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When College isn't College, Part II

In follow-up to my earlier post When College isn't College.

I noticed on House the other night that Dr. Gregory House (the main character) made a comment about being the Dr. and making the diagnostic choices he was making because he "...went to college." WTF? In Canada all Dr. go to University for their degree.

Is "college" just the US'ism for Post Secondary Education in general?

Comments

Eric said…
Yup. In the US you'll commonly hear people say they're "going to college", even if the "college" is a university. If an American says "college degree", we in Canada would call it a university degree.
12/03/2007, 11:28
Barf said…
However, if ther're talking about being a doctor, that's effectively a third level degree. Or even a fourth.

This meaining (and I use the term 'year' loosely, as it is based on credits, not actual years):

4 years will get you a bachelor degree;
5/6 years will get you a masters degree;
7+ years will get you a doctorate degree (or PhD).

There are also degrees deemed "less than bachelor" that can be scored in just a couple years.

So when the dust settles, the reference to "college" may be singular, the degrees rewarded are not.
12/03/2007, 15:17
Rick (kingthorin) said…
Thanks for trying to clear that up guys.

It's just one of those things that always boggled my mind.

If a Dr. here ever told me they had a "College Degree", my mind would immediately jump to "College Diploma" ... and I'd be outta that office lickety split. Thinking "WTF...Dr. spend 7+ years in UNIVERSITY [not college]."

At the same time if a Nurse told me they had a University Degree I'd be like .... "Don't nurses just do college courses?" (Though I've heard that's changing more and more in Canada ... but that's another story).

Lastly if you think of Comp Sci grads, putting a University Degree against a College Diploma is often a hard comparison. I know plenty of College grads I would much rather work with then University Comp Sci grads. Because I know the College people have actually gotten their hands dirty along the way, have probably done a co-op placement, and have learned actual application of knowledge not just "ya I read it and talked about it and I think I might be able to apply it." (Book 'smarts' [for lack of a better word])
13/03/2007, 09:29
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