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August 9

What's the differemce between a College and a University in the USA?

Our article says "A college (Latin: collegium) may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary school." The last four of those meanings apply here in Australia.

But it's my observation that in the US, it's almost always the first, a tertiary educational institution of some sort. But the US also has universities. What's the difference? HiLo48 (talk) 08:06, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A college may be part of a university, e.g. Dietrich College, part of Carnegie Mellon University. Sometimes the entire institution is the college, e.g., Dartmouth College, which is a university. And sometimes college just refers to the general institution of higher education, e.g. I went to college. So it depends on the context. It almost never means a high school in the US. Andre🚐 09:27, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I'm well aware it's not a secondary school, but it sems a very common goal for American kids to want to go to college, but very rarely do they say they want to go to university. HiLo48 (talk) 10:09, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

“Going to college” in the United States means attending a tertiary educational institution in a course of study toward a bachelor’s degree. (The particular institution might only grant associate degrees, but it is assumed that the student then would transfer to a different institution to obtain the bachelor’s degree. A student who has already obtained a bachelor’s degree is in “graduate school.”) A “university” typically includes multiple colleges, so “going to college” is unambiguous, while “going to university” would sound anomalous if the student were attending a standalone college that is not part of a larger university. John M Baker (talk) 12:53, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

They want to go to college, probably because they are implying its function as understood in America (tertiary education), whereas American English generally has "university" (and hospital) imply a ___location, not its function (the university, the hospital). So, whereas others might say, 'go to uni', the American would say, 'go to college.' As for why "college" developed that connotation (tertiary education) in America, is likely a matter of its development at a time when few went beyond primary school, if that, so did not think about going to preparatory school or college at any level, let alone universities. Alanscottwalker (talk) 18:18, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Side note, thank you for finally describing the difference between American and British usage of university and hospital that helped me understand why the British usage seems off to me. User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 15:09, 12 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wasn't it that great American Winston Churchill that said something about a 'common people divided by a language'? :) Alanscottwalker (talk) 14:00, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Although the phrase has also been attributed to Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde, I prefer this one: "The Irish writer George Bernard Shaw once said: 'England and America are two countries divided by a common language'".

It's the language that is common, not the people. Sdiabhon Sdiamhon (talk) 03:12, 17 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Is it? :) -- Alanscottwalker (talk) 18:11, 17 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

See also Community colleges in the United States. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:20, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@User:HiLo48 When I got my bachelor's degree, it was awarded by what was then known as the Canberra College of Advanced Education (CCAE). Despite the name, that institution's degrees were equivalent in status to those from the Australian National University or any other Australian university. CCAE was later redesignated the University of Canberra. So "college" has not always meant what it means these days in Australia. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 02:17, 10 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A university graduate would spell it "difference"ly. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:51, 12 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"College" and "university" are often synonyms in American usage. "Go to college" is a fixed idiom and any tertiary academic institution may be called a college whatever it's formal name may be. My experience has been that institutions that call themselves colleges often only award Associates or bachelor's degrees while Universities are more likely to award Masters and Doctorates as well, but that is by no means a universal or legally backed requirement. Eluchil404 (talk) 03:28, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

American usage is grossly inconsistent. One of the oldest institution in the country, the College of William and Mary, is older than the nation-state itself, and sees no need to change its name. For that matter, one of the most prestigious institutions in applied geology (so to speak) is the Colorado School of Mines, which grants degrees at the Ph.D. level and has for years. But smaller and more insecure "colleges" like the former Freed-Hardeman College do announce such changes while openly stating that the change is because "university" is seen as the more prestigious name.

As far as ordinary conversation, "I'm going to university" in the mouth of an American sounds artificial, something only a pathetically Anglophone social climber might say. --Orange Mike | Talk 05:23, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. As an American, I see no inconsistency in saying "I went to college at the University of Texas". However, "college" does very much imply being an undergraduate working toward a bachelor's degree (or associate degree at a junior college or community college). I would never say I went to college at the universities where I got my M.A. and Ph.D. I'd say I went to graduate school there. —Mahāgaja · talk 13:19, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, things being called universities were a much later development and there was not 'universal' adoption, so to speak, and what also might be different from other nations, the moniker was likely unregulated, and may still be, depending on the some 56 states or territories. But the American could easily say, 'I'm going to the university', if the context seems clear. Alanscottwalker (talk) 14:12, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A similar thing happened in my hometown with Lenoir-Rhyne College becoming Lenoir-Rhyne University after over a century of operations, with the change being said to "help better reflect the growth being made in enrollment, faculty and staff." [1] --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 14:39, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's a related discussion, somewhat meandering and inconclusive, in this old ref-desk thread. Deor (talk) 14:08, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

On a side note, there's the expression "Give it the old college try", never the "university try". Clarityfiend (talk) 22:58, 20 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Leaving out the specialized usage of a college as a subdivision within a university, there is no uniform distinction. However institutions calling themselves universities, or considered such, tend to be distinguished from those called colleges by several things:

• Size. "Universities" tend to be bigger.
• Breadth of subject matters taught. An institution that focuses only on technical skill is probably a trade school or technical institute; one that teaches only the humanities is probably a liberal-arts college.
• Advanced degrees conferred. A "college" will award bachelor's degrees and sometimes master's degrees, but rarely doctorates.
• Level of research activity. A "college" is usually mostly about teaching; a "university" will almost always do some original research.

