I've posted a few replies, but here's my reply to the original post:

I'm an American myself; I live in southern Virginia. Hick country. Whoopdy-doo. As a region, I really don't like where I live. The southern Virginians here are mainly bigoted and very stereotypical. But I have visited other regions frequently and, as a country, I love living in America. Sure, I don't always agree with the government, but where does anyone? I, for the most part, agree with our views. I like the setup of government as opposed to a parliament or like. I like the people as a whole.

But I do dislike many aspects of America. I don't like our public school systems at all. Our class options are VERY limited, and the core curriculum classes move very, very slow. We don't learn enough about other cultures; we focus on our relatively short history. This is the average student in south-VA's social studies schedule: US History I, US History II, Civics, World History I, World Geography, World History II, US Government (Civics II, basically). The World History and Geography classes don't cover a minute fraction of the information we could gather about other countries. GR! In our English classes we don't learn about other English tendencies (such as "generalise" and "a pizza with toppings on"). I don't know if any country or school does this, but it is interesting.

People of America are overly proud of their country. We, as a group, just don't seem to realize that other countries can have different views, be good countries, and still have pride in our own country at the same time.

The government has problems, as any does.

Also, alas, it seems we don't get a lot of British humor. Or...at least, others don't. ;D

Oh yes, I forgot about the education system when I was listing my reasons why I wouldn't want to live in America. Which is funny, considering I wrote a forum thread just a couple of weeks ago about how poor the American education system seems, particularly in relation to teaching about other countries and cultures. I got mostly criticised for it though. So it's kind of nice to hear an American say it themselves and know I'm not being totally unfair in making such comments!

Definitely! A lot of the smarter kids in my year agree. I do like our college system more than many others, though.

That American sorority girl I lived with couldn't believe how easy our uni classes were, and how short our essays needed to be (she thought 4000 words was short!). She also mentioned how you still have to take like English and maths classes throughout uni even though you could be studying Drama. Is that true? That sucks so much if so.

From what I understand from the international students here that went to American schools is that in America 18-21 is similar to our A-levels, which is why they tend not to do one subject, it would also explain why they find it easier as I've found that uni work is easier than A-level, but its harder to get the higher grades in the exams as they are almost solely based on extra reading.

Not to mention, if they want to study something like law or medicine, they make them take a whole other degree FIRST! (Unlike here) But perhaps that would fit with what you are saying, about the university classes being more comparable with our high school classes.

At highschool 16-18 to they do the equivalent of GCSE's, which is why they do a lot of subjects, we start school earlier and we work a bit faster so we get qualifications earlier.

Basically, if you are getting a 4 year degree-you are required to have a certain amount of English, math, etc, along with the classes you take for your major-but it depends on the university what is required. Typically, the first two years are general classes, the last two years are the classes just in your major.

I went to a liberal arts university, and they purposefully made people take a lot of general classes, because that is part of their curriculum/emphasis.
People who went to other universities didn't have to take as much math as I did, for example.

That's completely different to here (and does sound rather like high school is here). Here you either take single or joint honours, so people generally don't take more than one or two subjects. I can't see if you spend half your time doing another subject, how an American degree could then be equivalent to a British degree where a person has spent a whole 3 (England, Wales) or 4 (Scotland) years studying just one subject, or two at the most.

I'll be honest, the differences are totally confusing to me :-S I think it doesn't help that college here is from age 18-21, and it just a completely different set up there as far as when people choose what they want to study.

In high school (ages 14-18, typically), everyone takes all the general subjects. We don't choose anything to specifically study during high school.
You can choose elective courses, or taking honors courses, or get credit towards college in what we call 'Advanced Placement' courses-but everyone is doing the basics + some electives.

