University or College?

[Stefani]

Which one is better? Which one is seen better by employers?

[IB_taking_over]

speaking in an American (U.S.) context, they are basically the same thing. [Universities tend to be larger than colleges] We use college/university interchangeably in conversation, although college seems to be the word of choice. In that same respect, employers don't really care. As for outside the U.S., I'm not familiar with higher education. 

[Elite X-Naut]

Here in Canada we have universities, colleges, and apprenticeships, where you pick one of them depending on what types of jobs you want to do. For example a mechanic would fall under college and apprenticeship but an engineering program would fall under universities. Since you're doing IB, the whole point is to get into a university which is what I'd recommend you to go to, if you're applying to Canada of course.

[Captain]

Certainly here in the UK they are totally different, and a university is seen as much better than a college. Colleges tend to be for more practical aspects, and ones that don' t require high academic grades. You could do plumbing, agriculture, carpentry etc at a college, whereas a university you would do English, Geography, Geology etc

[CarolSmith]

Of course, the university

[Nomenclature]

It seems like the U.S. calls what ya'll think of "colleges" as "community colleges". These schools offer more vocational options as well as standard university fare—the difference being that they're cheaper, don't deal with housing/residence, and are typically considered less rigorous than universities (though the final point can certainly be debated).

To further complicate the matter, I know of some universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Toronto) that have a "college system" where a college is a living community in the midst of the larger universities. Oxford and Cambridge, I believe, make colleges responsible for the teaching ("tutoring") of students and certain colleges only teach certain subjects. Whereas at Toronto colleges are just for community; actual classes are composed of students from many different colleges.

[anishde]

In the United States, there really isn't a major difference. Overseas, it  can vary drastically depending on the quality of the program.

[michymichelle]

In the US, there are universities have their own colleges. Most universities are much larger than colleges, so if you're looking for a generally smaller class size, most colleges would fit that criterion.

[Keliyah]

there really isn't a crucial difference between the two here in the U.S

[Firewolf3456]

From an Australian point of view: what is college? In Perth, there's one college that I know of; Edith Cowan College. This is somehow different to Edith Cowan University. Why?