I don't understand the American college system...

I don't understand the American college system. I often read about people doing undergraduate studies in a field like physics and moving on a completely unrelated doctoral program in medicine or law. Am I missing something here or is this really possible.

As a french undergrad their retarded system looks comfy desu.
>be french
>have to work hard as fuck in high school to get into CPGEs then even harder to get into a good school
>uni is considered garbage for no particular reason other than the "muh schools are better" meme
>even in uni you have zero freedom, can't switch degrees, can't take any time off or fail a year, otherwise you'll never get into a good masters
And even with all that, there are extremely few people who manage to start over 3.5k/month
Welcome to the France meme

I have been wondering about this a lot too.

I have looked it up if it worked in similar ways in my own country but they just write that it is an independent valuation that decides which I can't read their fucking minds

we can take 1 semesters worth of courses if the degree isn't enough to get excepted otherwise i's an independent valuation

meanwhile
>be american
>be either born a woman or black in which case you'll get a MIT degree handed to you provided you build a clock after being shown how to
or
>be born none of those things, do any sort of meme degree and find a comfy job afterwards because apparently being "college educated" is such a huge fucking deal over there that having a masters in anything will get you instarespect
how do I move?

Our system has freedom built in

yes its possible grad schools generally dont give 2 shits about what your undergrad was in because the undergrad is basically a proof of not being a retard. You are allowed to succeed or fail on your own merit after that point, if you can take a humanities undergrad than go to grad school for math and do well power to you and no one gives a shit.

t. canadian who has a physics undergrad but passed both mcat and lsat and could go to law or med school

>fail a year, otherwise you'll never get into a good masters
I thought americans can't do this either because of the GPA meme?

Gre scores, references, published work are generally more important than GPA in grad school applications.

idk I always hear about people failing 3 years, changing majors a billion times and eventually making it because the burger system gives second, third, nth chances as long as you're getting good grades.
Where I live, you fail one year or switch majors causing you to re-take a year and it's over, you're basically done.

because generally if you have the money to pay for whatever you want to do, you can
but truly failing 3 years will absolutely get you kicked the fuck out of any school

yeah, the system is built for idiots. if you go to a public school and are from the state where the school is, you are more likely to be accepted. these are usually called "in state students "
>be me, Californian
>easily to get into UC system from >muh in state students
>start as electrical engineering major
>swap to math major + electrical engineering minor
>graduate in 3 years simply because I never failed a course and get good grades
>instantly accepted to applied math master's at a UC school, again because >in state
american college system is on easy mode. i even got hired as an electrical engineer at my grad school.

I'm Canadian, which is not far off from the burger system and I've heard of people doing shit like that but I've never actually seen it myself. One thing though, is our systems have gen ed requirements built into them and at many schools, first year is designed fairly generally.

Where I did my undergrad, the only difference between a math major and engineer in first year is that the engineer took applied mechanics and the math major took discrete math. My point is, if someone does graduate school in an unrelated field, it's because they took electives in that field and maybe even did research in it; our systems enables that sort of thing.

tl;dr it's possible to take enough electives that you can go into an unrelated field after.

Undergraduate is pointless. I did all of my real learning on my own by working through textbooks in subjects that interested me. Being able to succeed at undergrad simply shows you have a work ethic, and nothing more.

American schools are funded more by the students and less by the government. You socialist foreigners get free college, but it means you have to deserve it. We just have to have cash or be willing to take loans.

>electrical engineering minor

Hahahahahhahahahha LITERALLY goes to UC MERCED

>but it means you have to deserve it.
This is what irks me most about socialized college. You can't fuck around at school for 12 years and still get in.

You can get in if you get your shit together, study, and pass the entrance exam.

quebec here. our system is so retarded I don't even want to talk about it.

nope, not true at all

most universities get the majority (like 70% and up) of their funding from taking overhead on government grants. the rest is from donors and a tiny sliver is from tuition

>tiny sliver is from tuition
Then why even care about it at all?

>You socialist foreigners get free college, but it means you have to deserve it.
It means you have to graduate high school at the university-track difficulty level. That's all. Is that what you meant with "deserve"? I was under the impression that American colleges are more difficult to get into.

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA i needed this
>only if you are a white straight male with interests in your life outside of maximizing your academic potential

the american system is good because you are putting your money where your mouth is. unless you are full ride somewhere, you are taking out cash loans against your future. meaning if you fuck up and don't perform, you are a debt slave for a long fuckin' time.

i was at Santa Cruz actually. why does it matter though? i know unemployed engineering students from davis, san diego, and LA. nothing speaks more than your pay check.

It's because the in-state tuitions are subsidized by tax payers, it only makes sense that the people who pay those taxes should also benefit from them.

