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Gain insights into the United States higher education framework, academic culture, teaching methods, and grading system to prepare for your studies.
Associate's degree
An undergraduate degree, often from a two-year college.
Four years
An undergraduate degree. US schools for master's and PhD study compare foreign degrees to the US four-year bachelor's.
Master's degree
A graduate degree after a bachelor's.
Doctorate (PhD)
The highest graduate degree, focused on research.
US universities offer bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees. A semester is half a school year. In each semester, students take a set number of credit hours (units of class time).
The main kinds of degrees and schools.
Offer bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees.
•The US government must approve the school before it can take students from other countries
Offer associate's degrees, often a step to a four-year degree.
Offer English training courses.
Undergraduate degree.
Graduate degree after a bachelor's.
Research degree.
US universities use a grade point average (GPA, your marks average), usually out of 4.0.
GPA is your average mark, usually on a 4.0 scale. UT Dallas expects 3.0 out of 4.0 or better for a master's. Purdue computer science also looks at marks out of 10 and out of 100.
Most universities use two semesters a year, plus summer sessions.
11 January to 30 April 2027
19 August to 3 December 2027
Dates can change without notice.
In the US, groups outside the government and government offices together check that colleges are good enough. This check is called accreditation.
Use these two pages to check a school before you apply.
A US government website to find schools approved to take students from other countries.
How accreditation works, and which groups the government recognises to check schools.
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