College vs. School — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Fiza Rafique — Updated on November 1, 2023
College is a tertiary education institution; school is any place of learning, including primary and secondary education.
Difference Between College and School
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
A college typically refers to an institution of higher education offering degrees and is often part of a university. School is a broader term that encompasses all levels of education, from kindergarten to high school, and includes colleges when speaking in general terms.
Schools cover a comprehensive range of educational stages, including primary and secondary education, which lay the foundational knowledge. Colleges, conversely, focus on specialized higher education, building upon the knowledge gained at school.
In terms of purpose, a school provides a more general education and is compulsory for children in many countries. Colleges provide optional advanced education in specific areas of study and are not compulsory.
Faculties at colleges are usually specialists in their field of study, offering expertise and knowledge at an advanced level. In schools, teachers deliver a wider variety of subjects at a more basic level, catering to a broader age range and developmental stage.
The social environments of colleges and schools also differ; colleges offer a more adult environment with greater independence, while schools are more structured and supervise a younger student body.
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Comparison Chart
Level of Education
Tertiary education, often post-secondary.
All education stages, including primary and secondary.
Degree of Specialization
Specialized in certain fields or disciplines.
Broad curriculum covering many subjects.
Age Range
Typically adults or young adults.
Children and teenagers, generally.
Compulsory Education
Voluntary for advanced learning.
Often compulsory up to a certain age.
Degrees Offered
Offers degrees like bachelor's, master's.
Does not offer degrees; foundational education.
Compare with Definitions
College
College is an institution for higher education often providing degrees.
She was excited to get acceptance letters from several colleges.
School
School is an institution for educating children or a particular stage of formal education.
The school is hosting a science fair next month.
College
College is a tertiary-level educational institution offering specialized courses.
After college, he plans to start his own business.
School
School can be an organization that provides instruction in a particular skill or field.
He enrolled in a culinary school to become a chef.
College
College can refer to an undergraduate program within a university.
The college of engineering is renowned for its research.
School
School refers to the process of education or learning in a classroom setting.
School will be in session until the end of June.
College
College also denotes a standalone institution that may not offer graduate programs.
The community college offers two-year associate degrees.
School
School also means the students and staff of a particular institution.
Our school won the state championship.
College
College is used in some regions to describe a private secondary school.
She attended a college preparatory school.
School
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students (or "pupils") under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsory.
College
A college (Latin: collegium) is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering vocational education, or a secondary school.
School
An institution for the instruction of children or people under college age.
College
An institution of higher learning that grants the bachelor's degree in liberal arts or science or both.
School
An institution for instruction in a skill or business
A secretarial school.
A karate school.
College
An undergraduate division or school of a university offering courses and granting degrees in a particular field or group of fields.
School
A college or university.
College
A junior or community college.
School
An institution within or associated with a college or university that gives instruction in a specialized field and recommends candidates for degrees.
College
A school offering special instruction in a professional or technical subject
A medical college.
School
A division of an educational institution constituting several grades or classes
Advanced to the upper school.
College
The students, faculty, and administration of one of these schools or institutions
New policies adopted by the college.
School
The student body of an educational institution.
College
The building, buildings, or grounds where one of these schools or institutions is located
Drove over to the college.
School
The building or group of buildings housing an educational institution.
College
Chiefly British A self-governing society of scholars for study or instruction, incorporated within a university.
School
The process of being educated formally, especially education constituting a planned series of courses over a number of years
The children were put to school at home. What do you plan to do when you finish school?.
College
An institution for secondary education in France and certain other countries that is not supported by the state.
School
A session of instruction
School will start in three weeks. He had to stay after school today.
College
A body of persons having a common purpose or shared duties
A college of surgeons.
School
A group of people, especially philosophers, artists, or writers, whose thought, work, or style demonstrates a common origin or influence or unifying belief
The school of Aristotle.
The Venetian school of painters.
