U.S. colleges + ...

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

hiphop

Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Joined
Apr 2, 2001
Messages
7,410
Location
in the jungle
Until now I thought U.S. colleges are summa summarum better than European universities. After all they?re more expensive, and I thought that the U.S. high school system doesn?t offer as much compared to the European, but that the colleges are better.

Now, I recently heard from a friend that there are big differences. I heard that there are a handful of very good colleges, like Berkeley etc., but that most of the colleges aren?t that great.

Therefore American businesses appreciate the quality of education of Europeans with a university degree. I was told that the handful of top U.S. colleges range above all, for sure, but that maybe an American businessman would prefer someone (with an equivalent to Masters degree) from Europe to an American who has studied at a not-so-top U.S. university.

Plus I was told that in the U.S. it is possible you just meet someone in a cafe, who might be impressed, simply by talking, and offers you a job. That?s not possible in Europe, under normal circumstances - you either have to "know" someone, or to lick ass for about three years, before to get any chance for a great job.

Sure enough there are exceptions. But actually, that sounds quite interesting.

Is that true, in general? What do you think? Have you noticed any of the above? Share your experiences.
 
Last edited:
Just a friend who managed to get a good job in the U.S., he said that in America, there are more possibilities. And I?m talking about a job in the entertainment industry, or teaching in a university, or plain marketing, or in communications.

Sorry if this might seem offending. Don?t be so reluctant. Its just a question.

How is the way of life in America? How do you deal with interviews? How do you get people to hire you? Is it "common" to play more easy, like to say "hey, gimme that chance", in a way, or to play it all serious, like "dear sir"?
 
Last edited:
I spent a year in the US as an exchange student so I can sort of compare the US educational system to the one in my country. I think it's probably true to say there are some great US colleges and some very poor ones, but that's also true of most countries. Perhaps there is more variation in the quality of education at US colleges but just because there are more of them because it is such a large country.

However, I think the entry requirements for US colleges are lower than those in the UK. Partly because US high school curriculum is a lot broader than the UK - in my time in the US I studied seven different classes each semester, including some less "academic" subjects such as personal finance and health education. Students of the same age in the UK would study just three (sometimes four) subjects for their last two years of school, which means they get a far more in depth education in those subjects. I think US students graduate from high school with a much broader education, but with far less knowledge in any individual subject.

And of course that must affect college education. Here in the UK degrees like medicine and law are taught at undergraduate level because students can learn the pre-requisite subjects in depth at school. However in the US they're graduate degrees because students need to learn that knowledge in college rather than school.

I think I'm just rambling now...
 
What Fizz said.

As far as jobs go, it totally depends on the type of job, I guess. It can be as random as talking to a stranger to as formal as having an agency look for jobs for you and interviewing all over the place.
 
whenhiphopdrovethebigcars said:

Sorry if this might seem offending. Don?t be so reluctant. Its just a question.


I'm sorry I sounded so bitchy, hiphop. Yesterday was a very rough workday. I apologize. I feel better today.


I think Fizzy's answer is well thought out and quite interesting.
 
Thank you Fizz, Sula, martha.

Dear reader, could you take the time and write a few lines?
 
writer,

a question for you that i cannot resist...why do you want to know about american jobs? are you thinking of relocating to the states? do tell.

reader.
 
I?m not thinking of relocating right now. I don?t have any time now, its not concrete. It is one of the many possibilities in the future, though. Pure career option.
 
MIT is one of the top universities too, as far as I know.

Why would they have a laugh?
 
No, Miss Velvet Dress, I won?t let you go that easy. I want your opinion! Please enlighten me with some more qualified research :yes:

So Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, Yale.
Are Duke and Johns Hopkins still amongst the top?

And what about other colleges? + job opportunities?

And another question: do you absolutely need 2 yrs of driving experience to get a fine job in the U.S.? If you need a driving license, can you make it in the States too, or would it look kinda strange if you don?t have any once you?re applying for a job? Or would you say this is not a major point for hiring?
 
Still, my most important question is: would you think a European degree equivalent to a Masters degree is of any value in the States?
 
All I know is that it seems much easier to get accepted to postgraduate programs in the UK than in the US. Then again, I didn't apply to any US schools, I can't say that for certain.
 
