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Aimee wrote:

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I'm not sure what you mean by undergraduate. School works like this: age 7 -11 primary, 11-15 middle school, 15-19 highschool, 19+ university - (we get to enter Med school or any other university right after highschool, because that one's a real b!itch. As I understood, the American school system requires 2 years of college after high school, before going to university and actually choosing a profession). Those who wish, can apply after graduating uni for a master's degree, which lasts 2 years. I hope this answers your question...

Undergraduate refers to a Bachelor's degree, which requires four years of college. No college is actually required in the U.S., but a Bachelor's degree, which is the standard degree, generally requires four years of university, which is a combination of general education and a major (focus). It's not required to choose a major before applying to university, and nearly all universities are non-specific - we don't usually go to schools designated for mathematics/English/etc. Most colleges are "liberal arts" colleges that offer a broad-spectrum general education in addition to a major, and you generall earn a Bachelor of Arts at these schools (even for science majors). There are also Bachelor of Science programs, which are less common, and usually are for majors such as accounting, engineering, and other very specific programs. You can choose pre-med as a major, which teaches the core requirements to attend medical school, but it's not always required to have a pre-med major to apply to medical school. Our graduate schools are more specific - medical school for an MD (which lasts four years), law school for a law degree, business school for an MB, graduate school for a Master's degree. They take various amounts of time For an MD in the US, after high school an indivudual must complete a Bachelor's degree (four years unless they take an accelerated program, which is rare), then apply and get into med school, then take their licensing exam (aka The Boards). THEN they have to complete a residency, which is four years for an ER specialty on the show, and five for surgury. Basically, to be a first-year med student, Rachel would have had to have complete a four-year bachelor program already and be in medical school.

To clarify, since this is confusing, I'll use myself as a case study. I finished high school and went to university for my BA - Bachelor of Arts (meaning I went to a liberal arts college) with a major in political science and a minor (lesser focus) in English. I will go to graduate school to earn my Master's degree in International Affairs, which will (probably) take three years. Then I may or may not go for my Ph.D.

Abby, per the show, went to Penn State for a B.A. in English Literature. She later on went to medical school, which was spread out, but she was in school for a total of four years (she is a fourth-year med student in S10).

Does that explain it?

I know this is off-topic, but I really like the general education aspect of schooling here. I know I'll never need to know comparative elements of Niger-Congo Kenyan languages or social deviation in the Native American community, but I feel as though I'm better off for having learned them. Can't say the same for my freshman statistics class, which actually caused me to un-learn stats, but you can't win 'em all.