Higher education in the United States is an optional stage of formal learning following secondary education. Higher education, also referred to as post-secondary education, third-stage, third-level, or tertiary education occurs most commonly at one of the 3,899 Title IV degree-granting institutions in the country. These may be public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, or for-profit colleges. Learning environments vary greatly depending on not only the type of institution, but also the different goals implemented by the relevant county and state.
U.S. higher education is loosely regulated by the government and several third-party organizations. Persistent social problems such as discrimination and poverty, which stem from the history of the U.S., have significantly impacted trends in American higher education over several decades. Both de facto and de jure discrimination have impacted communities' access to higher education based on race, class, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, and other factors. Access to higher education has been characterized by some as a rite of passage and the key to the American Dream.
Higher education presents a wide range of issues for government officials, educational staff, and students. Financial difficulties in continuing and expanding access as well as affirmative action programs have been the subject of growing debate.
Educational pipeline U.S. college students come from three major sources: the U.S. K-12 pipeline, adult or non-traditional students, and international students. Projections about future enrollment patterns are based on demographic projections about these groups.
K–12 education As of 2022, the U.S. ranks second to last among OECD nations in terms of both poverty gap and poverty rate. Jonathan Kozol has described these inequalities in K-12 education in Savage Inequalities and The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.
In a 1998 Brookings Institution paper "Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education," Linda Darling-Hammond stated that "educational outcomes for minority children are much more a function of their unequal access to key educational resources, including skilled teachers and quality curriculum, than they are a function of race." In 2016, the American Psychological Society added that racial bias by teachers and administrators is also a factor in student outcomes. This affects how teachers teach and administrators discipline students. Sociologists have studied disciplining practices in U.S. schools and disparities between racial groups as part of the school-to-prison pipeline.
More than half of U.S. students go to "racially concentrated" schools. Twenty percent of U.S. students are enrolled in districts that are poor and nonwhite, but only 5 percent live in poor white districts. The number of school districts in the United States has been increasing, reflecting a growing race and social class divide. source=twitter&via=desktop
About a half a million high schools students are not prepared for college when they enroll and require remedial education.
Adult or nontraditional students Adult or nontraditional students are those that do not matriculate immediately after high school graduation. This includes military veterans that use the GI Bill. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) defines nontraditional students as anyone who satisfies at least one of the following: Delays enrollment (does not enter postsecondary education in the same calendar year as finishing high school) Attends part-time for at least part of the academic year Works full-time (35 hours or more per week) while enrolled Is considered financially independent for purposes of determining eligibility for financial aid Has dependents other than a spouse (usually children, but may also be caregivers of sick or elderly family members) Is a single parent (either not married or married but separated and has dependents) Does not have a high school diploma (completed high school with a GED or other high school completion certificate or did not finish high school)
International students International students have been a growing part of U.S. higher education. However, competition from other countries, changing immigration policies, and tensions between faculty and students have reduced the appeal for studying in the U.S.
Choosing a college or university Those who attend U.S. colleges and universities choose particular institutions based on several factors, including price, prestige and selectivity of the school, course offerings and college majors, location, campus culture, and job opportunities following graduation.
High school students aspiring to be selected to the best colleges start the college-choice process earlier and make decisions earlier. Financial aid is an important factor in students' college choice process. Rising college prices and the increased need to rely on loans constrain the college choice process for low-income students.
Latinos are more likely than white or African-American students to begin postsecondary study at community colleges than at four-year institutions. As a result of these decisions, Latinos are "converting existing colleges and institutions into HSIs (Historically Serving Institutions)."
African-Americans have chosen historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) because of geography, religion, the college's academic reputation, and relatives' desires. The top three reasons for choosing predominantly white institutions has been athletic recruitment, proximity, and the college's academic reputation.
College preparedness and remediation According to the Hechinger Report, public colleges report enrolling more than half a million of students who are unprepared for college. Most schools place students in remedial math or English courses before they can take a full load of college-level, credit-bearing courses. This remediation costs an estimated $7 billion a year.
