PART II

UNIT I

HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE US

THEMATIC VOCABULARY

1. Going to college: university, college, junior college/commu-

nity college, professional school, graduate school, institute, academy;
Ivy League; to choose/select a college (public or private); to find out
about the university ranking, admissions requirements, financial as-
sistance available; applicant; to apply for admission, to apply to be-
tween three to six colleges in the last year of high school; application
including a transcript with the list of all the courses taken and all the
grades received in high school; SAT (=Scholastic Aptitude Test), to
take Preliminary SAT, ACT (=the American College Test), Achieve-
ment tests (=special tests in a subject), TOEFL (=the Test of English
as a Foreign Language); standardized test scores; GPA (=Grade Point
Average), a general assessment of the applicant’s character.
2. Financing higher education: public/private colleges and uni-
versities, Endowment, to charge tuition (fees), full-time, part-time
fees, housing fees, to apply for financial assistance, to award financial
assistance as part of a package; grants, scholarships, loans, part-time
jobs on campus; to win/get a grant, scholarship; to pay extra for room
and board; to work full-time in the vacations.
3. People at university or college: Board of Trustees; University
President, Academic vice-president, dean, assistant dean; faculty;
counselor, professor, full professor, associate professor, assistant pro-
fessor, instructor; TA (teaching assistant); student body; freshman,
sophomore, junior; undergraduate (student), graduate student (grad);
history/biology/psychology major; part-time/full-time student,
transfer student, night student, A-student; campus; fraternity; soror-
ity; alumnus (pl. alumni).
4. Studying for a degree: curriculum; syllabus; course; subject;
lecture; seminar; to study for a bachelor degree; to select/add/drop
a course; to flunk a course; to attend/skip classes; to major in a subject;
to study concurrently four or five subjects; to attend lectures and
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seminars; to complete 10 courses per an academic year; to award/to
earn credits, a credit (=one hour of class per week); a three-credit
course; to accumulate credits; to transfer credits from one university
to another; a pass-fail course; to play truant; to be expelled for taking
drugs/for making racist remarks; to be suspended for cheating in the
exam; academic dishonesty such as copying from another student
during the test / the use of covert notes or crib sheets; internet pla-
giarism; to use web-sites with ready-made essays; contract cheating;
fall/spring term or semester.
5. Exams: examiner, examinee, candidate (Br); to prepare/revise/
study/cram/swot up for an exam; to take/do an exam; to do well/badly
in an exam, to pass/scrape through/fail an exam; to retake an exam; to
meet/miss the deadline; to assess a student’s progress; to get very good/
poor grades in the exam, grades: A,B,C,D – E,F (=failure), to improve
their grades; final examination; to graduate from a university.
6. Graduation: graduation ceremony; to wear a gown and mortar-
board; to obtain/get a degree; associate degree (=after two years of
study at a community college), Associate of Arts (A.A.); bachelor’s
degree (=a first university degree), Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Science
(B.S.), Education (B.Ed.), Master’s degree (=a postgraduate degree),
Master of Arts (M.A.) etc.; Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) (=the high-
est university degree); to receive congratulations and handshakes.

Institutions of higher education in the US

College admissions for undergraduate study in the United States

usually take place during the senior year of high school (usually
around the ages of 17 or 18). While dates and deadlines vary, the
entire application process usually begins in the autumn and concludes
in the spring of the last year of high school.
Students must apply separately to each school they wish to attend.
Colleges and universities usually have their own application forms.
There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a
student may apply, unless the student is applying under early decision
programs or some early action programs. The majority of under-
graduate colleges and universities admit students to an entire college,
and not to a particular department or major, unlike the practice in
many European countries and graduate admissions. (However, there
are some programs, such as architecture or engineering, which are
often admitted due to curriculum demands.) Decision letters (except