While we are in university/college, we pick a major. However, usually in the first year of university or so, you still have some general courses that are required-like Composition. (English-writing papers). It's not studying one subject, though-it's studying several during that time. Like I said though, every university could have different requirements-I can't tell you specifically how long because it depends, but it could be the first year or up to two years. (my university is not a good example, we took extra general courses)
but once those hours are fulfilled, you do the courses for your major.

to be fair though, often students here graduate in 5 years, not four. so they spend 2-3 years on just their major, and a year or so on the general stuff.
And if they choose to be a 'double major' then they have the requirements of two majors to fulfill. it takes a lot of people longer now to finish.

as for the equivalence, that's hard to judge really-but we graduate based on the amount of 'credit hours' we did. most of my classes each counted as '3 hours'. I had to fulfill x amount of Psychology course hours in order to get my degree. (in addition to the amount of hours that were general courses. )

I think Transit must be right. It sounds very much as if your last couple of years of high school are more equivalent to what we do two years earlier, and that your first two years of university are more equivalent to our final two years of high school. So it makes sense that it takes people there longer to finish. I do wonder though, how students there manage to be two years behind us in terms of high school standards. Especially when you start at the same age (I think. In Scotland kids start school between the ages of 4 1/2 and 5 1/2, in England it's between 5 and 6).

Here (I'm speaking for Scotland, it's similar but very slightly different in England) we choose 8 subjects at the age of 14. They have to include English, and one foreign language (usually French or German), one 'art' (usually art or music) and one social subject (geography, history or modern studies). We sit exams in those 8 subjects when we're 16, and then we choose just 5 of them to continue. Then we sit exams in those 5 subjects when we're 17 and can either choose two or three of them to continue on in our final year of high school (at which point there's some overlap in content with 1st year university) or we can take a combination of advanced exams in those subjects and some totally new subjects (for example, in my final year I did a 'crash' year in biology, in addition to my continuing physics and chemistry).

Then in university it's just one or two subjects. Scottish university degrees take 4 years, but that is because the requirements to get in are usually met in our second to last year of high school, and our final year of high school is considered extra (or an opportunity to repeat the subject and make up the admission grades if not met initially). English degrees are mostly 3 years. The exceptions are things like medicine, vet med, dentistry (all 5 year undergraduate degrees) and architecture (7 years undergrad). Obviously they're taken alone, without any additional subjects.

Oh yes, that's another reason I'd rather live here! Because here I didn't have to waste 4 years (and lots of money) on a science degree, which I'd never use, before I could start med school!

yes well, isn't med school different there, anyway?
it seems odd to me that you have choose things so early. I see how it makes college more specific, but isn't that a bad thing if someone changed their mind and had to start over with a new subject?

Med school is 5 years here. Years 2 - 5 are probably pretty similar to the 4 year medical degree American doctors do. The difference is that we spend our first year doing basic science, so we don't have to do a whole science degree first. Nor is there an entrance exam (we apply based on our high school grades) like the MCAT. Again, from what I've read here, this makes sense, if British high school education goes to a higher level to start with (I can understand having to do a degree first if you haven't done the advanced biology and chemistry that we have to do in high school here).

I don't think the choosing thing is often a problem. I know of a few people who've changed their minds and started again, but it doesn't happen often, and a lot of people just use their degree to then go on and do a PhD or Masters anyway. Many degrees can be used for lots of different careers anyway. Unless it's something specific like medicine, and even then, I don't think spending 4 years doing a science degree gives you any idea of if you're going to enjoy medicine or not!

Yeah, high school here isn't going to prepare people enough to be able to deal with the difficult MCAT. So yes, in college they would learn advanced biology and chemistry-because in high school, they weren't able to focus on that because the took other sciences as well.

I don't think I explained properly. I don't think it would be possible to sit the MCAT out of high school here. But I think it would be possible to sit it after our 1st year of med school which is basic science. And I think the reason one year of science is sufficient here, rather than a whole degree is because we do more advanced sciences in high school (although most med school applicants will have taken three sciences in their final two years of high school, and just those three sciences alone in their final year).

From what Transit says, the exams you sit towards the end of high school, in terms of knowledge and difficulty are more equivalent to exams which we sit earlier in our high school education, and then the exams we sit in our final years of high school are more equivalent to the knowledge you're expected to have in your first year or two of university, which like you say, isn't surprising, because we've had more time to focus just on those subjects as we haven't had to take lots of other subjects as well.

How does Transit know anything about our exams? :-S I'm confused.

