I am Australian and wonder what is the difference, if any, between college and university in the USA?

in the US theres community colleges and regular universities/colleges. community colleges are basically the Australian definition of colleges. It's where you earn certificates and associate degrees.. whereas a proper university/college offers you a bachelor's degree. you can study two years at a community college and transfer to a proper university/college to complete your bachelor's and save money. A lot of people like mature students, teenage moms, and people who can't afford expensive colleges attend community colleges, since they are cheaper and more convenient (and many have open door admissions meaning whoever applies gets in, they have to take placement tests after)

When a US school is called a “College” it is a single school though it may offer many majors. If it is a “University” it is a collection of several schools, called “colleges”. When you go to a university you actually attend a college that is part of the university. For example, my daughter was at the College of Information Technology and Engineering which is part of a larger university. That university also has a College of Liberal Arts, College of Science, and College of Medicine. As well, colleges are often only undergrad schools. Most schools with graduate programs are usually universities. However there are exceptions and there are colleges with graduate programs. If you are going for an undergrad degree it is fine to go to a 4 year college instead of a university. However, in Canada, a “college” is sort of like what is called a “community college in the USA in that they offer 2 year programs and can offer university transfer in many cases. In Canada “Community Colleges” are often one year schools that teach a trade. The 4 year schools in Canada are almost all called “Universities”.

In America, college and university are almost used like synonyms. We often say, "I plan to go to college" and then go to university. In America, what you would consider 'college' we would consider 'career college' or 'community college' or 'vocational schools.' In America, there are colleges within Universities. For instance, the University of Bumbles has a College of Engineering and a College of Liberal Arts. There are also outstanding colleges that are not part of a university like the College of William and Mary. Then there's the University of Phoenix which is actually a career college but it's so big, technically it can call itself a unviersity. Even McDonalds has a university for flipping burgers, no joke, called Hamburger University.

college is the general term for university and college but university is the higher and it's where people earn bachelors, masters, and PhD degrees. college is where you get certificates like in cosmotology and it only takes 2 to 3 years. university takes from 4 to 5 years or longer, depends on what degree you're looking for

Here there really isn't much difference. Each school will call itself whatever they do based on tradition, but academically, there isn't any distinction between a University of Moorhead and, say, a Boston College. What you refer to as a College in Australia we would call a Technical School.

In the United States, University is a collection of Colleges. A College is one College. A community/Junior college is something different though. At a junior/community college all a student can get is an associate degree. But at a University, a student picks a major, and that major will be located in one of the many Colleges at that University and the student will take most of his/her classes in that one specific college, and that specific college will award him/her a bachelor degree. There are some Colleges where it's just one College with no University. At those, you can still get a Bachelor's degree, but you do not have other colleges around. The Universities or colleges where students can earn bachelor's degrees also award Masters and PhDs.

I live in the US, and to me, there is no difference. Sometimes college is a little bit less prestigious than a university (community college, ivy league university), but the way I see it, there isn't really a difference in the term.

I'm from New England in the USA and college here is as expensive as hell! It cost me 24,000$ a year to go to an instate school (which is suppose to be cheap!)

by college you mean like TAFE or Polytechnics west (new name same thing lol) ??? good question :)