Questions about US colleges

International Students
1

<p>I’m currently looking at different universites in the US for an exchange studies trough my university. I’m mostly looking for courses that can match the courses I would take back at my home university. The problem that I’ve discovered is that universites seem to have a really hard time giving a good OVERVIEW of thier courses at thier homepage. For example when they start, when you will take the exam, a detailed description of the course (longer than two sentences…), prerequired courses etc…</p>

<p>Instead of mailing every university that I’m interested in, as a first thing to do, I decided to try to get some knowledge about the US course system here instead.</p>

<p>I’ve understood that universites often have different credit systems depending on if they have quarters or semesters. But one thing that I really wounder is if all the courses in the fall begin at the same time? And have exams at the same time too. Back at my university we take 30 credits every “half year” (we have fall and spring). Its often 4 courses that are 7.5 credits each and we take 2 of them at the same time. So in the begining of the fall season we start with 2 courses, have exams in the middle of the fall and then start with the other 2 courses that we examine one week before christmas. We call them period 1 to 4 (for a whole year). Mostly we take two courses in period 1 (1sept-30oct) and two courses in period 2 (1nov-15dec) and then the same thing during spring. I hope you guys understand!</p>

<p>I’ve seen in the US several of the courses are like 3-4 credits, so I’d have to take like 8 of them during fall (not really sure about the credit conversion) to take same amout of credits back home. And if all of the 8 courses start at the same time it would be really sick since I normally take 2 back home. Do they all start at the same time? Why is it so damn hard to find when they start?</p>

<p>Some of the universites I’m looking at are: University of Washington, University of Colorado at Boulder, Georgia Institute of Technology.</p>

<p>I can start with this question and I might follow with more if I get some good answers :)</p>

2

<p>Most courses in a term start in the same week. The evaluation procedures are up to each professor. Most universities have an exam period at the end of each term, but professors may choose to give additional exams during the semester or substitute other assignments for exams. You can find an academic calendar on the registrar’s website and course descriptions in the college catalog or the website of the department of your interest. You probably won’t find course descriptions more elaborate than a few sentences because it is up to each instructor to design the courses they are teaching. You will get a syllabus with a more detailed description on the first day of classes, but not a year ahead of time.</p>

<p>On a semester system, 15-16 credits per term is considered a regular full-time course load.</p>

3

<p>Just to clarify - if you are on the ECTS system (which I assume you are), a full semester is the equivalent of around 15 credit hours, or 4 credits. Essentially you take 4-5 classes which last the duration of the semester.</p>