Carnegie Mellon Reputation

bruno123
Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:57:56 +0000

and how different would college life in the UK/US be?



Very different. Entry-level requirements are higher in the UK than in the US, basically because the A-Level curriculum for pre-engineering students is far more advanced than the standard U.S. High School diploma (roughly equivalent to first-year college-level math and physics in the States).

The main difference though is that, in the UK, one studies one single subject in depth for three or, in the case of engineering, 4 years (sometimes it is possible to study two related subjects simultaneously like mathematics and CS, or history and politics, but that is not common in engineering, certainly not at Imperial). In the US on the other hand, there are so-called “general education” or “core” requirements that force you to take classes in multiple different areas. You then choose one particular area to be your “major”. There is also the possibility of doing a “double major” (not very common in engineering though) or adding one or more “minors” to your “major” (basically by taking a minimum number of elective classes in select areas you want to “minor” in). Minors can be completely unrelated to your major (e.g. CS and music), which is impossible in the UK.

There is also a sharp difference in the way performance is assessed. In the US, courses typically last one semester (roughly 4 months) and performance assessment is on a continuous basis. Students are normally required to turn in homework every week, which counts towards your final grade, and there are multiple “midterms” or “quizzes” throughout the semester in addition to a final exam. A letter grade (A, B, C, etc.) is assigned to each class you take every semester. You are treated more like a school kid really, as opposed to an independent adult. Attendance in lectures/labs is compulsory and is verified by the professors. In other words, the system is more paternalistic and there is more guidance/supervision , like in High School.

In the UK on the other hand, lab practicals and lectures are routinely held/offered during the year and you may or may not be assessed for coursework. Most of your grade however will be determined by a bunch of final written exams (8 or so for engineering) that you take at the end of each year. Courses are normally modular and last a full academic year, with the different modules that you have studied assessed in the same (three-hour) final exam. As a result, it appears that most British students tend to “slack off” throughout the year compared to US students, but then face the additional stress of make-it or break-it final exams at the end of term. In the final years of your degree, you will be normally required to complete a major graduation project which will account for a significant percentage of your grade (in humanities subjects, that is replaced by a graduation thesis).

My opinion is probably biased, but I tend to think that undergraduate education in the UK is superior to that in the US as far as depth is concerned, mostly because, as I said, you study only one single subject in detail for the entire undergraduate course, instead of completing “general education” requirements. In graduate school, the reverse is true though. PhD programs in the US are far more intense than in Europe and the dissertations submitted by PhD candidates and their associated publications are on average of a much higher level.