College vs. School: Know the Difference
By Shumaila Saeed || Published on January 23, 2024
College typically refers to a tertiary education institution offering degrees, while a school is an educational institution at any level, including primary and secondary education.
Key Differences
Colleges are institutions that offer higher education and grant degrees, often post-secondary. In contrast, schools encompass a wider range of educational stages, including primary, secondary, and sometimes higher education.
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Jan 23, 2024
The term college is usually associated with specialized education or academic fields leading to a degree. Schools, however, provide a more general education, covering a broader curriculum for younger students.
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Jan 23, 2024
Colleges often imply a more autonomous learning environment, with a focus on adult students. Schools, on the other hand, cater to a younger demographic, emphasizing structured learning and a more guided educational approach.
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Jan 23, 2024
In many regions, colleges are seen as part of the university system or as standalone institutions for tertiary education. Schools are foundational educational institutions, serving as the primary step in a person's formal education.
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Jan 23, 2024
The cultural context of college usually suggests a phase of life associated with adulthood and professional preparation. In contrast, school is often synonymous with childhood and adolescence, marking the initial stages of education.
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Jan 23, 2024
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Comparison Chart
Level of Education
Tertiary (Higher Education)
Primary to Secondary (including some higher education)
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Degree Offering
Offers degrees (Bachelor’s, Master’s, etc.)
Does not offer degrees
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Jan 23, 2024
Type of Education
Specialized in certain fields or majors
General education across various subjects
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Cultural Context
Associated with adult life and professional preparation
Linked with childhood, adolescence, and basic education
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Jan 23, 2024
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College and School Definitions
College
College can refer to a part of a university focusing on a specific academic area.
He attended the college of engineering at his university.
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School
An institution for educating children and young adults.
He goes to the local public school.
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College
In some contexts, college refers to a secondary education institution.
In the UK, he attended a sixth form college.
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School
A session of instruction: such as a day of teaching.
School starts at 8 am tomorrow.
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College
Also, a residential community within a university.
She lived in one of the residential colleges on campus.
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School
An institution for the instruction of children or people under college age.
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College
An institution of higher learning that grants the bachelor's degree in liberal arts or science or both.
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School
An institution for instruction in a skill or business
A secretarial school.
A karate school.
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College
An undergraduate division or school of a university offering courses and granting degrees in a particular field or group of fields.
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School
An institution within or associated with a college or university that gives instruction in a specialized field and recommends candidates for degrees.
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College
A school offering special instruction in a professional or technical subject
A medical college.
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School
A division of an educational institution constituting several grades or classes
Advanced to the upper school.
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College
The students, faculty, and administration of one of these schools or institutions
New policies adopted by the college.
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College
The building, buildings, or grounds where one of these schools or institutions is located
Drove over to the college.
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School
The building or group of buildings housing an educational institution.
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College
Chiefly British A self-governing society of scholars for study or instruction, incorporated within a university.
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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?.
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College
An institution for secondary education in France and certain other countries that is not supported by the state.
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School
A session of instruction
School will start in three weeks. He had to stay after school today.
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College
A body of persons having a common purpose or shared duties
A college of surgeons.
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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.
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School
A group of people distinguished by similar manners, customs, or opinions
Aristocrats of the old school.
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School
Close-order drill instructions or exercises for military units or personnel.
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College
(in some proper nouns) A group sharing common purposes or goals.
College of Cardinals, College of Surgeons
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School
A large group of aquatic animals, especially fish, swimming together; a shoal.
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School
(Slang) To defeat or put down decisively, especially in a humiliating manner
Our team got schooled by the worst team in the division.
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College
An institution of higher education teaching undergraduates.
She's still in college
These should be his college years, but he joined the Army.
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School
Of or relating to school or education in schools
School supplies.
A school dictionary.
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College
(Canada) A postsecondary institution that offers vocational training and/or associate's degrees.
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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.
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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
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School
(British) An educational institution providing primary and secondary education, prior to tertiary education (college or university).
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College
(UK) An institution of further education at an intermediate level; sixth form.
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School
(UK) At Eton College, a period or session of teaching.
Divinity, history and geography are studied for two schools per week.
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College
(UK) An institution for adult education at a basic or intermediate level (teaching those of any age).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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College
(Australia) A residential hall associated with a university, possibly having its own tutors.