Rankings of tertiary institutions Universitas 21 ranked the country as having the best higher education system in the world in 2012. Cost was not considered in the rankings. Numerous organizations produce rankings of universities in the United States each year. A 2010 University of Michigan study has confirmed that the rankings in the United States have significantly affected colleges' applications and admissions.Bowman, Nicholas and Michael Bastedo, personal.umich.edu "Getting on the Front Page: Organizational Reputation, Status Signals, and the Impact of U.S. News & World Report Rankings on Student Decisions" Retrieved June 29, 2010 Referred to as the "granddaddy of the college rankings", America's best-known American college and university rankings have been compiled since 1983 by U.S. News & World Report and are widely regarded as the most influential of all college rankings. However, the top schools on the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Ranking tend to be prestigious research universities whose undergraduates have been shown to underperform the undergraduates of small liberal arts colleges on the Medical College Admission Test, as well as fewer going on to receive PhDs.
Criticism of college and university rankings
On June 19, 2007, during the annual meeting of the Annapolis Group, members discussed the letter to college presidents asking them not to participate in the "reputation survey" section of the U.S. News & World Report survey (this section comprises 25 percent of the ranking). As a result, "a majority of the approximately 80 presidents at the meeting said that they did not intend to participate in the U.S. News reputational rankings in the future." However, the decision to fill out the reputational survey or not will be left up to each individual college as: "the Annapolis Group is not a legislative body and any decision about participating in the US News rankings rests with the individual institutions." The statement also said that its members "have agreed to participate in the development of an alternative common format that presents information about their colleges for students and their families to use in the college search process." This database will be web-based and developed in conjunction with higher education organizations including the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Council of Independent Colleges.
On June 22, 2007, U.S. News & World Report editor Robert Morse issued a response in which he argued, "in terms of the peer assessment survey, we at U.S. News firmly believe the survey has significant value because it allows us to measure the "intangibles" of a college that we can't measure through statistical data. Plus, the reputation of a school can help get that all-important first job and plays a key part in which grad school someone will be able to get into. The peer survey is by nature subjective, but the technique of asking industry leaders to rate their competitors is a commonly accepted practice. The results from the peer survey also can act to level the playing field between private and public colleges." In reference to the alternative database discussed by the Annapolis Group, Morse also argued, "It's important to point out that the Annapolis Group's stated goal of presenting college data in a common format has been tried before [...] U.S. News has been supplying this exact college information for many years already. And it appears that NAICU will be doing it with significantly less comparability and functionality. U.S. News first collects all these data (using an agreed-upon set of definitions from the Common Data Set). Then we post the data on our website in easily accessible, comparable tables. In other words, the Annapolis Group and the others in the NAICU initiative actually are following the lead of U.S. News."
Cost and financing issues and financial value of degrees
Higher education plays a vital part of the American Dream for many students. Going to college and earning a degree has been vouched as an investment that leads to a career or position that will allow a college graduate to be compensated with a higher wage compared to the wage of someone without a degree. However, many acquire student loan debts whether you graduate or not if you don't have a full ride to attend at little or no cost. According to the Center for American Progress (CAP), there are many factors that contribute to the rise in the student loan crisis, but borrower find that repaying their loans whether federal or private can be challenging.
Statistics
In 2019, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published research (using data from the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances) demonstrating that large and increasing income and wealth premiums for families with heads of household with post-secondary education as compared to those without in aggregate data are misleading. After controlling for race and age cohort, the income premium for families with heads of household with post-secondary education has remained positive but has declined to historic lows for families with heads of household born since 1980 (with more pronounced downward trajectories with heads of household with post-graduate degrees), while wealth premiums for the 1980s cohort has weakened to the point of statistical insignificance (in part because of the rising cost of college). Research from the center-left think tank Third Way claims that, in 2018, more than half of institutions left the majority of their students earning less than $28,000—the typical salary of a high school graduate.