Ask APPLY ME: What's the difference between a college and university?

Here's a question we are asked frequently:
What's the difference between a college and university?

The short answer: 
There's not much difference unless you're in the UK system (make sure you aren't applying to a high school!).

The long explanation:
In the US and Canada, a university is an institution that offers undergraduate (BA/BS), graduate (MA/MS), and doctoral (PhD) degrees and has a scientific research program. A college may only offer undergraduate and/or graduate degrees and does not have a scientific research program (think Barnard or Amherst College). At the undergraduate level, these distinctions aren't really that important unless you want to be a science, math, or engineering major and want to do undergraduate research. Common, the terms university, college, and school are interchangeable. In the UK and Europe, the term "college" may also refer to high schools. 

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