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.

Although it's becoming more expected, not everyone needs college. Famous dropouts include Steve Jobs, Woody Allen, and Kate Beckinsale

The Ivy League is an athletic conference. It was named because the member schools had ivy growing on their walls.

Oberlin College was the first college to grant degrees to women in 1841

Harvard is the oldest college in the country. It is also the first corporation in the United States.

The largest academic library in America can be found in Harvard (nearly 14 million volumes). Yale is second (almost 10 million volumes)

In early days, colleges sometimes accepted tuition payments in the form of sheep and cotton instead of currency

More women graduate from university than men

Most foreign students come from India, China, and South Korea

UCLA (University of California in Los Angeles) has the highest percentage of foreign students while New York University in NYC comes second

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)

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"

Harvard has the largest financial endowments out of any university in the world at $26 billion

Between 1999 and 2009, undergraduate enrollment at for-profit schools soared by over 500%

By 2018, over 60% of jobs are estimated to require some form of higher education

In 2009, nearly 350,000 students graduated with business degrees. Barely 15,000 graduate with degrees in mathematics

One of the fastest growing degrees is park, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies

Majors in Engineering, Economics, and Physics tend to pay the best. Majors in Drama, Hospitality, Fine Arts, and Social Work pay the worst

Every year, Yale chooses 1,300 new freshman from out of more than 20,000 applications

Harvard Stadium was the first reinforced concrete structure in the world

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.

50 of the top 100 universities in the world are in the United States

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.

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)

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.
