h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Canadian system is practically identical. Same deal with a major. (You have to choose one major, but a few people choose two, and/or add a minor.)

Because we don't have anything like A-levels here, there's a lot of general ed that has to be gotten out of the way before one can continue to a degree - and that's just as well, because it makes me able to investigate subjects that weren't available to me at school, like sociology or psychology or foreign languages beyond rudimentary French. It's different at each school, but at UChicago the first two years encompass a very specific set of general education requirements called the "Core", including required courses in humanities, civilization studies, arts, social sciences, math, natural sciences and a foreign language. You could do this voluntarily at any other school, but at UChicago the grounding is required.

No, we get none of this in secondary school.

Yes, emr! Explore away! Use your opportunity as something more than the key to salaried employment.

The Scottish 'Highers' system is more broad and more flexible than English/Welsh 'A Levels', which tend to force people to specialise one way or the other. (Jaysus! Why did I chose Maths, Physics and Chemistry when what really turns me on is stuff like books, languages, history? There was a reason, but I'm sure you don't want me to bore you with what I learned about myself in counselling).

I think it's shocking, though, that in the UK we allow children to leave school without knowledge of a foreign language. Most of the world is bi- and tri-lingual. Why is it that we have such a problem?

(And don't get me started on the ministerial idea that children should be able to stop languages at fourteen in favour of a practical subject like...I kid you not...'Tourism and hotel management'. No need for a foreign language there, then.)

congrats.

Thanks tjm

Here we by no means require knowledge of a foreign language in secondary school - however, many universities require 2-3 years at least.

Because of lack of funding and whatnot, we only get to start foreign languages in high school, though - unless you're lucky enough to have someone's parent come in in grade 2 and teach you some rudimentary Spanish (I still remember "elefanto").

they are making a push in primary schools here to start teaching french. Put there are not that many primary school teachers who can teach it. Then aain, there aren't many who actually know any science and they still 'teach' that.

Just before xmas, I was hired as a father christmas for a primary school in manchetser that had pupils speaking 34 different languages. Now , that was fun trying to be a multi-faith santa claus / father eid!!

My five year old son has started French. It's best to start when the brain's malleable.

The older two used to come back from nursery singing Urdu songs. They couldn't figure out why we didn't know them. Their Santa was a Punjabi guy with a huge, white (real) beard.

Congratulations EMR Great news.

Enjoy your time there and make best use of it. It's *sooo* much harder later

In the local city colleges, there's a core of around 8 courses ranging from African/Asian cultural studies to Introduction to Programming that are required to graduate. They usually try to get you to take them in the first two years, but that is strictly so they can keep you around longer and steal your money - because most major courses build on each other with prerequisites, you can easily have to stay an extra semester or two if you don't start working on them right away.
...that applied in English, but it might not in History. Then again, it's only a problem if you mind staying extra. University is fun. And if you're going the intellectual route, there's no rush, unless you want to start on your Ph.D already.

In technical colleges you have to declare a major right away or you are definitely going to be there forever.

I had a bizarre result from the University of California-Berkeley today. I was accepted, but for the spring 2009 semester, not the fall 2008 one. It seems that because there were so many qualified applicants, a random number were chosen to be deferred until spring. In the meantime, you would have to take classes at a community college, or take the semester off.

I'm glad I have other options.

Wow, that is strange.

Which is your top choice? Do you have one?

My top choice is Swarthmore.

But today I was waitlisted at Swarthmore's sibling school, Haverford, so I'm not terribly optimistic.

It seems to be turning out to be UChicago. Go Maroon!

Y'know, there aren't many places I know of I'd rather spend four (+?) years in than Chicago. So go maroon (really?) indeed!

Accepted to Princeton, to my mild surprise (though I think it probably has something to do with my mother being an alumna, and also their humanities "affirmative action" campaign), but rejected from Yale and Swarthmore.

Now I have to decide between Princeton and UChicago. It's not easy, particularly because Princeton is offering to pay almost a quarter of my costs, and for Chicago it's the full 50 grand. I'm going to visit both for their admit weekends this month, and then we'll see what happens.

Anyone who has any experience of either school is highly, *highly* encouraged to comment.

I've not got the brains to have any personal experience with either school , but Princeton is an impressive and imposing university. It's got the top slot on the US News and World Report's list, I believe (though I doubt UC is far behind).

Major congratulations on acceptance to Princeton - the college of James Madison (and some other people too, I think). That's really something to be proud of.

Sorry about Swarthmore, but congratulations on Princeton!

$50,000? That's obscene! Is that every year?

You know what it costs here for tuition? £3,000 max.

In *my* country, it's free. . And prescriptions are only £5.

In my time at Uni, I racked up enough debt to pay off my parents' first mortgage - just on student loans. Nice.

Isn't it ridiculous, Elentari? At McGill, in Canada, the tuition is only $4,000 Canadian - but my parents and I determined that the much better education at either Princeton or Chicago is worth the money.

Admittedly, I think your campuses (campii?) have much better facilites for the most part - my uni doesn't even have a swimming pool, but it is quite small.

Edward - I know, I'm jealous. My dad didn't have to pay when he went to uni, but I suppose with the government wanting 50% people to have a university education (which personally I think is silly) there's no way they could afford it! Does it apply only if you're Scottish and go to a Scottish uni, or could you go to one elsewhere in the UK?

I'm not sure. I *think* Scottish fees get paid in English/Welsh/Northern Irish universities.

It was a politically interesting move when it happened, having been passed against government wishes. The legislation was put forward by Tommy 'Three in bed*' Sheridan of the SSP, with LibDem and SNP support. In Scotland, Labour is the soft-right party.

*allegedly.