Note that there are many institutions that almost everyone would agree are universities that do not have "university" in the name. Dartmouth has already been mentioned, and many schools called "Institute of Technology" will also be in this category (MIT, Caltech), but not all of them (Fashion Institute of Technology). --Trovatore (talk) 00:01, 21 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

HiLo48, a fair bit of what I am about to say is touched upon in comments above, but I'm going to synthesize it together with additional elements of the semantics (both in idiomatic common usage and more formal technical administrative distinction) that have yet to be addressed, to hopefully be responsive to the heart of your inquiry:

First, as a threshold matter, one has to consider the colloquial way in how both "college" is often used: to have "gone to college" suggests one has had some degree of post-secondary education, whether at an institution which is designated as a college or a university. I would say (bearing in mind my mixed background/experience of unis in the UK, States, and Canada), that contrary to what has been vaguely implied above, it is not unheard of for an American to say that they are going to university when referencing their undergraduate work, nor to refer to their time "at college" in a way that is inclusive of both their undergraduate and graduate stints. It's all very fuzzy.

To further complicate matters, a 'college' may refer to either 1) an institution as a whole (in which case it is typically, but not always, a community college, which tend to have cheaper tuition and less onerous admissions standard--though again, not a universal rule that holds up for all comparisons), or 2) a specific department within a larger institution, in which case that institution is typically designated a university. When referencing a college in the latter case, it often means there is a historical campus associated with that aspect of the larger entity, but sometimes it is just an administrative distinction. To be fair to America, many of the distinctions and variances discussed in this immediate paragraph also apply in commonwealth systems: I'm not sure about Australia: you would know better yourself. Incidentally, that raises another idiomatic factor: referring to the university experience as 'uni' is something I have heard most from Aussies, somewhat for Britains, but I don't think ever for Americans or Canadians.

Now Trovatore has identified a few extra distinctions, but I think that two of them need to be pulled back slightly, as they are not as uniform as implied: while unquestionably Universities tend to be larger institutions, there is considerable regional variation: there are definitely many colleges in states with cities of significant size and population density that are larger than many universities in less dense states and territories. Similarly, although it's true that very few community colleges are research institutions, many (actually, probably the majority) of universities also are not: most states have a "state university" system, of institutions that are all significantly subsidized and regulated by a state, with some degree of interconnection between their administration, the extent of which varies greatly from system to system. These universities run the gamut from highly prestigious schools that are about comparable with Ivy League institutions down to very broadly accessible institutions that have funding, programs, and campuses of a similar scale to community colleges. The tertiary schools which adopt the label of college, by the way, can be private institutions, state-sponsored or (not uncommonly) funded partly by municipalities and counties. Anyway, with regard to "state universities", I would say the majority in fact not "research institutions", particularly in those states that have up to a couple dozen campuses/universities within the state system. However, Trovatore's observation about "colleges" offering degrees that rise only as high as a masters program is pretty uniform. I'm sure there must be exceptions, but I have never encountered a community college in the States with a doctoral program.

It's important to note that many of the distinctions here are best understood as trends, no hard and fast rules. From a purely formalistic and administrative perspective, a degree is distinguished by its type (associate, bachelors, masters, doctorate, post-doctoral fellowship), not it's provenance. That is to say, if you apply for graduate program, you will be meeting minimum requirement of previous bachelor's education regardless of whether you attended Yale or the College of Podunk. But beyond that technicality, the socially persuasive value of your degree in pursuing either further educational or employment opportunities is much more informed by the very specific school you went to, and those reputations carry a lot of weight. So while on average university students can be expected to have higher earning and advancement outcomes than community college students, there is a lot of variation within that generality.

The use of "college" (as the title for the overarching institution) has therefor become one way in which a school can indicate relatively low costs of attendance in an American post-secondary educational system that is in crisis over cost and accessibility, which is a whole other topic. It is now common for many beginning their tertiary education to first attend one or two years at a community college (or even just a university of lower standing in the university rankings) and then matriculate/transfer to the institution where from which they wish their bachelor's degree to be issued. In this sense, their "going to college" could involve a community college, followed by a transfer to university, from which they achieve a degree which might be issued from a college (meaning sub-institution within that university), before attending graduate school at the same or separate university. See: not complicated at all! SnowRise ^{let's rap} 00:22, 24 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]