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School
The time during which classes are attended or in session in an educational institution.
I’ll see you after school.
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School
The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honours are held.
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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.
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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.
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School
An establishment offering specialized instruction, as for driving, cooking, typing, coding, etc.
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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.
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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.
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School
(transitive) To educate, teach, or train (often, but not necessarily, in a school).
Many future prime ministers were schooled in Eton.
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School
(transitive) To defeat emphatically, to teach an opponent a harsh lesson.
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College
An institution of higher education created to educate and grant degrees; often a part of a university
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School
(transitive) To control, or compose, one’s expression.
She took care to school her expression, not giving away any of her feelings.
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College
An institution of higher learning offering undergraduate and graduate degrees.
She received her Bachelor's degree from a well-known college.
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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.
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College
An independent institution providing specialized higher education.
She went to a liberal arts college.
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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.
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School
A session of an institution of instruction.
How now, Sir Hugh! No school to-day?
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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.
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School
The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honors are held.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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School
Figuratively, any means of knowledge or discipline; as, the school of experience.
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School
To train in an institution of learning; to educate at a school; to teach.
He's gentle, never schooled, and yet learned.
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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.
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School
A building where young people receive education;
The school was built in 1932
He walked to school every morning
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School
The process of being formally educated at a school;
What will you do when you finish school?
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School
An educational institution's faculty and students;
The school keeps parents informed
The whole school turned out for the game
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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
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School
A body of creative artists or writers or thinkers linked by a similar style or by similar teachers;
The Venetian school of painting
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School
Educate in or as if in a school;
The children are schooled at great cost to their parents in private institutions
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School
Train to be discriminative in taste or judgment;
Cultivate your musical taste
Train your tastebuds
She is well schooled in poetry
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School
Swim in or form a large group of fish;
A cluster of schooling fish was attracted to the bait
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School
School can also refer to a division within a larger educational institution.
She's in the business school of her university.
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School
An organization for instruction in a particular skill or field.
He enrolled in a culinary school.
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School
The process of formal education in general.
Education reform is changing how school is taught.
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Repeatedly Asked Queries
What age group typically attends college?
College is primarily attended by adults, usually 18 years and older.
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Jan 23, 2024
Can I get a degree at a school?
Degrees are usually obtained from colleges, not schools.
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Jan 23, 2024
Is college education more specialized than school?
Yes, college education is more focused on specific fields or majors.
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Jan 23, 2024
Do colleges offer primary education?
No, colleges focus on higher education.
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Jan 23, 2024
Can school refer to college?
In a broad sense, yes, but it usually refers to primary or secondary education.
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Jan 23, 2024
Are colleges bigger than schools?
Not necessarily; size varies based on the institution.
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Are schools part of universities?
Not typically; they are separate educational institutions.
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Jan 23, 2024
Is college more expensive than school?
Generally, yes, college can be more expensive.
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Jan 23, 2024
Can you live on-campus at a school?
Typically, on-campus living is associated with colleges.
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Jan 23, 2024
Do schools provide adult education?
Some schools offer adult education, but it's more common in colleges.
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Jan 23, 2024
Can I switch schools within a college?
Yes, if the college has multiple schools or departments.
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Jan 23, 2024
Do colleges have a broader curriculum than schools?
Colleges usually have more specialized curriculums.
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Jan 23, 2024
Are school teachers different from college professors?
Yes, college professors often have higher qualifications and research roles.
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Jan 23, 2024
Is college education mandatory?
No, it's optional, unlike primary and secondary school education.
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Jan 23, 2024
Can a school offer a college-like environment?
Some schools may offer advanced programs, but they are still distinct from colleges.
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Jan 23, 2024
Are school exams different from college exams?
Yes, they can vary in format and complexity.
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Do colleges focus on extracurricular activities?
Yes, but they are often more diverse and student-led than in schools.
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Jan 23, 2024
Do schools offer graduate programs?
No, graduate programs are found in colleges.
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Jan 23, 2024
Is it common to have uniforms in college?
No, uniforms are more common in schools.
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Jan 23, 2024
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Written by
Shumaila SaeedShumaila Saeed, an expert content creator with 6 years of experience, specializes in distilling complex topics into easily digestible comparisons, shining a light on the nuances that both inform and educate readers with clarity and accuracy.
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