Admission to a college/ university
University admission or college admission is the process through which students enter universities and colleges. Systems vary widely from country to country, and sometimes from institution to institution.
In many countries, prospective graduates from school and colleges apply for admission during their last year of high school or community college. In some countries, there are independent organizations or government agencies to centralize the administration of standardized admission exams and the processing of applications.
The United Kingdom has a centralised system of admissions to higher education at undergraduate level which is managed by UCAS - the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
In general, students are not admitted to universities and colleges as a whole, but to particular courses of study.
In the United States of America, high school students apply to four-year colleges and universities. Students may apply to many institutions using the Common Application. There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a student may apply, though an application must be submitted for each. Fees are generally charged for each admissions application, but can be waived based on financial need.
Students apply to one or more colleges or universities by submitting an application which each college evaluates using its own criteria. The majority of colleges admit students to the college as a whole, and not to a particular academic major. The system is decentralized: each college has its own criteria for admission, even when using a common application form (the most widely used is The Common Application). Common criteria include ACT (an abbreviation of American College Testing) or SAT (a standardized test for college admissions in the United States) scores, extracurricular activities, Grade Point Average, and a general college admissions essay.
3. Tuition fee
Tuition fees were first introduced across the entire United Kingdom in September 1998 as a means of funding tuition to undergraduate and postgraduate certificate students at universities, with students being required to pay up to £1,000 a year for tuition. In 2010 the government won a vote in the House of Commons which would result in universities eventually being able to charge students up to £9,000 a year for the annual tuition costs.
Full-time students starting a course from 1 September 2012 can apply for loans to help with their tuition fees and living costs. Part-time students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan for the first time from 2012/13.
Maximum Tuition Fee Loans
New full-time students £9,000
New part-time students £6,750
The tuition fee in the USA is different for different universities and varies widely with courses. It can vary from as low as $ 10000 a year for state universities to as much as $ 35000 per annum for some private universities.
Accommodation
Most colleges and universities provide single or multiple occupancy rooms for their students, usually at a cost. These buildings consist of many such rooms, like an apartment building, and the number of rooms varies quite widely from just a few to hundreds. The largest dormitory building is Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy.
Many colleges and universities no longer use the word "dormitory" and staff are now using the term residence hall (analogous to the United Kingdom "hall of residence") or simply "hall" instead.
College and university residential rooms vary in size, shape, facilities and number of occupants. Typically, a United States residence hall room holds two students with no toilet. This is usually referred to as a "double". Often, residence halls have communal bathroom facilities.
In the United States, residence halls are sometimes segregated by sex, with men living in one group of rooms, and women in another. Some dormitory complexes are single-sex with varying limits on visits by persons of each sex.
Most residence halls are much closer to campus than comparable private housing such as apartment buildings. This convenience is a major factor in the choice of where to live since living physically closer to classrooms is often preferred, particularly for first-year students who may not be permitted to park vehicles on campus. Universities may therefore provide priority to first-year students when allocating this accommodation.
In UK universities these buildings are usually called "halls of residence" (commonly referred to as "halls"), except at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, St Andrews, York, Lancaster and Kent where the residential accommodation is incorporated in each college's complex of buildings, and simply known as "rooms".
The majority of bedrooms in UK halls are now single occupancy - offering the first chance at privacy for some young people who shared bedrooms with siblings at home. Kitchen facilities are usually shared, as are bathrooms in some halls, though more expensive en suite rooms are available in some universities.