What is the difference between jr college and community college

Why does it take four years to complete a degree at a university but only two years at community college? It will not be until your third and fourth year that you focus on your upper-level requirements which will be specific to your chosen degree program. Instead of doing the first two years at a university, some students will elect to do those two years of general education requirements at a community college first and then transfer to a traditional university to complete the last two years of their degree.

Instead, community colleges award certificates and associate degrees. Besides the time-frame needed to complete a degree, another big difference between a community college and a university is campus size.

Universities are much larger than community colleges; some universities in the United States have over a hundred thousand students. Since community colleges do not have as many students on campus this means there are less students to meet and fewer organized campus groups and activities.

Additionally, students at community colleges are often encouraged to create clubs or groups if there is a need for one that does not already exist.

A smaller campus also means that getting around is easier. If you plan to own a car in the U. However, if you plan to study at a four year university, especially in a city, you will find that on-campus parking is limited.

One other important thing to consider regarding campus size is that most community colleges have smaller recreational facilities that may not be as substantial as those at a four-year university.

At a four year university, you might have access to a state-of-the-art gym, several tennis courts, a swimming pool, and a host of other perks. At universities, students live in residence halls, also known as dormitories, or dorms.

Dorms can be an epicenter of activity and provide students with a chance to learn and interact with each other daily. And in the beginning, these institutions were dependent largely on the support of state schools to accept their students in other words, they weren't exactly accredited community colleges in the same way as their 4-year brethren.

And as the network of junior colleges grew in the United States, so too did the scope of their influence. Soon they began to change how the operated, what services they offered, and whom they offered them to. Although 2 year community colleges sprang from the junior college system, these schools in their original form really don't exist anymore.

Although community college programs do indeed offer coursework that will allow underprivileged high-school graduates the opportunity to go on to a 4-year degree program where they may otherwise have been unable to, the system has branched out significantly. Kids straight out of high school may still make up the majority of the student body, but there are also adults that have been in the workforce, parents that have spent the last several years raising kids, and even retirees seeking new challenges or perhaps working to attain a degree now that they have the time and money to do so.

In short, anyone can attend community college. But the other main difference is that not all students at community colleges view the experience solely as a gateway to a 4-year college or university. Some will use their time at community college to learn a trade like nursing and work towards certification or licensure. Privately funded institutions include schools funded by religious groups and other foundations, and some of them are bound to be more concerned about being accredited by national organizations than regional ones.

You can learn how to spot the fakes here. But enough about that. You may also see them referred to as trade schools, career schools, or vocational colleges. Someone could make the argument that these are all separate categories of schools with nuanced differences, but the U. Department of Education suggests they can be used interchangeably, with one small distinction:. You may earn a diploma or a certificate, prepare for a licensing exam, or study to begin work as an apprentice or journeyman in a skilled trade.

Here are just a handful of the highly specialized programs you might find at a technical college:. Not all colleges will offer graduate level degrees. Dartmouth College was founded as a private college in , making it the ninth oldest institution of higher education in the United States. The result of this debacle? Dartmouth University took over the buildings of Dartmouth College, and so Dartmouth College rented some buildings near campus and existed as a shadow school.

Dartmouth University hid the school charter in a farmhouse. The academic societies at Dartmouth College refused to give up their libraries, so a handful of professors from Dartmouth University riled up some townsfolk and came to take the books back in the middle of the night.

They started breaking down doors with axes , which was not in any way sneaky. The students woke up and fought them off with firewood. And then the trustees of Dartmouth College won in the supreme court and moved back in, and Dartmouth University disappeared forever.

So did the professors go back to work and say they were sorry? Probably not. All this to say, Dartmouth College is prestigious Ivy League school that offers some of the highest quality graduate-level education in the country, but they really like being called a college. John Wesley University has less than students.

And that university is more than years old! To be fair though, it was called John Wesley College for 50 years, and it was called a plain old school before that. You could maybe call those differences guidelines, but it might be more appropriate to call them suggestions.

Collegiate universities are essentially a collection of colleges that share a campus and an administration. This nebulous classification traces its origins back to the twelfth century and is most popular in western Europe, but there are about thirty collegiate universities in the U. Traditionally, collegiate universities are either residential, meaning the students live at the college within the university, or non-residential, where the colleges play a primarily academic role.

These colleges are often named after an influential person who was affiliated with the college. The real question is: what do you want to do with your life? Your answer will help you find the right school for you , which could be a college, a university, or something else entirely.

They may have exactly what you need to get into a highly specialized role in less than two years, and for less than a fortune. With a little research, you can find the best schools in your desired field. Compare them to find what works best with your budget and goals.

Starting school without a degree in mind can really mess you up. You could wind up spending extra years of your life and thousands of dollars for a degree you could have planned for. This can be a great time to discover what you want to major in.