for adults to further their existing education.
- More than half (57%) of teachers hold master's degrees; however, this teaching profession has an average national starting salary of $30,377 while computer programmers start at an average of $43,635, public accounting professionals at $44,668, and registered nurses at $45,570.
- Per a survey results provided by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an English professor has an average salary of $43.50 per hour while a dentist and a nuclear engineer only make $33.34 and $36.16 per hour respectively.
- College degrees or training certificates obtained from unaccredited institutions are not accepted by the U.S. government and most corporations. In the U.S. these unaccredited institutions often have licenses
issued by cities/states for formal legal authorization to enroll students, help foreign students to get student visas or issue degrees, but their degrees or certificates are considered worthless.
There are hundred of unaccredited colleges, seminaries, and universities, which do not
have educational accreditation in the U.S.
- In 2009-2010, 691,000 international students studied in the U.S., of which nearly 128,000 are Chinese students. The top five countries sending students to the U.S. – China, India, South Korea, Canada, and Taiwan – account for more than half of all
foreign students studying in the U.S. The universities hosting the largest number of foreign students (at least 7,000) are University of Southern California, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and New York University.
Around 40% of foreign students in the U.S. study business and management or engineering followed physical and life sciences, and math and computer science.
- In 2008-2009, 260,327 American students studied abroad. The top destinations for U.S. students are Great Britain, Italy, and Spain. Others popular countries hosting American students include Peru, South Korea, and Chile, China, Argentina, South Africa, Denmark, and the Czech Republic.
- As of January 2009, Mike Nicholson, 67, has 27 college degrees, 12 of which are from Western Michigan University. He has been either a full time or part-time student for the last 50 years. He holds 1 Doctoral degree, 20 Master's degrees,
1 Bachelor's degree, 2 Associate's degrees, and 3 Specialist's degrees.
- The most worthless college majors:
Religion,
Film,
Latin,
English Literature,
Dance,
Music Therapy,
American Studies,
Art History.
- Paul Quinn College (Dallas, TX) bans pork products, such as bacon, in its dining facilities, and issues a penalty of $100 to students who don’t dress business casual for class.
- Most American universities/colleges accepted more courses from the Advanced Placement Program (AP) program than
the International Baccalaureate (IB) program.
- In Fall 2009, around 18.4 million students attended more than 4,400 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities in the U.S. About 7.2 million students attended public 4-year institutions, 6.5 million attended public 2-year institutions, 4.4 million attended private 4-year institutions,
and 0.3 million attended private 2-year colleges.
- In the US, more than half of undergraduates (56 percent) – as well as 59 percent of graduate students – were women.
- A 2009 study showed that U.S. students ranked 25th among 34 countries in math and science, behind nations like China, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Finland.
- Former Senator Warren Rudman graduated from Syracuse university in 1952, he was denied his diploma because he would not pay an $18 for the college yearbook.
When he was selected to the Senate in 1980, Syracuse finally sent him the diploma, but he refused to accept it.
- Benjamin Bradley Bolger (born 1975) is a perpetual student
who has earned 14 college degrees in modern history after Michael W. Nicholson, who has 30 degrees.
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