If we're being completely honest the only thing that matters is your drive. I'm sure someone from Merced can end up working with a Berkeley grad but I have a feeling 1 is more likely to be hard working and self driven than the other.

College isn't about you learning the material. Anyone can pick up a fucking book and read, it's just training you to work under pressure and meet deadlines.

Spotted the brainlet
>work hard to get in CGPE
You should've stopped here. If you need to work to get into one of those, you're just not made for it.
Also, uni is garbage bc of shit tier teachers who are just shittier tiers researchers. This, and they litteraly got no money.
And having a semi-decent school, like on CCP or E3A almost ensures you at least 4k/month.
But if you have to actually work for one of those you might aswell just go in a DUT or brainlet stuff like that.

i agree. i'm not saying that it is a bad thing that it is built this way. fundamentally a good thing that those who help fund the school get benefits. I've met a lot of idiot undergrads who didn't deserve to get into the school they're at though. They mostly drop out though, so its a self-fixing problem i guess.

yeah, drive is important. I guess i was overstating with the thing about pay check. talent is key too though. When I was on the teaching staff for the math upper divs as an undergrad, I met plenty of students who were doing their absolute best but couldn't even begin to grasp abstract algebra.

Muh homegirl Piper got into Princeton grad school for a fucking PhD in math with a BA in "romance languages". Thesis for said PhD included "Funky Sums", high school calc, confusion, and was supervised by a Fields medalist.

'Murika fuck yeah!

yeah because physics is so intuitive, you can grasp it without working. kek.
I got out of lycée with 19 in math and like 7 in physics, never worked a day either, didn't even bother applying for CPGE
Also CCP is anything but decent. Their students are literal retards. Schools are not better. There are good schools and bad schools just like there are bad unis and good unis.
But like I said, literally nobody believes this, regardless of how true it is. Everyone just assumes the shittiest school is a notch above the best uni.

depends, I majored in comp sci and am apprenticing under the Physics Department chairman to get a PhD in physics since I liked the physics classes that I took more than I liked comp sci.

just look at her smiling. The United States of America disgust me, this country should be burnt to the ground and their soil should be drowned in salt so as to ensure that nothing ever grows again there.

I'm a magistère student (math) and I'm pretty sure the only people who are better than us at math are the ENS.
>"b-but you're in u-uni"

>tfw her website states that she literally is interested in calc II
>we memed a phd in triple integrals into reality

What. The. Fuck. I thought you were just joking user.

Affirmative action needs to die desu. At my uni most of the black people either major in Black Studies (inb4 meme'd for having black studies at my school. I know) or something just as awful like sociology.

Out of all the people who take CS at my school the majority of them (probably over half) are international exchange students.

Out of all the kids I know, I only know 1 black guy in CS, but he is amazing at what he does. Brilliant guy, went to intern at some big 4, and really down to earth and helpful.

Anyways I guess my question is WHY DON'T BLACK PEOPLE USE THE ADVANTAGE THEY HAVE TO PERSUE MAJORS THAT ACTUALLY HAVE A JOB MARKET??

Why are you bringing up AA for no reason?

Look at the post I replied to and really think it thru.

Yes Piper is an exception by why try to spin this off into AA (even if the number who are helped by it isn't massive at all and isn'ta free ride).

>Calculus, Number theory
:^)
>intersectional feminism, anti-racism
:^(

>I don't think people should be admitted to schools based off their merit but rather what skin color they are.

t. You, or a plantation owner

Well magistère and ENS are basically the same from what i saw. Except for the fact you're unpaid, selection is quite hard and teachers are quite good.
I actually consider teacher from magistère globally better than ENS. From what i saw in my Agreg year...

But magistère ins't really representative of uni. And it applies on only so few fields...

Well, i u can't into science just don't force it mate. And maybe don't try talking abt CPGE if u couldn't even go in one of them. The hard part is to stay in thoses, and go out decently.
But eh, keep being assmad to thoses schools you couldn't even attend.
What's also quite stupid with you trying to go uni bc "muh prepa is hard" is that you just contradict yourself on your assmadery. And then you'll realise you can't ino a M2 bc thoses shit are way harder than any ingé school.
So just stop trying and gi deliveroo already.

Oh shit. I read a thesis. Litterally how you'd think a stereotypical black person would make a thesis.
Ur amerifats are rally the best !

How do frenchies speak English so well?

there's ways to fix your GPA in burgerland. if you know you're going to fail you drop it so you don't kill your gpa, retakes, take easy a boosters, the list goes on.
and if you want to go the long way around, the GPA you need to fix yourself up to isn't that high if you are going for a low tier MS for the sole purpose of boosting yourself into a phd

Where are you from? just curious.