The United States of America commonly called the United States, is a federal republic consisting of fifty states and a federal district. The 48 contiguous states and the federal district of Washington, D.C. are in first North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in northwestern North America, west of Canada and east of Russia across the Bering Strait, and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-North Pacific. The country also has five populated and nine unpopulated territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

A bachelor’s degree is a four-year undergraduate degree and is the standard for higher education throughout most of the world. Bachelor’s degrees can be earned at state universities, at private universities, at community colleges and via online universities.