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in early action and early decision) are usually mailed to applicants in
the spring. Students may be accepted to the institution, rejected
outright, or wait-listed. Wait-listed students may be later admitted
if another student who was admitted decides not to attend the college
or university.
Admitted students may also be awarded financial aid. There are
two kinds of financial aid: need-based aid, awarded entirely on the
financial specifics of the student’s family, and merit-based aid, given
to students judged to show exceptional academic promise.
Depending on the size and values of the school, admissions criteria
can vary from being almost entirely formulaic to involving significant
subjective judgment regarding the student’s “fit” for the institution.
Criteria include standardized test scores (generally ACT and/or SAT),
class rank, grades (as shown in the high school transcript), degree of
extracurricular involvement, and leadership potential. Many col-
leges also rely on personal essay(s) written by the applicant and let-
ters of recommendation written by the applicant’s teachers and
guidance counselor. Institutions place different weight on these cri-
teria: for example, some schools do not require or even accept the
SATs for admission.
Although most educational institutions in the U.S. are nonprofit,
some are for-profit. Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms
of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or
technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts cur-
riculum. Many combine some or all of the above.
Two-year colleges offer the Associates degree (A.A.) and four-year
colleges offer Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Sciences (B.S.)
degrees. These are primarily undergraduate institutions, although some
might have limited programs at the graduate level. Universities service
both undergraduate and graduate student bodies. Graduate programs
grant a variety of Master’s degrees including M.B.A.s (Master of Busi-
ness Administration) or M.F.A.s (Master of Fine Arts). The highest
academic degree is the Ph.D. Medical schools award the M.D. (Doctor
of Medicine) while law schools award the J.D. (Doctor of Laws).
Liberal arts colleges are four-year institutions that traditionally
emphasize interactive instruction (although research is still a compo-
nent of these institutions). They are known for being residential and
for having smaller enrollments, class sizes, and student-teacher ratios
than universities. These colleges also encourage a high level of teacher-
student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time
faculty rather than graduate student TA’s (who teach the classes at

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Research Institutions and other universities). The colleges are either
coeducational, women’s colleges, or men’s colleges. Some are histori-
cally black colleges, or secular, while others are involved in religious
education. Many are private. Some are public liberal arts colleges.
Public and private universities are research-oriented institutions
which service both an undergraduate and graduate student body.
These institutions usually have a large student body. Introductory
seminars can have a class size in the hundreds, but lab groups are
generally smaller and more intimate. The more popular sports schools
are typically larger universities, though not exclusively.

1. As you read the text:

a) look for the answers to these question.
1) When do high school students apply for admission to colleges
and universities? How long does the admissions process take?
2) How many colleges or universities can a student apply to?
3) What does the word combination “wait-listed student”
mean?
4) How do the admissions criteria vary?
5) What is the main difference between colleges and universities?
What degrees do they offer?
6) What kind of educational institution are Liberal Arts Colleges?
7) What is the primary goal of public and private universities?
How are they organized?

b) find in the text arguments the author gives to illustrate the following:
1) College admissions in the US is a long and complex process.
2) Admitted students may be awarded financial aid of two kinds.
3) Liberal Arts colleges attach special importance to interactive
instruction.

c) give a brief summary of the text

2. Use the words given in brackets to form a word that fits in each space.
Translate the text into Russian

Going to college in the US

Americans talk about ‘going to college’ even if the institution they

attend is a university. To Americans the phrase ‘going to university’
sounds …………………… (to pretend). Most colleges offer classes only for

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………………. (to graduate) students studying for a bachelor’s degree.
……………….. (communal) colleges offer two-year courses leading to an
associate’s degree, and afterwards students transfer to a different
college or university to continue their studies. Universities are
larger than colleges and also offer courses for …………… (to graduate)
students who study in …………………. (to graduate) school. Many uni-
versities also have separate …………………. (profession) schools, e.g., a
…………..(medicine) school or a law school.

American high school students who want to study at a college or

university have to take a ……………….. (standard) test, e.g., the SAT
(……………….. (scholar) Aptitude Test) or the ACT (American College
Test). Students from countries outside the US who are not native
……………….. (to speak) of English must also take TOEFL (Test of
English as a Foreign Language). Each college or university decides
on the minimum …………… (to score) it will accept, though test
………………. (to score) are never the only factor taken into account.
Students apply direct to between three to six colleges in their last
year of high school. Each college has its own ………………… (to apply)
form and most include a question for which the student must write
an essay. The student also has to send a …………… (to transcribe) (i.e.
an official list of all the subjects studied and the grades received) and
letters of ……………… (to refer).

