US Education

Lynda Thomas

• A very personal view• No guarantees of correctness• Who am I?

– Mainly educated in Canada and UK– MSc Southern Illinois University in US– PhD from Aberystwyth University– Taught at Carroll College in Wisconsin for nearly

20 years - That was 10 years ago

The Early Years

• Kindergarten• Grade 1 at 6 years old• Junior High School - grades 6-8• High School - grades 9-12• Nothing like A levels, but SAT (or ACT) exams in

grade 12 (marked 200-800)• So ‘1500 on my SATs’ is very good • Admission to university based on SATs, grade point

average in high school, and position in class

Universities

• A very wide range: public, private, liberal arts, technical, research, colleges, universities

• 4,216 degree-granting institutions in the United States during 2004–05

• Enrollment in two- and four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. reached 20.5 million in 2006

• About 65% of young people go on to some kind of higher education

From 2006 census data

Public Universities - State Schools• Often very large but on different campuses. • Charge students from ‘in state’ (and close

states) less in fees.• Usually lots of them with different ‘feels’ e.g.

Wisconsin – University of Wisconsin, Madison – University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee– University of Wisconsin, Platteville– University of Wisconsin, Waukesha

Private Universities

• Range from large and well respected through to tiny and not very good. But some of the small ones have excellent reputation eg. Amherst, Oberlin, Antioch, Reed, …

But should be accredited!e.g. All colleges and Universities in Wisconsin are

accredited by something called ‘North Central’ which accredits over 8,500 public and private schools in 19 states

Public (13 million) vs. Private (4 million)

• $9,953 Average tuition, room and board (for in-state students) at the nation’s four-year public colleges and universities for an entire academic year

• $29,119 Average tuition, room and board at the nation’s four-year private colleges and universities for one complete academic year

• Students pay with a combination of loans, grants, ‘discounting’, and work (almost all students work)

• Public institutions get state and federal money• Private usually have an endowment, get fees, but also get public

funds (not sure how)

Colleges vs. Universities

• No nationally standardized definition of the term in the United States

• Traditionally been used to designate research institutions

• But lots of exceptions eg. Dartmouth College is one of the best US Universities and part of Ivy League

Ivy League

• Actually a football conference!• Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth,

Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Yale

• All private and in North Eastern US• As you move out west the public institutions

are as old as the private ones

What are best?

• Depends what you want• At Madison undergrads may not see a ‘real’

professor for the first 2 years• A liberal arts college probably has better

undergrad teaching• US News and World Reporthttp://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college

• Princeton Reviewhttp://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings.aspx

Undergraduate

• 4 year degrees• Students apply to different institutions• Those institutions accept, reject, and the

private ones put together a package of finance (remember they know all info)

• Students usually come in without a definite major and pick one by end of second year

Liberal Arts

• 1/3 of your time in your major• 1/3 in ‘distribution requirements’• Rest in electives and support courses

For instance, at Carroll our CS students did 32 total courses, 12 in Computing, 5 in things like maths and business, 9 in distribution:

2 humanities, 2 Social science, 2 Science, 2 maths or computing, 1 art

How many study Computer Science?

• March 2009, Information Week:

After years of decline, the number of undergrad students majoring in computer science at U.S. universities rose last year for the first time since the dot-com bust….Survey of 192 U.S. universities with doctoral programs found that total enrollment by majors and pre-majors in computer science increased 6.2% last….

http://www.cra.org/taulbee/CRATaulbeeReport-StudentEnrollment-07-08.pdfThe numbers quoted are based on schools discussed in last slide – one article said this is 20% of Bachelor’s in country (the numbers in the InfoWeek article make no sense)

From 2002 censusDegrees awarded

• Below bachelor’s – 5%• Bachelor’s - 4%• Master’s – 3.5%• PhDs – less than 2%

This is for Computing and Information Sciences (Computer Engineering may be counted as Engineering)

What is Computer Science?

• Overall, more software engineering than computer science, but ….

• Is it in Science (possibly Maths), Business or Engineering?? Will affect the type of CS

• How find out what type of CS it is? • Look at the prospectus, for example:

Carroll Universityhttp://www.carrollu.edu/programs/computerscience/requiredcourses.asp#softwareengineering

UW, Madisonhttp://www.admissions.wisc.edu/majors.php

List of deptshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_computer_science_departments

GPA

• Courses are ‘rough graded’ ie A, AB, B..• Then a detailed GPA is calculated

– 4 for an A, 3 for a B, etc. multiplied by number of credits and averaged,

– So, a GPA of 4.0 is the best (usually)

• Also can graduate Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude

Doing Graduate WorkBeing a grad student

• (not usually called post grad)• Accepted based on GPA, GRE exams,

undergraduate institution and recommendations

• GRE exams: analytic writing, verbal, quantitative graded 200-800+ and given a percentile (see wikipedia)

• Also subject exams (not always needed)

Getting a Teaching Assistantship (TA)

• Pays fees and a small salary• TAs are needed to teach all those undergrads

who are taking distribution courses!• Also marking, computer centre, etc.• US students will pick their institution based on

reputation and also whether they get a TA

Best Schools for Computing

• Just like any country it depends on subject area• I would find the area I was interested in and then

search acm.portal and google scholar to find out who has published in it

• Find out where they are and get a feel for that University

• Check out the required GRE scores• Find out how much it costs and whether you would

be likely to get a TA (very unlikely in first year for overseas students)

Doing a PhD

• Often MSc is just a stopping place on the way• 5 years• 2 years take graduate courses• Then some kind of qualifying exam

– Different terms and procedures in different places– These assess your general knowledge of field– Sometimes called ‘comps’, ‘prelims’ or ‘quals’

• Then begin to actually do the research• Write thesis and defend

If you pick academia - then what?

• Post-doc perhaps• Assistant Professor - approx 5 years to tenure…………

if you get tenure usually promoted to….• Associate Professor …. then often• Professor

• Lots more professors in US than here

So, why did I do a PhD in UK?

US:• Courses, prelims etc.• Difficult to do part-time• 5 years• More structured?

UK:• ‘Just’ research• Easier to do part-time• 3 years• I often felt a bit lost

Wanted to live in Wales

Questions?

• How big is Computing in your country?• What kind of system is it?• What kind of computing do people do? • What is the structure of a department? • How are things funded?• How does all this work out at your institution?