If you are comparing US universities for an international application, the first problem is usually scale. The country has thousands of institutions, and the information you need is scattered. educads holds a database of 1,281 universities in the USA and 38,406 courses attached to them. This page explains what is in that database, which institutions carry the most course listings, and what the data does and does not tell you.
What the USA dataset contains
The USA country page covers 1,281 universities and 38,406 courses. Courses are spread across degree levels, and the balance is worth knowing before you start filtering:
- Bachelor: 21,580 courses
- Masters: 4,590 courses
- Diploma: 3,077 courses
- PhD: 830 courses
- Short Course: 8 courses
Undergraduate study dominates the listings. That reflects the structure of US higher education, where a large number of institutions offer four-year bachelor's degrees alongside two-year associate programmes. If you are looking for postgraduate study, the pool is smaller but still substantial at 4,590 master's courses and 830 PhD courses.
The database also records 80 awards in the country. educads does not publish a breakdown of what those awards cover, so treat the figure as a count rather than a guide to funding levels.
Universities with the most course listings
Course counts are not rankings. A university with more listings simply has more of its catalogue recorded in the database. With that caveat, these are the institutions with the largest number of courses on educads:
- Humboldt State University — 290 courses
- University of Tennessee, Martin — 191 courses
- New Mexico State University — 183 courses
- University of Louisiana at Lafeyette — 171 courses
- Saint Leo University — 158 courses
- Loyola College — 141 courses
- State University of New York at Buffalo — 140 courses
- Columbia College (MO) — 136 courses
These are a mix of public state universities, private institutions and colleges. The list is useful for seeing where the catalogue is deepest, not for judging quality. A university with 136 listings may suit you better than one with 290, depending on the subject you want.
What courses look like in practice
The sample courses in the database show the range of levels and subjects you will encounter. At undergraduate level there are broad degrees and associate programmes:
- Business Administration at Western State Colorado University
- Business Administration at Western Nebraska Community College
- Associate in Arts at Western Oklahoma State College
- Associate of Arts at Western Texas College
- Liberal Arts and Sciences at Western Nevada College
- Accounting & Finance at Western Piedmont Community College
There are also applied and professional qualifications, such as the Applied Bachelor of Science in Career and Technical Education at Western New Mexico University and the 3+3 Doctorate in Occupational Therapy at Western New England University.
Community colleges appear regularly in the listings. For international students, these can be a route into a four-year degree, but the database does not tell you which associate credits transfer where. You would need to confirm that with the institutions themselves.
What the database does not tell you
This is the part that matters most when you are planning. educads does not record a tuition figure for most of these courses. It does not publish acceptance rates, entry requirements, English language thresholds, application deadlines or graduate salaries. Those details sit on individual university websites and change every admissions cycle.
That means the database is best used for discovery: finding which universities offer the subject you want, at the level you want, and then going to the source for the numbers. Do not treat a course listing as confirmation that a programme is open to international applicants in a given year.
How to use the listings
Start with the USA courses page and filter by degree level. If you want a bachelor's degree, you are choosing from 21,580 courses; if you want a PhD, from 830. From there, open the university pages for the institutions that match your subject and check their full course lists.
Keep the course count in perspective. A large catalogue can mean a wide choice of majors, or simply that more of the institution's data has been entered. Either way, the next step is the same: confirm fees, deadlines and entry requirements directly with the university before you apply.
0 comments