Me again

[cleflink]

American peoples! I need your help!

How long is the average bachelor's degree in America? And would someone in marketing/business need a graduate degree as well? If yes, how long would that be?

I'm trying to figure out how much one's education would cost at an Ivy League school or equivalent.

Thanks!

Comments

[laurathelurker.livejournal.com]

Yeah if it was the late 90s an MBA would not be as needed because the job market was better. Like snickfic said they may have gone back after they got a job and had tuition reimbursement to further their career but might not have found it needed before. And yes tuitions are way out pacing rate of inflation and is becoming a big problem in the US.

[cleflink.livejournal.com]

Seriously, my undergrad cost me 20k. Which, granted, is lower than it would have been at some other schools, but my university has a good reputation and this number was pretty competitive at the time. Even now, we're not suffering the same kind of inflation as you seem to be.

Ah, education. *heavy sigh*

[sophie84.livejournal.com]

Ivies cost $30K-$40K/year about a decade ago (when I got out of school)... it's shot up again since then. Usually, once alumnus are out in the world and earning lots of money, they gift money to the college to aid future students. The ivies grant students money (assuming the student applied for a grant) based on family income. Then, in addition to grants, there are subsidized loans (subsidized by the federal government) with low interest rates (2.5%, but the law just changed so it's higher now). Then you can get unsubsidized loans with higher interest rates. If you didn't get the grants and scholarships, you can come out of college owing a LOT of money. But usually if an ivy college wants a particular applicant (you need excellent high school grades, great SAT scores, a good application essay, evidence of community involvement, diversity, etc to be desirable), they make sure that that applicant can afford to come. I ended up paying something like 6K/year, and built up about 20K in loans (mostly subsidized) over four years. I got my masters at a state university which never offered me the possibility of applying for a grant or a subsidized loan, so that required about 6K of unsubsidized loans/year.

I saw mention of college vs university in the conversation above. A college usually gives a degree in specific fields... a university is a collection of colleges. So, if you were to get an MBA, you would be getting it from the business college of a particular university. There are stand-alone colleges... most common are stand-alone are the liberal arts colleges and the technical colleges. So, all universities contain colleges, but not all colleges are part of a university. That's probably why we say you're getting a "college education" or you're "going to college." But you will be understood if you use "university" in the expressions instead, since the distinction isn't terribly important unless you are using the actual name of the school.

[cleflink.livejournal.com]

*nods* I've noticed that there seems to be a lot more funding available for students going to American schools than Canadian. Of course, it's the top students and the athletes who are going to get it, but I can see how that would make it possible to afford a top tier school. The numbers you're talking about after your scholarships are about standard for an undergraduate student without funding in Ontario (plus housing and books and stuff).

Colleges here are generally for trades and non-academic fields, if that's the right way to phrase that. So, my sister got her fine arts diploma from a college and I have a PR diploma from a college, but my Classical History degree comes from a university.

Thank you for the information! It is very helpful and so much more accurate than anything I could have researched by myself, I think! ^_^

[sophie84.livejournal.com]

I thought it was funny that my bachelors degree at the fancy/expensive school cost only a little more than my masters at the local public school. Except that I got worse loans at the latter. Ah, well.

Huh... I think I'd heard mention of the academic/non-academic studies difference between university and college before, but it hadn't quite registered. Interesting. Though I think that might have been in reference to England...

I was showing my Chinese foreign exchange student (I host foreign college students periodically) around the local university campus a week ago. She was shocked the school wasn't surrounded by a wall... She keeps telling me how amazing it is that anyone can wander through the campus.

[cleflink.livejournal.com]

She was shocked the school wasn't surrounded by a wall... She keeps telling me how amazing it is that anyone can wander through the campus.

It's so interesting to see the cultural differences that happen in places where you wouldn't think to look for them. My university campus was contained (not inside a wall, mind, but as a unique location that no one needed to enter unless they were going to the university) so I always find it really jarring to go to a university campus that is integrated into the city, with street lights and business people/etc. traveling through it to get to other places.

In related news, I've come to the conclusion that a university campus is the best place to hide out after you've committed a crime because everyone can look like they belong at a university. :)