There are many private colleges and universities but most stu-
dents choose a public institution because the costs are lower. All
universities charge ………………. (to tutor), and students pay extra
for room and board. Prices range from a few hundred dollars a year
to well over $25,000 at some private colleges. Students whose
families cannot afford to pay the full amount apply for ……………..
(finance) aid. Many students receive a ……………….. (finance) aid
package which may be a combination of grants from the govern-
ment, a scholarship, a student loan and work-study, i.e. a part-time
job at the college.

The most famous universities are those in the Ivy League, includ-
ing Harvard and Yale, but many others have good reputations. Large
universities often put most ……………….. (to emphasize) on research.
Smaller colleges tend to concentrate on teaching undergraduates, and
many students prefer these colleges because they offer smaller class-
es and more …………… (a person) attention from teachers.

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 3. The box below gives the terms applied to higher education. Match the
terms to their definitions

alumni, applicant, campus, college, credit, curriculum, degree,

endowment, faculty, fraternity,
grade, grant, mortarboard, scholarship, subject, syllabus,
tuition, undergraduate, university

1) …………… is a gift of money that is made to an institution or

community in order to provide it with an annual income.
2) …………… is an institution where students study after they have
left school.
3) …………… is an institution where students study for degrees
and where academic research is done.
4) …………… is all the different courses of study that are taught in
a school, college, or university.
5) …………… is an outline or summary of the subjects to be covered
in a course.
6) …………… is an area of knowledge or study, especially one that
you study at school, college, or university.
7) …………… is all the teaching staff of a university or college, or
of one department.
8) …………… is a successfully completed part of a higher education
course.
9) …………… is the mark you get, usually in the form of a letter or
number, that indicates your level of achievement.
10) …………… is an academic award conferred by a university or
college on successful completion of a course.
11) …………… is someone who makes a formal written request for a
place at a college.
12) …………… is a student at a university or college who is studying
for his or her first degree.
13) …………… is an area of land that contains the main buildings of
a university or college.
14) …………… is the amount of money that you have to pay for be-
ing taught particular subjects in a university or college.
15) …………… an amount of money that a government or other in-
stitution gives to a student for a particular purpose such as educa-
tion.
16) …………… is financial aid provided for a scholar because of aca-
demic merit.

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 17) …………… is a society of male university or college students
in US.
18) …………… is an academic cap with a stiff, flat, square top and a
tassel.
19) …………… (of a school, college, or university) are the people
who used to be students there.

4. As you have probably noticed there are quite a few shortened words among
the higher education terms. Decipher the words below and translate them into
Russian

ACT; SAT; TOEFL; GPA; grades: A. B. C. D. E. F.; grad; A-student;

TA; A.A.; B.A.; B.S.; M.A.; M.D.; M.S.; M.B.A.; Ph.D.

5. Read the following text on student life and fill in the gaps with the words
from the box

highly motivated grant off campus

part-time jobs attend hall of residence
part-time basis full-time housemates
tuition fees on campus for good
government support loan financial aid package
room and board home town

(A)
The popular image of student life is of young people with few re-
sponsibilities enjoying themselves and doing very little work. This is
often not true. Many older people now study at college or university,
sometimes on a (1) ………………… while having a job and looking after
a family. These students are often (2) ……………… and work very
hard.

Younger students are often thought to be lazy and careless with

money but this situation is changing. In Britain reduced (3) ……………
for higher education means that students can no longer rely on hav-
ing their expenses paid for them. Formerly, students received a (4)
……………. towards their living expenses. Now most can only get a (5)
……………. which has to be paid back. From 1999 they will also have to
pay 1000 pounds towards (6) …………………

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 In the US students already have to pay for tuition and (7)
…………………. . Many get a (8) ……………………… which may include grants,
scholarships and loans. The fear of having large debts places consider-
able pressure on students and many take (9) …………………… during the
term and work (10) ……………. in the vacations.

Many students in Britain go to a university away from their (11)

………………. They usually live in a (12) ……………….. for their first year,
and then move into digs (=a rented room in a private house) or share
a house with other students. They may go back home during the
vacations, but after they graduate most leave home (13) ……………… In
the US too, many students (14) …………… colleges some distance from
where their parents live. They may live (15) ……………….. in one of the
dorms (=halls) or (16) ………………. in apartments and houses which
they share with (17) ……………..

political correctness fraternity alumni skip

social activities sorority grades cut
student’s union incompletes drop out degree

(B)
Some students, especially at larger universities, join a (18) …………….
or (19) ………………. a social group usually with its own house near the
campus. These students’ organizations often have names which are
combinations of two or three letters of the Greek alphabet. Some
people do not have a good opinion of them because they think that
students who are members spend too much time having parties. Many
US colleges and universities encourage an atmosphere of (20)
………………… to try to help students get on together. In Britain the
interests of students are represented by a (21) …………………. which
discusses various academic matters with the university, arranges
social events and provides advice to students.

