what is the differene between a college and a university?

Answer 1

Typically, a university has a larger enrollment and more major offerings than a college. And, as other posters have said, there are "colleges" within a university, such as a college of engineering or a college of education, and all of the colleges make up the university. (But so as not to be confused, people within the different colleges at a university take classes together, live together, and are not typically separated from each other. But if you want to take an engineering class or major in engineering, you take a class organized and run through the college of engineering, and so on.)

Another key difference is that, typically, colleges offer only undergraduate programs or limited graduate programs, whereas universities will often offer extensive graduate programs. These can be master's programs (typically two-year programs such as MBAs--business degrees), Phd programs (longer programs designed for people who want to do extensive research in their field, and possibly teach at the college level), medical school, dental school, vet school, etc.

There is also a lot more research being done at universities than at colleges--graduates students and faculty performing research in just about any area, such as psychology, biology, history, etc. This is rumored to be changing as more colleges run their own research programs.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

There is no hard and fast rule about how these terms are used in the USA... In some parts of the world "college" means a secondary school or a lower level of university. In the USA the terms "college" and "university" are used somewhat interchangeably. It is not a question of prestige - some schools, such as Middlebury College, Amherst College, Williams College, Harvey Mudd College, etc are at the very highest level of prestige. Those schools are all rather small and traditionally focus on undergraduate education with limited students above the BA/BS level. Their graduates often go on to do graduate degrees at the most prestigious universities.

The term "university" refers mostly to institutions that have several associated colleges - as Duke University which has an undergraduate liberal arts college, an engineering college, a law college and a medical college, etc. However, there are even exceptions to this general rule, for instance Dartmouth College is one of the most elite schools in the USA, a member of the Ivy League, and has very distinguished schools of liberal arts, medicine and business. Another example would be Boston College. These are elite universities in everything but name and their faculty are often world renowned scholars and researchers.

It's a little confusing, I agree.

Answer 3

A university is a collection of colleges - for example at the University of Delaware there's the College of Engineering, the College of Arts of Sciences, the College of Music, etc. There's really not much difference in the States except that Universities tend to be larger and have more resources. The only difference is Community Colleges which are smaller and can only give 2 year or Associates degrees instead of 4 year degrees.

Answer 4

A university can be thought of as a much bigger college, or a collection of colleges. For instance, Penn State University has multiple colleges for its students. Business majors are members of the SMEAL College of Business. Other majors have different colleges. Also, a university also gives out degrees at higher levels, Masters, PhDs.

Answer 5

Here in London Ontario we have Fanshawe College and the University Of Western Ontario. There are differences for instance tuition at Fanshawe is less than Western. Some of the courses at Fanshawe are different for instance you can take courses in skilled trades as well as courses that are offered by Western. Going to Western means you can take courses like law and medicine that aren't available at Fanshawe.

Answer 6

The difference between a college and a university is that a college just offers a collection of degrees in one specific area, while a university is a collection of colleges. When you go to a university you are going to be graduating from one of their colleges, such as the business college. As to which is better, it depends on what you want. Single colleges tend to be smaller while universities are bigger, but universities are better known.

Answer 7

Universities are different from Colleges in that they have "schools" within their school to teach specific disciplines. So in order to get a business degree for example you would first apply into the specific program/school within that University.
Whereas in a College you simply declare a major and take the classes necessary within that department to fulfill the requirements of your desired major.

Answer 8

Well in Australia College is where you go if you do not have the grades to get into University to do bridging courses to get you in. In America they call University College but most of the World call it University.

Answer 9

as some other people said, there's not much defference.
One of the differences is that univercities tend to be much larger. Universities may even contain colleges in themselves.
For more information about the difference, see my attached source

Answer 10

A big difference is that at Universities the professors are required to conduct research, while at colleges they are not.

Also Universities usually offer more majors, and graduate programs.