State Schools

A state school is run and managed by a local or state government. All the 50 states in the US have at least one state university and probably several state colleges.

Private College or University

These schools are run and supported privately and are independent of government control. The fee is usually higher than that of the state schools and are often smaller in size than state schools.

Two Year College

High school graduates can take admission in a two-year college and earn an Associate’s degree. Some of these colleges are supported by state, or are public with others held privately. Before joining a two year college a student should first find out whether an associate’s degree will quality him or her for a job in their country. In some countries, students should have a bachelor’s degree to get a good job. Such students usually transfer to four year universities, where they complete their bachelor’s degree in another 2 years.

Community College

A community college is a 2 year state or public college and usually serve a particular community be it s city or a county. Many of the students live at their homes and commute to the college everyday. Others are evening students who wok during the day. International students are often welcome at community colleges. Community colleges also offer special services like free tutoring, ESL programs, housing and advising services etc.

Professional School

In a professional school a student is trained in diverse fields like art, music, engineering, business etc. some colleges are part of universities, while others are separate entities.

Institute of Technology

These colleges have a minimum of four years courses in the fields of science and technology. Some institutes have graduate programs too.

Technical Institute

Tej Kohli says that a technical institute is one that trains students in fields such as industrial engineering or medical technology. Although the program may prepare you for the career you want, the degree may not be at par with a college or university degree.

Church-related School

A lot of US colleges and universities were founded by religious groups. And most often than not these schools prefer to admit students who are members of the sponsoring religious group.

This post is a part of the Tej Kohli Education blog’s series of education system in America. For more informative posts on this topic keep reading Tej Kohli‘s blog.

In the America, the word School denotes any place where people come to learn. A college or a university can be called a school. The word school stands for any English language institute, graduate program or high school.

College or university follows after high-school. In the US, a college is not a secondary school or high-school. All the college and university courses start in the thirteenth year of the school, when a student reaches 17 or maybe 18 years of age. A two-year college gets you an Associate’s degree, while a foure year program or university gets you a bachelor’s degree. Colleges or universities that offer these degrees are known as ‘undergraduate schools’.

A university is a larger school with multiple colleges and offer courses which can be pursued after secondary education. Every university has at least one college where students can acquire a bachelor’s degree. The other schools are generally “graduate” aka “postgraduate” schools where students can acquire advanced or specialized degrees. Hence, a university provides both the bachelor’s degree and graduate degrees like the LLM and Ph.D.

A bachelor’s degree can be earned at either a university or a college. However, the US students prefer calling it a ‘college’ ratjer than university when referring to the the four-year undergraduate program and the bachelor’s degree. You will often hear them say ‘going to college’ and ‘college degree’ when they talk about undergraduate programs at either a university or a college.

Most colleges are independent schools which are isolated from the university campus. A few colleges are a part of the university and are located within the university campus. Some colleges offer graduate programs in selected majors. But usually it is the universities where students can do graduate programs. Therefore, most Americans use the word “university” instead of “college” when they talk about graduate programs.

Conclusion

The US students use the word “college ” while referring to undergraduate programs, and the word “university” when talking about the graduate programs.

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