The cult of the professional manager. To be honest though until recently I thought american college was just the last years of high school plus maybe the first year of university (a bit like a 6th form college). But that is because it looks like high school in movies and you can't study the things we associate with university - medicine, law etc.
In the U.S., if you finish 1st grade at 7, and college at 7+11+4 = 22, you finish medical school at 22+4 = 26 and law school at 22+3 = 25 if you go straight through. At what age can you finish medical and law school in other countries if you start school at the usual age and go straight through?
You would finish highschool at 17 to q8 but generally be 18 when you started training. Law and Engineering are four years, vet is 5 years, medicine is about 7 but the last two so are paid on the job training. Admission to such courses bases on your first year results and I think now a days an interview.
Eta. This is in NZ. And yes I know the movies aren't accurate but I get the impression that there is a lot more hand holding in a US college. A NZ first year lecture could have more than 300 students. Lecturers come in, talk for 50 minutes and walk out. There are exceptions but most first year classes have little interaction and if you don't take responsibility you fail (and a lot of bright kids, away from home for the first time and just legally able to drink di fail).