College
An electoral college.
School
A group of people distinguished by similar manners, customs, or opinions
Aristocrats of the old school.
College
A body of clerics living together on an endowment.
School
Close-order drill instructions or exercises for military units or personnel.
College
(obsolete) A corporate group; a group of colleagues.
School
(Australian) A group of people gathered together for gambling.
College
(in some proper nouns) A group sharing common purposes or goals.
College of Cardinals, College of Surgeons
School
A large group of aquatic animals, especially fish, swimming together; a shoal.
College
(politics) An electoral college.
School
To educate in or as if in a school.
College
An academic institution.
School
To train or discipline
She is well schooled in literature.
College
A specialized division of a university.
College of Engineering
School
(Slang) To defeat or put down decisively, especially in a humiliating manner
Our team got schooled by the worst team in the division.
College
An institution of higher education teaching undergraduates.
She's still in college
These should be his college years, but he joined the Army.
School
To swim in or form into a school.
College
A university.
School
Of or relating to school or education in schools
School supplies.
A school dictionary.
College
(Canada) A postsecondary institution that offers vocational training and/or associate's degrees.
School
(North America) An institution dedicated to teaching and learning; an educational institution.
Our children attend a public school in our neighborhood.
Harvard University is a famous American postsecondary school.
College
A non-specialized, semi-autonomous division of a university, with its own faculty, departments, library, etc.
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Balliol College, Oxford
University College, London
School
(British) An educational institution providing primary and secondary education, prior to tertiary education (college or university).
College
(UK) An institution of further education at an intermediate level; sixth form.
School
(UK) At Eton College, a period or session of teaching.
Divinity, history and geography are studied for two schools per week.
College
(UK) An institution for adult education at a basic or intermediate level (teaching those of any age).
School
Within a larger educational institution, an organizational unit, such as a department or institute, which is dedicated to a specific subject area.
We are enrolled in the same university, but I attend the School of Economics and my brother is in the School of Music.
College
A high school or secondary school.
Eton College
School
An art movement, a community of artists.
The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic movement of the time.
College
(Australia) A private (non-government) primary or high school.
School
The followers of a particular doctrine; a particular way of thinking or particular doctrine; a school of thought.
These economists belong to the monetarist school.
College
(Australia) A residential hall associated with a university, possibly having its own tutors.
School
The time during which classes are attended or in session in an educational institution.
I’ll see you after school.
College
(Singapore) A government high school, short for junior college.
School
The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honours are held.
College
(in Chile) A bilingual school.
School
The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age.
He was a gentleman of the old school.
College
A collection, body, or society of persons engaged in common pursuits, or having common duties and interests, and sometimes, by charter, peculiar rights and privileges; as, a college of heralds; a college of electors; a college of bishops.
The college of the cardinals.
Then they made colleges of sufferers; persons who, to secure their inheritance in the world to come, did cut off all their portion in this.
School
An establishment offering specialized instruction, as for driving, cooking, typing, coding, etc.
College
A society of scholars or friends of learning, incorporated for study or instruction, esp. in the higher branches of knowledge; as, the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and many American colleges.
School
(collective) A group of fish or a group of marine mammals such as porpoises, dolphins, or whales.
The divers encountered a huge school of mackerel.
College
A building, or number of buildings, used by a college.
School
A multitude.
College
Fig.: A community.
Thick as the college of the bees in May.
School
(transitive) To educate, teach, or train (often, but not necessarily, in a school).
Many future prime ministers were schooled in Eton.
College
The body of faculty and students of a college
School
(transitive) To defeat emphatically, to teach an opponent a harsh lesson.
College
An institution of higher education created to educate and grant degrees; often a part of a university
School
(transitive) To control, or compose, one’s expression.
She took care to school her expression, not giving away any of her feelings.
College
British slang for prison
School
To form into, or travel in, a school.
College
A complex of buildings in which a college is housed
School
A shoal; a multitude; as, a school of fish.
