The American education system

Year 1
Faculty of Letters
Specialty: English-French
Fanari Luminita

The US university system is considered the most advanced and performing educational system in the
world. It is made up of over 4,300 university and postgraduate education institutions that teach nearly
14 million students, 570,000 of whom are international students.
If you want to follow a school in the US, know that diversity within American borders also applies to the
system educational. Differences in the structure and design of curricula can cause confusion among
international students. Although educational standards are drafted by the US federal government, the
attributions of the public education system rest with state governments. So each state has its own
educational department that establishes the curriculum, employs the staff of the schools, establishes
the financing of this sector, etc. The latter is, in many US states, divided into local school districts. Each
school district and even schools, in some cases, benefit from a certain amount of freedom in terms of
internal organization. Diferentele de curriculum, de structura a invatamantului, de oferta a materiilor si
activitatilor extrascolare sunt generate de structura organizatorica a sectorului educational. De exemplu,
in unele state, scolarizarea este obligatorie pana la varsta de 16 ani, pe cand in alte state elevii nu pot sa
isi intrerupa in mod legal scolarizarea pana la varsta de 18 ani.
Structure of education
Besides the educational concept, another common point of the educational systems in the US
states is their structure. The education is of three types: elementary / primary, secondary (which
combines general and high school education) and post-secondary / higher.

Children begin to go to school at the age of 5 and finish high school at the age of 18 (K-12
education refers to the entire primary and secondary school cycle). Depending on the state, the
patterns after which the education is structured are the following:
 1. Model 6 + 3 + 3: primary school (K-5), general school (6-8), high school (9-12);

2.Model 8 + 4: primary school (K-8), high school (9-12);

3.Model 6 + 6: primary school (K-6), general school and combined high school (junior & high
school, 7-12).

Forms of assessment

Upon completion of high school studies, students will not take public exams, such as the
Romanian baccalaureate examinations or the A-Level exams in the British system, but must
meet a number of graduation conditions, set by each state. Students are assessed throughout the
school year through tests, final examinations at the end of the semesters, homework, group
projects, active class participation, etc. All forms of assessment contribute to establishing the
student's final mark on each subject studied.

Many of the universities and colleges in the US have begun to recognize other graduation exams,
including the Romanian Baccalaureate.

The scoring system

The notes are expressed either by letters (A +, A, B +, B, C + etc.) or by up to 100%. Their

average is expressed by a scoring system called Grade Point Average (GPA), where the
maximum score is 4.

Preparing for university

Depending on the desired specialization and prestige of the university or college students want to
apply, they must take into account the admission requirements imposed by the respective higher
education institutions. University or college applications will be evaluated not only in terms of
GPA, but also of the Honors and AP grades, SAT or ACT scores. Besides the results obtained
over the years, universities will pay attention to the reputation of the graduate high school, the
academic level of the class in which the student has studied, but also to the extracurricular
activities the student has taken over the years and his concerns. Therefore, for higher education
institutions, it is not just how the future student will excel at the academic level, but also how he
will actively take part in the life of the campus.