Should You Choose A College Or A University
Ultimately, you need to you want to pursue, and let that guide your decision about what institution of higher learning you attend . If you’re trying to decide between two similar schools, it’s good to consider your own learning style.
If you want a personalized experience with smaller class sizes, a college may be your best option. But if a diverse student body and a possible graduate degree are on your must-have list, then a university might be the way to go.
Key Differences Between College And University
The following are the major differences between college and university:
Whats The Difference Between College And University In The Usa
If you pursue postsecondary education in the United States, youll end up studying at a college or university . The problem is the words college and university are both used as shorthand for higher education. In fact, you may not even know what the difference between the two are!
It doesnt help that the way Canadians and Americans think of college and university is quite different. As we covered in our previous blog post, Whats the Difference Between College and University in Canada?, Canadian universities are where youll find degree programs, whereas colleges grant certificates and diplomas.
The system is a little different in the United States.
If youre unsure what the difference between college and university are, the information below will help you better understand how higher education in the U.S. works.
Also Check: Can I Sell My College Books
Whats The Difference Between University And College
Contents
University and college both refer to types of higher education. However, there are some important distinctions between the two words that mean they are not exactly the same.
University has slightly different connotations in American English and British English. In American English, a university is a degree-granting institution of higher education that has both graduate and undergraduate courses. In British English, a university is also a degree-granting institution of higher education. However, usually UK universities are comprised of multiple colleges that are somewhat autonomous from one another and the university itself.
- Nowadays there are more women than men who attend university.
College can have different definitions in American English and British English. In American English, a college is a degree-granting institution of higher education, like a university. However, colleges usually only offer undergraduate degrees. Most often colleges are also smaller than universities. In British English, a college can be a school within a university, or it can be a training school that one attends prior to going to university.
- Many college students are living away from their parents for the first time in their lives.
Lets look at a few ways to use these words in your sentences.
Pros And Cons Of Universities
Here’s a list of some general pros and cons of universities to summarize the previous section:
- Lots of research opportunities and facilities are available to students.
- There is more access to advanced degrees and more interaction with graduate students.
- Professors are more likely to be highly reputable figures in their fields of research.
- There are more program offerings overall and a more diverse community of students.
- Universities may offer less personalized attention from professors and advisors.
- Research is usually prioritized over undergraduate teaching.
- There is less common ground between the experiences of different students.
- It’s harder to be switch majors at a university because of the bureaucracy involved.
The majority of college applicants are high school seniors, and most of the college application advice out there is aimed at them. But what do you do if you don’t fall into this narrow category? Our eBook on how to prepare for and apply to college as a nontraditional student will walk you through everything you need to know, from the coursework you should have under your belt to how to get letters of recommendation when you’re not a high school senior.
Don’t Miss: How To Get Recruited For College Softball
How Does College Work In The Us
In the United States, students begin college after completing 12 years of education. … Students at these colleges receive a two year degree after which they can work in certain fields. Many of these students, however, transfer after two years to a four year college to complete their bachelor degree.
University And College Sizes And Course Offerings
In general, colleges tend to have a smaller student body and faculty than universities. This is a natural result of the limited degree programs they offer. Because universities include graduate studies, more students attend these schools at one time and more staff is required to handle the students’ needs.
Universities also tend to offer a greater variety of degrees and classes than a college. This leads to a more diverse student population with a wider array of interests and studies.
Likewise, students will find smaller classes within the college system than they would in a university. While universities may have courses with 100 or more students in a lecture hall, a college may offer the same course subject in a room with only 20 or 50 students. This offers more individual attention to each student.
Read Also: Colleges Accept Low Gpa
Technical And Vocational Colleges
Technical and vocational colleges also known as trade schools are two-year colleges that provide specialized training for specific career fields. These institutions are known for their intensive programs, smaller campuses, and less expensive tuition rates.
Trade schools do not typically require general education courses and instead focus entirely on developing skills and knowledge needed for a particular trade. Though both technical colleges and vocational colleges boast similar skills-focused curricula, technical college graduates often receive associate degrees, whereas vocational graduates primarily earn certificates of completion.
The majority of trade schools are private, for-profit institutions, but some technical schools, like Western Technical College in Wisconsin, maintain affiliations with community colleges, making them public schools.
