Dartmouth

What’s in a name? Is there a difference between a college and a university?: Advice for Juniors Researching Colleges

As you research colleges this summer to come up with an initial list of schools where you may apply, understanding how they characterize themselves may provide important information. Whether a school is a “college” or a “university” can make a difference.

Most— but not all— colleges and universities offer a liberal education. That doesn’t refer to politics! “Liberal” in this case goes back to the original meaning of the word: “unrestricted.” It’s an educational approach where a student is called on to examine problems and issues from multiple vantage points and learns how to think, communicate, question, and probe. The rationale behind a liberal education is that the world is changing rapidly and training for a specific discipline or job is ultimately less practical than learning how to be ready for a world unknown.

Undergraduate education in the United States is dominated by institutions that hold to the notion that a liberal education is the best way to prepare for a life of significance, meaning, and means. There are, however, also terrificc options that do not insist students be liberally educated.

Here are the def nitions of the four general categories of selective four- year higher education

institutions:

College Goes to the Movies

Yeah but Becky, I can't stay here. I aced my SATs which means that if I graduate, I can go to whatever college I want. Brittany S. Pierce, Glee

I'm applying to Oxford and the Sorbonne, but Harvard is my safety school. Max Fischer, Rushmore

I can't write and I can't spell.That's the privilege of 
a first-class education. Dickie, The Talented 
Mr. Ripley, (Dickie is a Princeton grad)

By the way, you know I ultimately do all these things for the good of mankind, right? Sometimes I don’t think I come off that way. Paris Geller, Gilmore Girls, (who desperately needs some volunteer work for her college application)