Just another thing about american education...it varies from state to state, and even from school district to school district. Each state is in charge of education inside the state, and can decide how to run things there. Some states centralize power more than others (California, for instance). Others, like Ohio (my home) leave schooling up to each district. All the decisions about school are up to my own town's school board, as long as they follow fairly broad state and national standards.

As for post-secondary education, the terms "college" and "university" are used fairly interchangebly here. Technically, a college is a school that teaches higher education in one specific field, while a university is merely a collection of colleges (My new school, Northwestern University has a college of arts and sciences, engineering, education, communications, musics, as well as graduate colleges of managment, law, and medicine).

There are really three subsets of higher education. First are community colleges used by some to get credits to then transfer into another school...they are usually fairly cheap, local, and only cover two years. The next are state schools, supported by each of the states, and charge lower tution. They offer full degree programs, each state usually has several. The final are the private colleges, they are the most prestigious, and expensive, but on the other hand can usually do what they want (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. fall into this category). Even though they are so expensive, many students get some sort of financial aid to attend...belive me, without it, no one would be going to these schools.

After 4 years (if you are a normal student), you recieve a bachelors degree (either a BA or a BS, the differences are mostly semantic). Graduate studies can lead to either Masters or Ph.D's...with varying lengths for each program...a masters is about 1-2 years full time, a Ph.D just depends on what field really.

Hope that helps.