Especially in their first year US students spend a lot of time on

(22) ……………… One of the most important celebrations, especially at
universities which place a lot of emphasis on sports, is homecoming.
Many (23) ……………… return to their alma mater for a weekend in the
autumn to watch a football game. During homecoming weekend there
are also parties and dances, and usually a parade.

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 When social activities take up too much time, students (24) ………….
lectures or (25) ……….. (AmE) class and take (26) ……………….. (AmE)
, which means they have to finish their work after the vacation. In
the US this has the effect of lowering their course (27) …………., but
most US universities expect this behaviour from students and do
little to stop it. Students are thought to be old enough to make their
own decisions about how hard they work and to accept the conse-
quences. A few students (28) ……………. (Am E flunk out) but the
majority try hard to get good grades and a good (29) ……………….

6. a) Read the dialogue and pay attention to phrases of accomplishment

Martin: Happy birthday, Helen. So how does it feel to be 21?

Helen: Kind of strange. I suddenly feel a little anxious, like I’m not
moving ahead fast enough.
Martin: But don’t you think you’ve accomplished quite a bit in the
last few years?
Helen: Oh, I’ve managed to get good grades in all my courses, but
I still haven’t been able to decide on a career.
Martin: Well, what do you hope you’ll have achieved by the time
you’re 30?
Helen: For one thing, I hope I’ll have seen more of the world. But
more important than that, I’d like to have made a good start on my
career by then.

b) Continue the dialogue between Martin and Helen and find out what he has
managed to achieve and what his plans for the future are. Make use of phrases
of accomplishment

7. Below are two texts concerned with trends in higher education. Read
them attentively and say how the authors emphasize the value of a broadly based
liberal education and criticize the increasing dominance of western society by
specialists

(A)
Organized education began in the Western world when the civiliza-
tion of ancient Greece was at its height. Itinerant teachers claimed to
teach the skills and capacities necessary for a successful, contributive
public life in the Greek city-states. Schools developed around the great-
est of these teachers, and the precursors of modern colleges and univer-
sities flourished throughout the Greek and Roman worlds. One of these,

12
founded by the Greek philosopher Plato, was called “the Academy,”
a name we celebrate in every reference to the academic enterprise.
Though the classical tradition withered with the beginning of the
Middle Ages, the great religious institutions and scholars of the West
sustained the learning of the ancient world. Throughout Europe the
foundation of education was the seven liberal arts: the trivium of
grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and the quadrivium of arithmetic, ge-
ometry, music, and astronomy.
As in ancient Greece, higher education in America has provided
for individual human flourishing through encouraging a command of
the sciences and the humanities, while preparing young adults to take
an active role in the public life of a participatory society.
The precise definition of the liberal arts has changed with the
evolving understanding of human well-being, but the substance re-
mains the same: the education necessary to afford persons the op-
portunity to seek what is, in a deep sense, the best life; and the educa-
tion most likely to equip them for, and engage them in, the search for
a just society.
Implicit in the academic enterprise from its beginning is the con-
viction that neither individual well-being nor the just society emerg-
es inevitably from human nature. Nor is our nature opposed to these
accomplishments. Rather, the premise of the liberal arts college is the
idea that only purposeful cultivation in a community of the right sort
will result in the emergence of excellence.

(B)
Archilochus, the Greek poet, left us only bits and pieces of his
writings; the most famous is Fragment 103: The fox knows many
things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. No one is certain about
Fragment 103’s original meaning. But it has become a metaphor for
a modern dilemma the increasing dominance of Western society by
specialists-hedgehogs, if you will. This means, inversely, the decline
in influence of generalists-foxes.
The supremacy of hedgehogs is dangerous because it creates
a climate of rarefied ignorance. The man who invents an exotic new
form of chemical weaponry has probably forgotten – if he ever knew
– the generalist’s view of history, with its lessons about the origins
of war, the junk bond and insider information scoundrels, who sullied
the reputation of Wall Street, were obsessed with the one big thing
they knew. The prudence and moral balance, which comes from a
broad general vision of society, were lost on them.