School
A place for learned intercourse and instruction; an institution for learning; an educational establishment; a place for acquiring knowledge and mental training; as, the school of the prophets.
Disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
School
A place of primary instruction; an establishment for the instruction of children; as, a primary school; a common school; a grammar school.
As he sat in the school at his primer.
School
A session of an institution of instruction.
How now, Sir Hugh! No school to-day?
School
One of the seminaries for teaching logic, metaphysics, and theology, which were formed in the Middle Ages, and which were characterized by academical disputations and subtilties of reasoning.
At Cambridge the philosophy of Descartes was still dominant in the schools.
School
The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honors are held.
School
An assemblage of scholars; those who attend upon instruction in a school of any kind; a body of pupils.
What is the great community of Christians, but one of the innumerable schools in the vast plan which God has instituted for the education of various intelligences?
School
The disciples or followers of a teacher; those who hold a common doctrine, or accept the same teachings; a sect or denomination in philosophy, theology, science, medicine, politics, etc.
Let no man be less confident in his faith . . . by reason of any difference in the several schools of Christians.
School
The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age; as, he was a gentleman of the old school.
School
Figuratively, any means of knowledge or discipline; as, the school of experience.
School
To train in an institution of learning; to educate at a school; to teach.
He's gentle, never schooled, and yet learned.
School
To tutor; to chide and admonish; to reprove; to subject to systematic discipline; to train.
It now remains for you to school your child,And ask why God's Anointed be reviled.
The mother, while loving her child with the intensity of a sole affection, had schooled herself to hope for little other return than the waywardness of an April breeze.
School
An educational institution;
The school was founded in 1900
School
A building where young people receive education;
The school was built in 1932
He walked to school every morning
School
The process of being formally educated at a school;
What will you do when you finish school?
School
An educational institution's faculty and students;
The school keeps parents informed
The whole school turned out for the game
School
The period of instruction in a school; the time period when schools is in session;
Stay after school
He didn't miss a single day of school
When the school day was done we would walk home together
School
A body of creative artists or writers or thinkers linked by a similar style or by similar teachers;
The Venetian school of painting
School
A large group of fish;
A school of small glittering fish swam by
School
Educate in or as if in a school;
The children are schooled at great cost to their parents in private institutions
School
Train to be discriminative in taste or judgment;
Cultivate your musical taste
Train your tastebuds
She is well schooled in poetry
School
Swim in or form a large group of fish;
A cluster of schooling fish was attracted to the bait
School
School, in a broader sense, can include any educational institution, including colleges.
The new policy affects every school in the district.
Common Curiosities
What is a school?
A school is any educational institution that provides learning environments.
Is college considered a school?
Yes, in a broad sense, a college is a type of school specializing in higher education.
Are schools only for children?
Primarily, but the term can also refer to any level of education, including adult learning.
Do all schools offer higher education degrees?
No, that’s generally the role of colleges or universities.
How does college differ from school?
College is for tertiary education, while school covers all educational levels, including college.
Do you need to go to school before college?
Typically, yes, as college builds on the foundational education provided by schools.
What is a college?
A college is an institution for higher education, typically offering degrees.
Is attendance at school compulsory?
In many places, school attendance is compulsory until a certain age.
Are private tutors considered a school?
No, private tutors provide education but are not a school in the institutional sense.
Can colleges offer vocational training?
Some colleges offer vocational as well as academic qualifications.
What's a community college?
A community college is a two-year institution offering associate degrees and certificates.
Can the term 'school' refer to university education?
In general usage, 'school' can refer to all levels of education, including university.
Why do some high schools use the word 'college' in their name?
It's often a traditional naming convention, especially in private education.
What age do you go to college?
Most students enter college after completing high school, typically around age 18.
Do colleges focus on a broader curriculum like schools?
No, they typically focus on more specialized subjects.
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Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