She said that "at 16-18 to they do the equivalent of GCSE's" but I don't know what she is talking about. We don't have a specific exam at 16 or 17 (States test students yearly, but that is for their own purposes, so we won't get into that :-P). We take different general subjects and electives every year for four years, and then we take exams at the end of high school to graduate (which I guess you could look at like the GCSEs...).
Separately, there are exams we take for university acceptance.

That might be true about the exams you have at the end of your high school, but we don't have any exams at that stage, so forgive me for getting confused on what you meant. We don't have all these stages of exams. :-P

I think she was referring to Americans who she's been to university with in the UK, but she'll be able to tell you better than me.

GCSEs are sat at 16 in England and Wales (it's standard grades in Scotland) - usually 8 subjects
AS levels are sat at 17 (higher grades in Scotland) - usually 3 or 4 subjects, 5 in Scotland (we're more well rounded than the English ;D)
A levels are sat at 18 (advanced higher grades in Scotland) - 3 subjects

They're all sat to national standards.

I THINK Transit's point was that because you take so many subjects, you only take any of them up to a knowledge which would be equivalent to GCSEs/standard grades. And beyond that, what we study in those subjects in high school would be what you would learn in university.

You don't sit any standardised exams until your final year of high school?

Ah, now I think this is why Ryan was asking about American students and grades-assessment is different here.

There are standardized tests yearly in high school, but they are assessments for the state and Federal government (under the No Child Left Behind Act, put in by Bush) These assessments hold schools accountable to the state and national standards. The state government a well as the federal government then can see schools are teaching what they are supposed to. (in theory )

We don't get our final grades on our high school courses through standardized tests-we're given grades for each individual course, by our teachers, who give us final exams in each subject. Those finals are curriculum based tests, created by our teachers.
For instance, when I took my 9th grade English course, I didn't take a national or state standardized test on English to pass. My teacher assessed us throughout the year, and at the end she gave us a final exam. It was specific to her class. When I passed her class, I could move on to English in 10th grade.

In order to graduate, we take an exam given to all students in our state. They have you begin to take it before your last year.

And I don't understand about the age thing- what do you mean, 2 years behind on high school standards?
Do you mean, that we do general subjects the first year of university?

I think kids here are possibly ahead from a much younger age though. I remember reading in one of Shannon's entries a while back that she was using British teaching materials for homeschooling her kids, and she was finding that although they were aimed at the same age group, the British materials were more advanced than what her kids had been doing when they were in a public American school.

Well, what I am saying is, I didn't understand what you were trying to say in the first place. :-P I didn't know what you meant that we were "behind"

Her materials could differ based on the curriculum they were using-and also by state. You have to remember that each of the 50 states has their own system of public school standards, so maybe the British curriculum she found was covering things her state didn't at the same grade level. That is possible.

Also, Public school curriculum here isn't the same as say, the Montessori model, or a homeschooling model, or a charter school model. They can all be different. Also, the public school model has sped up a LOT the last few years. When I was in kindergarten, a lot of my time was spent playing, for example-and that was in 1990. Now, kindergarten is far more academic, and play time is much more limited, depending on the school.

If you're curious, you can see what we do at each subject and grade in my state here, and you can see for yourself if we do things in my state in grades differently than what you remember.

Ah, yes, being a "rounded" student. For the dental hygienist degree I'm looking into (at this particular school), I have to have a very undesirable amount of English classes, and then the extra curricular classes like yoga and pilates (which I wouldn't complain about :P), speed walking, outdoor sports, drama/theatre, etc. I JUST WANT TO CLEAN TEETH, PEOPLE.

That's insane. I don't want a dental hygienist who's gained credits for dioing pilates! I want someone who knows what they're doing to my teeth! Thank goodness British universities are more sensible and realise that the purpose of a degree is to become knowledgable about one thing, not to become 'well rounded'!

Here at age 16 you need at least a C grade in English, science and maths to go to college/sixth form 16-18, where you study a minimum of three subjects, you then use these qualifications to enter if in england or wales, a three year degree, either single honours, I'm doing biology so I exclusively study biology, or double/joint honours, say biology and geography where the degree is either 50/50 or 40/60 which means double the amount of time at uni, say if one subject is a 12 hour week, a two subject degree is 24.

16-18 quals go to uni, forgot to put the actual institute!