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 Perhaps the dominant power of the specialist hedgehogs was in-
evitable, as science and technology became increasingly complex
after the mid-nineteenth century. The argument here is not against
specialists, but rather their inordinate influence over our lives. In the
mores of Western society, the generalist fox, who knows (but is not
expert in) many things, is dismissed with such derisive clichйs as
“jack-of-all-trades, master of none.”
At the turn of the twentieth century, there was an acerbic classicist
at Oxford who used to tell newly arriving students, “Nothing you will
learn here in the course of your studies will be of any use to you in later
life save only this: If you pay attention and work hard, you may eventu-
ally come to know when a man is talking rot.” In other words, Oxford
taught you how to think by teaching you many subjects that enrich and
broadened the mind. The hedgehogs know how to think, but only about
one big thing. The time may be approaching when the people who
dominate our lives won’t know when a man is talking rot.

8. a) Read the text and single out the main topics treated in it. Write a plan
of the text reflecting its structure and contents

With the emergence of the technological age, it has become increas-

ingly difficult to become a knowledgeable person. There is just too
much information to know something about everything. So what
should an educated person be in the twenty-first century? It isn’t
always clear whether one should try to become a specialist or a gen-
eralist in today’s world. Some people have focused their education,
developing skills in one area. Specialists now flourish in every field
of life. Others continue to pursue a well-rounded education, believing
that it offers the most in life. Generalists follow a liberal arts educa-
tion but may never become experts in any field.
In the 1960s , most American colleges and universities offered a
generalist approach in education. In response to students’ protests,
universities began offering many innovative courses .Students began
doing their own thing, taking courses in just every subject imaginable.
Students believed that these courses enriched their minds. But as
students began to focus on more and more of these less common sub-
ject areas, critics began to abound. They believed that much of the
education had become useless. Employers began to make derisive
comments about the quality of college graduates. As jacks-of-all-
trades, they could function in most areas of life but might never excel
in any.

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 From the 1970s through the 1990s, with new technologies creat-
ing new job opportunities, an emphasis on specialization appeared in
American education. More vocational courses were offered in col-
leges and universities. Business schools flourished, allowing more and
more graduate students to enter fields that offered specialized jobs
with high salaries. But with the media coverage of junk bond trading,
even the reputation of the MBA degree was sullied. The more nar-
rowly focused approach to professional education also seemed to
fail.
One of the dilemmas of the twenty-first century is whether to ap-
proach modern education in terms of the generalists or the specialists.
Some universities require all students to take a common core of
courses , other universities continue to tailor their courses to the more
professional needs of their students.
So a coherent vision of an educated person in the twenty-first
century has yet to be defined.

b) The text is centered on the subject of higher education in the US. What is
the generalist approach to education? Name its advantages and disadvantages.
What is the specialist approach in higher education? What are the advantages
and disadvantages?

c) How would you describe your own education: being more specialist or
generalist?

d) Do you agree with the concept of a core curriculum in higher education.

If so, what should be included in the core?

9. Group discussion. “Intelligent and highly educated person”

It may be organized as a panel discussion program on TV. Four

members of the public are invited to give their opinion.
a)The chairperson opens the discussion by introducing the mem-
bers of the panel, directs the panel and closes the discussion.
b)In the course of the discussion you will have to touch upon such
notions as “able”, “curious”, “intelligent “, “knowledgeable”, “learned”,
“skilled”, “well read”, etc.; “erudite”, “generalist”, “intelligentsia”,
“integrity”, “responsibility”, “specialist”.
c)Write no less than five questions to highlight the subject of the
discussion such as: Where and when does the education of a human
being begin? How does liberal arts education teach a student to think

15
critically? What, do you think, motivates a person to know more and
more? What prompts a person to learn more foreign languages, for
example?

10. Do Internet research and prepare a presentation on one of the given

topics:

1. Russian and American systems of higher education. Specify the

following: admission, requirements, students’ grants and financial aid,
academic calendar, courses, political, sports and cultural activities.
2. One of the universities of the Ivy League.
3. Public and private institutions of higher education in the USA.
Students’ societies