Yep, I?d be thinking of the diplomatic academy here for post graduate, but I doubt I can afford that.
 
;) all of those schools are very prestigious. however i have a close friend who is Chem Engineer graduate from MIT and was working for Enron, and since that whole disaster of being laid off last Winter he has not been able to find a job. he decided recently to enlist in the US Marines.

i know many of my brother's friends who are going back to grad school for Law Degree's and Masters. the job market is tough here right now, but again it is all relative to what you are interested in pursuing. a masters degree may help but it does not guarantee you a job. i have a friend who is from another country, carrying 2 college degrees from the states and speaks spanish and cannot find a job at all. she has been looking for a job since last Summer. :shrug: work experience is really important in addition to a degree and in some cases is more important than having the degree itself.
 
I'm actually pretty clueless on this situation. Probably the same thing is true about colleges all over the globe, and that's that some of them are better than others. I'll know more in two years when my Italian niece starts to university, presumably in Rome (but she's talking about going to school in NYC--interesting). She currently has dual citizenship but is going to have to pick between Italian and U.S. citizenship when she turns 18.
 
I think the whole thing about a $100,000 education being better that a $10,000 education is basically bullshit. And I mean that in a friendly way. Seriously. Sure, if you want to work for JPL, you might need a prestige degree from a fancy school, but for the most part if you've gotten a decent education, and you're not an idiot, and there is a job even available, it doesn't matter where you went to school.

I think this friend of yours may have a had some limited experience with what he's talking about. I think if you know your subject, want the job, present yourself well, and take a shower, you should be alright.

Speaking excellent English won't hurt if you're coming to the States to work. The driving thing depends on where you are here. I suppose in NYC, you may not need to know how to drive, but in most of the rest of the country, it can be very limiting if you can't drive. I don't think anybody gives a damn how long you've been driving, unless you're applying for a truck driving job. Then the fancy education is pointless.


All this rambling aside, I'd give my left kidney to get a degree in Asian Studies from Berkeley.
 
whenhiphopdrovethebigcars said:

Now, I recently heard from a friend that there are big differences. I heard that there are a handful of very good colleges, like Berkeley etc., but that most of the colleges aren?t that great.

I'm coming off all bitchy again, but this buddy of yours is a snob, and it's kind of pissing me off.
 
:lol: martha thanks for the info :up:

mvd75, verte76, thank you too.

I want some opinions of melon, STING2 and nbcrusader - and I want your opinion too, estimated reader.
 
martha said:
I think the whole thing about a $100,000 education being better that a $10,000 education is basically bullshit. And I mean that in a friendly way.

:yes:

I know people who went to state schools who are much smarter and better educated than people who went to ivy league schools. Someone who went to Harvard Law once told me that they purposefully made the classes easier than most schools so that the grades would look better. :huh:
 
martha said:
I think the whole thing about a $100,000 education being better that a $10,000 education is basically bullshit.
:yes: most places only care if you have a degree. hell, due to the sue happy people in america nowadays and people suing for any reason, most places don't even ask for specifics when it comes to your education. they just ask yes or no questions for if you've graduated high school, college, etc. only if they're really interested they may ask for specifics just so they can verify. any info they DO ask of you now they have to tell you why they need it and what they plan to do with it. i applied for some stupid job (i mean, nothing prestigious at all, i think it was for a hotel) and they even told me what questions they would be asking my previous employers!

i mean yeah, graduating from harvard does sound better than graduating from some local state school, but for the most part, unless you're applying for some ultra elite job, they don't care where you got your degree, just as long as you have one and it's from an accredited university (and not one of those you get spam from where you can magically get a bachelor's degree in five minutes).
 
I agree with Martha except for the part about the Asian Studies degree from Berkeley. And I think your friend's observation is flawed to the point of being fraud.

Maybe not that bad, but it rhymed and I had to post it.

~U2Alabama
 
U2Bama said:
Maybe not that bad, but it rhymed and I had to post it.
Nipsey.jpg
 
Thanks a lot for your opinions, Khananda Rhodes and U2Bama. (Khananda: I want the "ultra elite" job - what didya think :D?).
 
all i know, is that Seton Hall and Princeton are evil, St. John's too, oh, and Syracuse, UConn, Villanova, Notre Dame, Boston College and Penn State, among others...

:down:
 
Back
Top Bottom