UK School vs Generic USA School ... (...Re: Question for British ...)

[Carol]

bboyminn wrote:
<snip>
> A parallel path to that would be either a state four year college or
university, with state colleges being more minor institutions of
higher learning and therefore cheaper, and state university meaning
THE State University, which is a larger, more prominent, prestigious,
and expensive school, or a private college or university. Private
colleges and universities are usually considered the best and the most
expensive. <snip>

Carol responds:
I don't know about other states, but Arizona has three state
universities (Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and
Northern Arizona University) and New Mexico has two (New Mexico State
University and the University of New Mexico). Although only one
university in each state has the word "state" in its title, all are
owned and controlled by the state, AFAIK. At any rate, they're not
privately owned. I don't know about tuition costs, but there's no
difference in prestige among those various universities. However,
they're nowhere near as prestigious as some of the California
universities, which have, among other things, stiffer language
requirements for graduate school, which means that I couldn't even
apply, having taken only Latin in high school, or the Ivy League
colleges Back East.

Steve:
> Now days modern USA high schools have AP or Advanced Placement
classes where high school level students can go to the local college
as part of their high school education. The college classes they take
count both toward a college degree and toward their high school
diploma. One advantage to the students is that the State pays for
those college classes. Many students are able to make substantial
in-roads toward their college degree while still in high school. <snip>

Carol responds:
The only AP classes I'm familiar with (and things may have changed
since I stopped teaching freshman composition in 1998) are the AP
English classes, which do not substitute for freshman composition
although many students who took AP English end up in English 103,
which is the Honors equivalent of English 101. I don't know whether
they're taught on college campuses in some school districts; in my
experience, they're not. And, unfortunately, many AP English teachers
teach kids the five-paragraph theme under the delusion that they'll
write those abominable excuses for essays in college. They're doing
the students a great disservice considering that the five-paragraph
theme is a formula that limits thinking and doesn't fit most topics or
types of papers, such as a documented research paper or documented
argument (a paper taking a stand on a controversial issue, with
arguments supported by research and cited sources).

Kids who take AP classes these days (I'm basing my conclusions on my
niece, who was the valedictorian of her high school class) have (IMO)
and inflated grade average because instead of an A being 5.0 instead
of 4.0. So a kid who gets straight A's but doesn't take AP classes
will have a 4.0 average and a kid who gets straight A's taking AP
classes will have a 5.0. I don't know how the universities deal with
that in their admission requirements. It seems unfair to me,
especially given that students who took AP English had, in my
experience, an inflated notion of their own writing abilities.
Learning that five-paragraph themes were not acceptable took the wind
out of their sails.

In my day, long before AP classes existed, we had the option of
graduating half a year early and attending classes at Northern Arizona
University. I forget whether they were free or cost money. I decided,
along with most of my friends, to remain in high school, which was
familiar and free. I wanted to be as prepared as possible for college,
mentally and emotionally, and I knew that once I left high school,
there was no going back. It was the right decision for me at that
time. Nowadays, who knows? I'm glad I'm not a kid--or the parent of a
teenager facing today's tuition costs combined with inflation and what
looks like a recession.

Carol, sorry to sound like a female curmudgeon but thinking that some
things were better in the old days