What's the difference between college and university in America?

A college in the U.S. is for undergraduates and grants and bachelors degrees (B.S., B.A., etc.). A university grants masters and doctorate graduate degrees (M.S., M.A., M.B.A.,M.F.A., J.D., M.D., etc.). A college can either be exclusively for undergrad programs or is can be part of a university. For example, the undergraduate, bachelors degree from Yale University is granted by Yale College.

In america university and college are interchangeable terms. What you call a college we would call a community college or a 2 year college. What you call university we would call university or college.

In america university and college are interchangeable terms. What you call a college we would call a community college or a 2 year college. What you call university we would call university or college.

While community colleges are just two year schools and are understandable to most people, what many do not understand is that a university is a collection of colleges. They may have the college of business; the liberal arts college and a college of science. Put together they form a university. However, a person usually only attends one college within the university so they can say they go to college or university. Universities also usually are the ones that give advanced degrees, however, there are some schools that only have a college of liberal arts and can give advanced degrees also. This distinction between a college and university is becoming blurred in the US and people just use the words college and university interchangeably.

While community colleges are just two year schools and are understandable to most people, what many do not understand is that a university is a collection of colleges. They may have the college of business; the liberal arts college and a college of science. Put together they form a university. However, a person usually only attends one college within the university so they can say they go to college or university. Universities also usually are the ones that give advanced degrees, however, there are some schools that only have a college of liberal arts and can give advanced degrees also. This distinction between a college and university is becoming blurred in the US and people just use the words college and university interchangeably.

We say college to designate two things: 1. Community college, which is in reality a mini-university as it covers a wide spectrum of subjects (only up to the sophomore level usually). Most people will say "Community College" to distinguish this from a university. 2. A university is indeed a collection of colleges. American students major in a subject which is within a particular college (business, liberal arts, mathematics etc). So really you "attend college." When an American says "college" they, in 99% of cases are describing a university. Once you achieve a bachelor's degree you can attend graduate school or "grad school" which is almost always part of a university. Grad school means studying anything beyond a bachelor's degree. Law school and Medical school are grad schools but since they are specialized we refer to them as "law school" and "medical school." Trade schools are often called "tech schools", "trade schools", or "vocational technical" (or "Vo-tech" this is an older term). Americans rarely use the word university. If asked where one goes to school then you may hear it.."University of X" but most will simply use the abbreviation "U of X" or "X U." TLDR College means university in America.

A community or junior college only gives 2 year degrees. A college is *usually* smaller than a university. A university will be composed of many colleges (Business college, Liberal Arts college...and so forth). Some colleges grow to university size and just do not change their name. Mississippi College says "A Christian University" below their name on their website. Belhaven College changed their name a few years ago to Belhaven University because they grew to several campuses and several colleges. On their website it cites the reason for the name change: "the change of our name to University more accurately describes who we have become." and goes on to cite their growth and number enrolled in graduate programs. As a side note, if we were going to be going to a university in the fall we would still say: "I'm going to start college in the fall". We would never say, "I'm going to go start university in the fall." We only use the word university when saying the exact name of the school. For example: "I am going to start Duke University in the fall."

While people use the terms interchangably, a college can only offer 2 or 4 yeat degrees, whereas a university can also offer graduate degrees (e.g. JD, masters, MD, etc)

In America, a university is basically a huge college.