What is college/ university for exactly?

the point of college/university is trying to get a major for whatever career you'd like to have. you take most classes that focus on subjects that you'll need to use in your job. like if you want to be an architect you'd have to take math, visual arts. and college/university is also where you can take subjects at school such as acting and dance, like fun extra curriculars but it's mostly for learning more for your dream job.

It depends where you're from I guess. Here in Canada, if you've declared your major, you start your first year taking a few prerequisites and a few electives for a total of 5 courses. As your university career continues you take less and less electives and more and more courses pertaining to your major. You don't have to take anything unless it's required for your major. For example, I'm an English Lit major so I (thankfully) don't ever have to touch math or business or science or anything of that sort unless I choose to. By the same token, I can take things I'm interested in such as drama and philosophy even though they have nothing to do with English Lit because I take them as my electives. I hope that helps a bit!

University is where people go to learn to think for themselves and have core classes that cover your field of study but then have tonnes of electives. It doesn't have as much structure and can be hard for an immature person. They give you a lot of time to study or do research on your own and you have structured classes too. The dont spoon feed you what you are supposed to know ... you are given the tools to figure things out and the prof's guide you on what you need to read or study. Doctors and lawyers are more structured than learning to be a writer. A degree can be applied to many careers...ie a med student can go on to learn surgery or do research or be a general practitioner Colleges and trade schools are more like high-school with less free time to study on your own You are there to learn specific skills that are needed to do the job you want to do after. like a nurse aid would work as a nurse aid. A plumber would be a plumber. College degrees used to be looked down upon because they lead to specific trades that people sometimes got stuck in. But nowadays so many people went to university that there is a shortage of people with specific skills and a plumber can earn as much as a good lawyer. The best example for the difference between university and a trade school is that at university you could learn to write articles for a magazine and at a trade school you would learn the skills to print the magazine. If I could go back I would go to a trade school and learn a trade in a year so that when I went to university that I could have a great part time job to pay for it.

You go to class, like high school, but the classes are all seperate from each other and can be any time during the day that you choose. You are required to take introductory courses to some certain subjects, like math, science, and history, but for the most part you take classes that are part of your chosen major. You need to take required classes related to your major, but about half of them you can pick from a large list. It's like high school if you got to choose most of your classes.