What's the difference between a College, and a University?

My family has been *****ing and *****ing at me because I'd rather go to Bowdoin College than UC Berkeley. Their rationale: "Berkeley is a national university and it's top 5 (its rank is 21 I believe). Bowdoin isn't even a university."

Of course, Bowdoing being #6 in liberal arts colleges means nothing to them and they just want me to go to Berkeley, but I just got into an argument with my mother who is parroting what my sister said: that it's a univserity.

Is there an actualy difference between a University and a College?

usually universities are socially more accepted as the "post-secondary schools for more intelligent thought/individuals"


but it really just depends on the content given for the schools

and kollij is four lusers

I think I heard something about colleges generally being for more "hands-on" careers and universities for more not-hands-on stuff.

Yeah college you have a more hands on learning experience as the classes are smaller so you get to know your teachers better and they can help you more and do some labs or hands on experience with what your learning. University from what I heard is more you walk into a huge lecture hall, take notes, and write essays.

Truthfully in the United States, virtually nothing.



In Canada and Europe and other places there is a bigger difference though.

AFAIK, the distinction is that generally, Universities grant doctorate degrees, while colleges do not. In Massachusetts, the law is that an institution must have a doctorate program to be granted University status, but other states/countries are bound to differ.

This post has been edited by Retriever II on Mar 30 2009, 10:39 PM

Well, honestly, I don't know.

The school I go to is called Staughton College, and in reality, it is just a public Australian high school.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/college

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=university&db=luna

Universities, as their name suggests, are far larger, with something of a larger scope in what's available to be studied. Usually a university is a collection of multiple colleges, but some schools break that structure and specialize in a specific study. In that case, they might be closer to a college than a university, but still use "University in the name.

EDIT: Post cut off.

This post has been edited by JetSetRamazuki on Mar 31 2009, 11:59 AM

I'm not sure how it is in other universities, but the two I've seen have basically been large collections of colleges all put together like a super-college. UCF has colleges of arts, science, nursing, teaching, business, digital media, and others that I can't remember. I guess it basically allows you to take a collection of courses that you could only otherwise take by visiting several different individual colleges.


I have also heard that in places like Europe and Australia, high school is sometimes referred to as "college".