There are two types of junior colleges, differing in admission requirements. One type is the five-year junior college for junior high graduates, and the other type is the two-year junior college for senior vocational graduates.
In Taiwan, there are 61 junior colleges, of which 10 are public and 51 are private. They offer two-year programs entered after high school, and five-year programs entered after ninth grade. In the past, there were also at least ten junior colleges that offered three-year junior college programs, but they have now been completely phased out. Junior colleges usually specialize in one area, such as business, technology, languages, medicine, nursing, journalism, or home economics.
Very often the English transcripts of these institutions do not identify themselves as junior colleges, but simply as "colleges" or "institutes" (many people in Taiwan are under the impression that the word college means junior college which can lead to a great deal of confusion, whether discussing U.S. or Taiwan institutions). But the transcripts will show that no bachelor's degree was awarded.
In Taiwan, graduates of junior colleges are eligible to transfer to local four-year colleges if successful in passing the transfer examination given by the target school/department. As in the U.S., the level at which they may enter is dependent on their previous coursework, examination results, etc., and is decided by the department they are entering. They are also allowed to enter graduate programs, in spite of not having a bachelor's degree, if they can pass the entrance examination and have had two to three years of work experience.
For this reason, perhaps, it is not uncommon for graduates of junior colleges in Taiwan to seek admittance to graduate programs in the U.S., though they are not often successful in obtaining it. However, a few U.S. schools regularly admit graduates of Taiwan junior colleges directly to graduate programs. This practice is usually confined to graduates of well-known junior technical colleges who have outstanding records and high GRE scores and are planning to study computer science or engineering. Usually they also take a "bridge" program to make up deficiencies in undergraduate course work.
Junior college graduates who transfer to American universities at the undergraduate level are naturally interested in receiving as much credit as possible for their junior college work. However, it is seldom possible for them to know in advance how many additional credits they will have to complete before they can receive a U.S. bachelor's degree. Some of the junior colleges have "sister school" or articulation agreements with American universities under which the American school/department agrees on the level at which it will accept graduates of specified programs of the Taiwan school/department concerned.
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