Is College And University The Same Thing In Usa
Origins of the Terms In the United States, the two terms are used interchangeably, and both mean a school at the postsecondary level. Otherwise, the term university usually means a large institution that offers graduate and doctorate programs while college means undergraduate degrees or associate degrees.
Recommended Reading: What Colleges Are Still Accepting Applications For Fall 2021
Research Vs Teaching Universities
One final thing to keep in mind is that universities can be either primarily research or teaching institutions. While faculty time is divided between teaching and research at all universities, the balance is different depending on what university they work at.
Generally, large universities are based around research because they have the size and funding to have state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. The downside of research universities is that undergraduate classes are often large and taught by graduate teaching assistants rather than professors.
On the other hand, teaching universities are focused on, well, teaching. Most professors at these schools have full teaching loads and dont have as much pressure to publish as their colleagues at research institutions. Youll have to sacrifice facilities and other perks by attending these universities, but theyre a great choice if you value face-to-face time with your professors.
For more information on studying in the the USA, visit our school page to find a full list of our American partner schools!
Private College Or University
Unlike state schools, private colleges and universities are privately-funded and not operated by the government. They are typically smaller than state schools and also have higher tuition, on average.
All of the famous Ivy League schools Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Cornell, UPenn, Dartmouth, and Columbia are private. Religious universities and colleges also privately funded, though they do welcome students of all religions and beliefs.
Read Also: Berkeley College Price
What Is The Difference Between A School College And University In The Usa
What is the difference between a College and a University? This confuses me because the words seem to mean very different things in my home country.
Answer:
In the United States, the word “school” describes any place where people learn. You can call a college a “school.” You can even call a university a “school.” You can use the word “school” for any English language institute, undergraduate or graduate program, or secondary school.
U.S. university or college follows after high school, or secondary school. A college in the U.S.A. is not a high school or secondary school. College and university programs begin in the thirteenth year of school, when a student is 17 or 18 years old or older. A two-year college offers an associate’s degree, as well as certificates. A four-year college or university offers a bachelor’s degree. Programs that offer these degrees are called “undergraduate” schools.
A “university” is a group of schools for studies after secondary school. At least one of these schools is a college where students receive a bachelor’s degree. The other schools in a university are”graduate” schools where students receive advanced degrees. Therefore, a university offers both the bachelor’s degree and graduate degrees such as the master’s and doctorate .
GET MATCHED TODAY!
What Is A Research University
Research universities, as opposed to regular public universities or liberal arts colleges, have faculty members who are also on staff to do research at the university. They publish research as well as teach.
Some say that professors who teach at research universities arent as focused on their students because they are at the school to do research, and are required to teach. This is more of an exception, rather than the rule.
Research universities are usually more prestigious than other types of universities, and of course, you will have more opportunities to get involved with groundbreaking or important research.
Read Also: Terre Haute Indiana Colleges And Universities
Remembering University Vs College
Although it is true that many Americans interchange college and university in colloquial speech, it is still important to know the distinction between each.
You can use the fact that university is a longer word than college to remember that universities are usually bigger than colleges.
You can also use the fact that college starts with co, the same first two letters in the word common, to remember that college is more commonly used than university because college is the generic term for higher education in America. It is also more common because college can mean secondary education, post-secondary training, or part of a university in Britain.
Using College In A Sentence
When to use college: College usually is a noun but it can also be an adjective. In the United States, it refers to higher education. Specifically, it means a degree-granting institution that students attend after graduating high school. Colleges usually only have undergraduate programs, and can award bachelor degrees or associate degrees. The word college also implies a smaller school, or less prestigious school, than a university. In British English, college can also mean secondary school or something between secondary school and university. To be even more confusing, college can also be part of a university in British English.
For example:
- Oxford University consists of 44 colleges.
- Community college students often earn their associate degrees at the community college, and then go on to join the workforce or continue their education at a four-year college or university.
College also appears in an idiom:
- the old college try: a persons best effort
- Well, we didnt succeed, but at least we gave it the old college try.
College can also mean an institution that gives instruction in certain vocations.
