STUDENTS in the United States quite happily use the words school, college and university to describe exactly the same place.
"Where do you go to school?" you might get asked. "I just got into Columbia University. I'm the first person in my family to go to college." If you're an international student all this can be extremely confusing, especially if you're from a country where the words have more distinct meanings.
So what is the difference between school, college and university in the USA? Hopefully this short guide will clear up any confusion.
School
A school in the United States is any place of learning. Children go to preschool, elementary school, middle (or junior high) school and high school for their first 12 years of schooling.
Then after the age of 17 or 18 they may go to a college, university, language institute or performing arts conservatory. All of these can be described as school in conversation.
After graduating they may go on to study for a master's or doctoral degree. If this degree is designed to prepare them for a particular profession, they will attend one of their university's professional schools - for example the law school, business school or medicine school.
If it does not provide training for a professional field, they will attend the graduate school within their university.
College
When Americans say they are "going to college" they mean they have left high school and are continuing with their higher education. The place where they are studying could be a university, college, institute, conservatory, school, union or academy. It's all still college.
The term college students can be used interchangeably with university students but it's usually understood to mean undergraduates. This is because traditionally, a college is the part of a university where undergraduates do their four-year bachelor's degrees, for example Harvard College at Harvard University.
However, it's complicated because some universities do have colleges that offer advanced degrees. Also, there are plenty of colleges in the USA that are not part of a university.
Liberal arts colleges are academic institutions that are usually smaller than universities.
Here, students study a wide range of subjects in the humanities and sciences before majoring in a particular discipline. Most offer four-year bachelor's degrees, though some offer graduate programs too. Examples are Amherst College in Massachusetts and St Olaf College in Minnesota.
Liberal arts colleges are occasionally referred to as universities, especially if they cater for graduate students as well as undergraduate students. Indeed Wesleyan University in Connecticut is a liberal arts college where students can go on to do PhDs. Some liberal arts colleges are also affiliated to universities, meaning they are independent legally and financially but share teaching resources and faciliities.
Community, junior and technical colleges offer two-year undergraduate programs. These might be academic associate's degrees (undergraduate degrees that only take two years) or vocational qualifications. In conversation, these kinds of colleges are never described as universities.
Just to complicate things, the word college is also sometimes used interchangeably or alongside faculty, department or school to describe a part of a university that focuses on one subject. A university might have a business school, an arts faculty and a college of law, for example. Central Michigan University has a School of Accounting within its College of Business Administration and a Department of Computer Science within its College of Science and Technology.
University
Universities are institutions of higher education that grant academic degrees in a wide variety of subjects to both undergraduates and postgraduates. They tend to be bigger than colleges and offer more choice of programs. They are also more likely to have a strong research focus as well as teaching.
Although students attending a university may say they "go to college" they tend to use the word university or graduate school if they are doing a master's or doctoral degree.
So, there you have it: the meaning of 'college' in the USA.
