College vs University?

<p>Hi - First post to this board.</p>

<p>Been casually touring schools all summer with my wife and son. Also been reviewing th posts on this board. We will start setting up official visits in the next few weeks. Have narrowed the list to the following:</p>

<p>Villanova, Scranton, Siena, SUNY Binghampton, Lehigh, UConn.</p>

<p>We visited Siena this past weekend and were very impressed. My son absolutely loved the campus. </p>

<p>But, what's up with a College designation vs. a University designation? Does this mean anything significant? Does it put Siena in a different class than the other schools we're considering?</p>

<p>A college, by definition, does not offer graduate degrees. The typical argument for a college is they focus all of their resources strictly on the undergraduates. The argument against is they don’t have the depth of offerings that larger research universities may have.
There are some Universities that are really colleges. Colgate U, for example, does offer graduate degrees but to only ~ 30 students/year. Lehigh is a real Univ but from anectodal evidence acts much like a college for its undergrads.<br>
Hope this helps - good luck.</p>

<p>Sometimes it is only a name used. There are exceptions to the graduate degree=university rule. For example;</p>

<p>-Boston College is really a full blown university with many graduate programs, but as there was already a Boston Univeristy, could not take that name so remained a “College”</p>

<p>-Dartmouth College is also a university with a medical school and other graduate/PhD programs, but has chosen to keep it’s original name.</p>

<p>-Colgate University is more of a college, but as they offer a few masters degrees, can qualify as a university</p>

<p>Pardullet is quite correct in that there are many small universities that offer few masters degrees and are more like colleges. To see a good listing of these, US News and World Report college rankings has a category of Regional Universities (and colleges) that include such schools.</p>