Recommended Reading: Which College Has The Best Dorms
Foundation Of The Colleges
The colleges at the University of Cambridge were originally an incidental feature of the system. No college is as old as the university itself. The colleges were endowed fellowships of scholars. There were also institutions without endowments, called hostels. The hostels were gradually absorbed by the colleges over the centuries, but they have left some traces, such as the name of Garret Hostel Lane.
Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse, Cambridge’s first college, in 1284. Many colleges were founded during the 14th and 15th centuries, but colleges continued to be established until modern times, although there was a gap of 204 years between the founding of Sidney Sussex in 1596 and that of Downing in 1800. The most recently established college is Robinson, built in the late 1970s. However, Homerton College only achieved full university college status in March 2010, making it the newest full college .
In medieval times, many colleges were founded so that their members would pray for the souls of the founders, and were often associated with chapels or abbeys. The colleges’ focus changed in 1536 with the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Henry VIII ordered the university to disband its Faculty of Canon Law and to stop teaching “scholastic philosophy“. In response, colleges changed their curricula away from canon law, and towards the classics, the Bible, and mathematics.
Public University Vs Private University
Public universities are funded by the state that they are located in, therefore there is such a thing as in-state vs out-of-state tuition. Residents of the state will pay much less tuition than nonresidents up to $20,000 per year less.
Private universities receive no public funding and are therefore the same tuition for everyone. They are almost always more expensive than public universities, and are typically created with religion in mind, most commonly Catholic.
Photo by Caleb Minear on Unsplash
Commonly referred to as community college, a college typically offers 2-year programs, instead of the 4-year programs that are offered at universities. However, many colleges do offer bachelors degrees.
Colleges cater to a wider variety of students including high school students, adult learners, second language learners, and more. Colleges and community colleges offer continuing education, certificates or short-term programs, and they never offer degrees higher than a bachelors degree.
These types of schools will rarely have athletics, study abroad programs, Greek communities or on-campus dorm systems.
You May Like: Is Ashworth College Recognized By Employers
College Vs University In American And British English
Theres one more distinction to note: as noted, in American English, college is commonly used as the general way to refer to higher education, e.g., She graduated from college or He is back form college break. In British English, university is frequently used as the catch-all term, usually without an article, e.g., Where is she going to university next year? University is a common informal shortening, as in He is off to uni soon.
So although it can be confusing, and you may feel like you need a college degree to keep it straight, just remember: although the words college and university are similar and can be interchanged depending on the context, they also have their own specific meanings. Just ask a proud alumnus about their college or university, and theyll surely explainand maybe drone on and on aboutjust what makes their alma mater unique.
Community College Vs University: What’s The Difference
- Ph.D., English, University of Pennsylvania
- M.A., English, University of Pennsylvania
- B.S., Materials Science & Engineering and Literature, MIT
Community colleges and universities each have their own advantages and disadvantages, and they have significant differences when it comes to admissions, academics, costs, and student life.
Also Check: Pell Grants For Single Mothers
State College Or University
As the name implies, a state college/university is run by a state or local government. In fact, each of the 50 U.S. states has at least one state university. Many states also have multiple state colleges . These schools receive most of their funding from public funds.
Its pretty easy to figure out which schools are state-run, as the majority bear the name of the state theyre in. For example, Oregon State University is in Oregon and the University of Utah is in Utah.
Student Culture And Campus Life
This is one area where large universities will always have community colleges beat. Most community colleges don’t invest as much in campus facilities, athletic programs, and student clubs/organizations. That makes it more affordable, but many students feel the need to have âthe college experienceâ, which includes living in student dorms and participating in campus life.
You won’t find nearly as much of this culture at community colleges, and certainly no fraternities or sororities. But you may be surprised by some of the campuses in the nation’s larger community colleges. Many have invested substantially in campus facilities like student centers, campus dining, computer labs and state-of-the-art classrooms.
Some community college students who transfer to big universities have an adjustment period. It is easy to feel alienated when you’re new to an environment and most other people have already been there for two years. Most universities provide services for transfer students that make it easier to engage in the social life of the campus.
If you’d like to play sports but don’t feel that you’re ready for NCAA Division I competition, you may be able get more playing time and better enjoy the sport at a community college. Many of the larger schools have active and diverse athletics programs, including competitive football, basketball, track and field, baseball, volleyball and more.
Also Check: Berkeley College Nyc Dorms