students have to choose from. The electives high schools offer often depend on the financial status of the school and the state the school is situated in. High schools usually mandate their students to earn some credits for electives as well in order for them to graduate, the most common being physical education and foreign languages.
Students can earn a tertiary degree by attending school after their secondary education. Post-secondary education, known as college or university in the United States, commonly exists of a 4-year program. The four years, just like in high school, are referred to as freshman (1), sophomore (2), junior (3) and senior (4) years. Alternatively, you can just call them first year, second year and so on. Colleges and universities are very competitive and students’ admission depends on their GPA, courses taken in high school and class ranking. Students who attain admission in a college program engage in an undergraduate study. Undergraduate study earns students a bachelor’s degree in their field of interest/study, referred to as a major. After the 3-year undergraduate schooling, professional degrees like dentistry, medicine and law are offered. The professional degree that is offered depends on the bachelor’s degree students have. Students can also choose to attend a community college which gives them an associate’s degree after two years. After this, students can continue their education at a college or university where they can earn a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree. Community college can only give out associate’s degrees. A master’s degree, which is a more advanced degree, can be earned after a bachelor’s degree. Even higher is a doctoral degree, which can be earned after having earned a master’s degree together with years of work in the field of study. Besides the continuing education, students usually enroll in a higher education school (college/university) at the age of 18 and graduate at the age of 22. A difference between the United States and The Netherlands is that in the United States, there are core courses even in college. These courses vary, depending on the college. An example would be Boston College where it is mandatory to, for instance, take one course in Arts (Fine Arts, Music or Theater). Another example would be Baruch College where students are required to take English Writing 1 and English Writing 2