The United States is a complicated and often misunderstood place. It gets a bad rap for things that are often quite trivial and it gets ignored in areas that are often quite significant. For example, 50 of the top 100 universities in the world are in the US. How can this be? It’s the land of the dumb and geographically unintelligent right? Well, wrong. The fact is that Americans aren’t quite as dumb as people make them out to be. Why else would more foreign students go study there than any other place in the world? Those universities are verifiable powerhouses of knowledge. And many of those students end up sticking around, starting families, and settling down. And yes, they become American. So the fact that American education is poor is not very accurate. Furthermore, each of the 50 states has its own education system, some good, some bad, all very different. Where American universities could improve, however, is in the cost. There is a legitimate problem when it comes to the finances. And that is why, if you stick around to the end, we’ll offer some legitimate advice that many people have already taken advantage of. These are 25 things that most people don’t know about universities in the United States.
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Unlike many other countries, there is not much difference between the words "college" and "university" in the US. They are fairly interchangeable.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Although it's becoming more expected, not everyone needs college. Famous dropouts include Steve Jobs, Woody Allen, and Kate Beckinsale
Source: businessinsider, Image: wikipedia The Ivy League is an athletic conference. It was named because the member schools had ivy growing on their walls.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Oberlin College was the first college to grant degrees to women in 1841
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Harvard is the oldest college in the country. It is also the first corporation in the United States.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The largest academic library in America can be found in Harvard (nearly 14 million volumes). Yale is second (almost 10 million volumes)
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia In early days, colleges sometimes accepted tuition payments in the form of sheep and cotton instead of currency
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia More women graduate from university than men
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Most foreign students come from India, China, and South Korea
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia UCLA (University of California in Los Angeles) has the highest percentage of foreign students while New York University in NYC comes second
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia An individual with a Bachelor's degree earns 60% more (on average) than an individual with only a high school diploma over the course of their lifetime (this equates to roughly $800,000)
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Speaking of Universities, you should check out the 25 best universities in the world.
The Ivy League schools are also called the "Ancient Eight" or just the "Ivies"
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Harvard has the largest financial endowments out of any university in the world at $26 billion
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Between 1999 and 2009, undergraduate enrollment at for-profit schools soared by over 500%
Source: huffingtonpost, Image: wikipedia By 2018, over 60% of jobs are estimated to require some form of higher education
Source: nytimes, Image: wikipedia In 2009, nearly 350,000 students graduated with business degrees. Barely 15,000 graduate with degrees in mathematics
Source: forbest, Image: wikipedia One of the fastest growing degrees is park, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies
Source: ibtimes, Image: wikipedia Majors in Engineering, Economics, and Physics tend to pay the best. Majors in Drama, Hospitality, Fine Arts, and Social Work pay the worst
Source: forbes, Image: wikipedia Every year, Yale chooses 1,300 new freshman from out of more than 20,000 applications
Source: businessinsider, Image: wikipedia Harvard Stadium was the first reinforced concrete structure in the world
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia There are more than 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States. They enroll 15 million students and grant 2 million degrees every year.
Source: ibtimes, Image: wikipedia 50 of the top 100 universities in the world are in the United States
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The top 3 universities in the country (US News & World Report) are Harvard, Princeton, Yale, respectively. Fourth place was a tie between MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford, and UPenn.
Source: US News & World Report, Image: wikipedia The Skull and Bones Society is a secret society at Yale that boasts many famous former members. Among them are numerous politicians and presidents (George Bush, William Taft, John Kerry)
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia If you can't get into an American university, fear not. Here's a pro-tip that many American students are already taking advantage of - universities in Germany are free (even for foreign students). Actually, universities in most other countries are either really cheap or free.
Source: nytimes, Image: wikipedia 
