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What's the different between college and university?

Whats the difference between college and university in america?

  • cause like here in england we leave high school at 16 then go to college then go to uni at 18, but if americans don't usually leave high school till around 17/18 is there a difference between their college and their uni or is it the same thing? or do they do their college wen they r in high school?? lol im so confused :S xxx

  • Answer:

    In the US, compulsory education continues to grade 12 or appx age 17-18. High School is grades 9-12 (appx age 14-18) and is four years. We have no equivalent to "A-levels". The US has no equivalent to a 16-18 year old "college" and there are relatively few examples of extremely different programs at the grades 9-12 level; everyone gets (or not) a "high school diploma" for completing through grade 12. We award nothing for completing any level below grade 12 - we refer to that condition as "a drop out" and it represents less than 15% of the total US population. Some schools have a separate vocational and academic (pre-college) track in their curriculum but the result is the same - a "high school diploma". A 16 year old can leave school in the US too. That is not a completed condition though - when a 16 year old leaves school in the US that is a "drop-out" and they are considered to have quit. In this country that presents the individual with a severe employability handicap. Some will later return to the educational system and acquire a GED (General Equivalency Diploma) in order to qualify for employment or higher education. The GED is taught and tested - the diploma requires passing a comprehensive exam. At the post-secondary level (after completing grade 12); we have two higher education options. We can pursue a technical/vocational education at a technical/community college or we can pursue a bachelor's degree at a college or university. Community Colleges are open admission (anyone that has completed high school may attend) and award vocational certificates and associates degrees. Many trades and technical occupations train at the community college level. This includes nurses, mechanics, repairers, builders, and the like. Some students, in an effort to save on tuition costs, attend a community college with the intent of acquiring the first two years of academic courses required for a bachelor's degree. The cost savings can be substantial, we have essentially no free post-secondary education in the US. Some students in high school are permitted to concurrently enroll in college courses at a community college (occasionally university) while they are still in high school. We refer to this as "dual enrollment" and it allows some advanced students to work at a higher level than the high school would provide. In the US, the terms "college" and "university" have become synonymous. Traditionally, a college taught bachelor's degrees only (maybe a few master's in teaching) and a university taught bachelor's, master's, and the PhD. That distinction has been lost over the years and some "universities" don't teach any master's or higher while some "colleges" do. Whether a school calls itself college or university is entirely up to the school - the terms have come to mean the same. Boston College (for example) is a traditional university. Winthrop University is a traditional public liberal arts college. For all real purposes in the US - the two words interchange. When a student continues his education beyond high school in the US at any level he is said to "be in college" even if he's attending a university. The exception is advanced education such as law or medicine - in which case he is said to "be in law school" even when that law school is part of a college. We rarely use the expression "attending university" in the US though we might say "is attending the University of California". Even then, "going to Berkeley" (Berkeley is a campus of the University of California) would be more common. When we refer to "a college education" we are generally referring to a bachelor's degree even if it's earned at a university. In common use, an associates, bachelor's, master's, or doctorate are all "college degrees" in the US. The US bachelor's degree is a 4-year program (though most people take longer) and we have no three-year degree; some US bachelor's degrees are designed to take 5 years. Master's programs (1.5-3 years full-time) are taught as are the doctorates other than the PhD. The PhD is a combination of taught and research. We have no research-only degrees. (for the US audience, a research degree in this context is one in which you write your dissertation or thesis and if it's good enough you are awarded the degree. No classes required.) Though we are working to the same goal of becoming educated, the relative systems in the US and UK are designed very differently. The degrees awarded (though they have the same or similar names) and the schools that award them (also having similar names) are also very different.

nicole..... at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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They're technically the same thing. They're where you can get a associate's, bachelor's, master's or professional degree (I may have missed some types of degrees, but you get the point). Oftentimes large universities have small colleges within them. Also, the first answerer is totally wrong. Sure, they Ivy Leagues are great, but they're great for some things and for some people. Generally the Ivies are renown for liberal arts degrees (and sometimes more scientific or mathematical degrees), but other schools can be loads better in specific areas. Some non-Ivy League schools actually have significantly tougher requirements than the Ivies themselves. Here's a list of America's top colleges and universities. http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/national-search Now you may think, "Oh, but that list has 11 pages. The colleges at the bottom of the list can't be that good." That's also incorrect. I'd estimate that there are somewhere between 4000 and 5000 colleges and universities in the United States. That's a whole lotta institutions. Something tells me that with that sort of disillusion, the first answerer certainly couldn't get into UC--Berkeley, America's top public school, nor any of the other non-Ivies that are even better than it.

Sweet Voltaire

College and University are basically the same thing. The only difference is a school with college in their name usually has just one focus, whereas a university has many colleges within it. At my school, for example, we have the College of Education, the College of Business, College of History, College fo Nursing, and many others.

Britt

universities are usually made up of smaller colleges. but it's the same thing, really. Universities also tend to have more research going on than say, a liberal arts college.

emzilla

So in America College = Uni in England. In England College = High School in America College and Univerisity? The same things. Just a University has more credentials, standards, it's better off and such. Sometimes Americans do "Dual Enrollment," which is attending "Uni" (in America, known as College or University), while in "College" (In America, known as High School). It's just taking a few courses while also going to "College" (Again, in America, known as High School). You leave high school at 16 and go to college, then go to Uni at 18. That's normal for you. We just leave high school a bit later, usually at 17/18/19. Then we go to College/University. University's are usually harder to get into, so we need better academic credentials. Why do we leave so late? Because it's our belief that the more years we are in, the more mature we will become, the more academic/social/work experience we will have, etc. From all my friends from all over the world, almost all of my friends outside of the US are more mature at 15/16 and up in age, than my American friends at 17 and up in age.

'Ello Popsicles o.0

here we leave high school at 17/18 and go on the college / university to americans college/ university are the same thing a colleg doesnt have as many majors as a university but there is no difference

g

Nothing, but they usually say college. The big difference is between Ivy League colleges/universities (excellent) and the rest (rubbish)

Believe?

Wow. I learned something from this.

Nicole

If you're just leaving high school then there's no difference at all -- universities comprise colleges and graduate schools, so you still attend college, technically, even if you attend a university (Harvard College, for example). "Colleges" are just undergraduate institutions of higher education that aren't part of a larger university. The liberal arts college model that exists in the United States (which is what "college" usually refers to in the U.S.) actually originated in England, but the U.K. largely did away with them to favour the model that universities like Oxford and Cambridge now use. There is a bigger difference that no one seems to use anymore -- that colleges are teaching institutions, where professors don't need research degrees (like the Ph.D.) and focus on teaching their students, while universities are supposed to be research institutions. But even two-year junior colleges and community college in the U.S. are trying to get professors with PhDs these days. Unfortunately, the terms aren't regulated at all, so there are a lot of teaching colleges without many graduate offerings that still call themselves universities. This is especially prevalent where I live in the South/Midwest because competition is lower (the Northeastern U.S. has the oldest, most numerous institutions, the Ivy League, &c.). In Massachusetts, for example, an institution must grant two doctoral degrees to use the name "university" -- my alma mater outside Boston is mostly a liberal arts college with a handful of graduate offerings, just like all of its sister schools around the country but the only Nazarene college that can't use the name "university"! They're often used interchangeably. You can find out more via U.S. State Department: http://www.educationusa.state.gov/home/education-usa/global-left-nav/graduate-study/about-graduate-education-in-the-u/types-of-institutions

petree!

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