Full name: University of Maryland University College European Division
I’ve seen this at other schools. Am I attending a university or a college? To the two universities cancel eachother out or do they overpower the college? What on earth were they thinking? :smack:
From what I can tell, “University College” is the name of University of Maryland’s adult education program/school. Most universities in the US, at least, are divided into schools or colleges, depending on the program you attend. For example, at my university, I graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences.
I see that you’re from Europe, where college and university have slightly different meanings. In the US, the same distinction doesn’t exist between the two as over there. Both colleges and universities here offer full 4-year degrees, and both are equally presitigious, I would say. There are some differences in terms of what degrees are offered, but for all practical purposes the difference between a college and a university is nominal in the US. In fact, we use the word “college” as a generic term for both college and univeristy.
But, to answer the OP, you can safely say you’re attending university, although in the American idiom, you would say “I go to college at the University of Maryland.”
I don’t know if this is going to make things clearer or not, but many large American universities are set up somewhat along the Oxford model – with several individual colleges, each with their own name, grouped together as one university. For example, my university has a College of Dentistry, a School of Law, and a College of Arts and Science, all of which are often referred to (in print, the media, etc) as the Big Name University College of Dentristy, the Big Name University School of Law, etc. (Yes, I realize there are tons of organizational differences between the American system and Oxford, I was just going for the basic “several small colleges forming one large university” thing.)
Like Maryland, our College of Arts and Science used to be called the University College, which dated back to the days when “college” was more commonly used to refer to a school that offered undergraduate study, as opposed to a professional program such as a law school. So it was the college attached to the Big Name University, and there was no need to specify what it was the college of, since it was obvious that it was for undergraduate work. Now that “college” is used more broadly, the name was changed to reflect the subject matter of the school to distinguish it from other colleges that offer undergraduate degrees, such as engineering or business. But yeah, for a while there, it was the Big Name University University College.
I would draw a slight distinction in that “college” generally brings to mind an institution, usually smaller and often private, that does only undergraduate degrees. “University” is generally associated with the big state schools, with both undergrad and graduate programs. However, “going to college” is generally the correct phrase in American English, even if you’re techically going to a university.
I have nothing really to add except:
GO TERPS!!
LarsenMTL, University of Maryland, College Park Alumni 1999
Basically, the word “college” has several meanings in American usage.
Informally, any post-secondary educational institution, whether formally titled a “university,” “college,” “institute,” or whatever.
A stand-alone institution with the word “college” in its name, such as Oberlin College. Such institutions tend to be smaller and offer a smaller variety of degrees than institutions that use “university” in their names, but this is not necessarily the case. Boston College and Boston University are completely separate institutions.
A division of a large university dedicated to a particular subject area. For example, Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, is divided into the following: the Raj Soin School of Business, the College of Liberal Arts, the University College, the School of Medicine, the College of Education and Human Services, the College of Nursing and Health, the Lake Campus, the School of Professional Psychology, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Science and Mathematics, and the School of Graduate Studies.
In this case, the University College is not an academic division but rather a unit that offers students services such as "academic advising, developmental education, learning communities and a comprehensive first-year experience, tutoring, math learning assistance, standardized and placement testing, [and] new student orientation. In the case of the University of Maryland, the University College is apparently the adult education division.
Rutgers has the same setup with the same name. It works out fine in reality because:
If you are within the school, you say you attend University College. At Rutgers, other options are Rutgers College, Livingston College, Cook College, so this doesn’t seem unusual.
If you are outside the school, you just say you attend Rutgers University.
So you really never refer to the full name like you listed in the OP.
If we’re going for funny school names, my favorite lengthy name is The University of Texas at Brownsville in Partnership with Texas Southmost College . Whew. The school isn’t even as big as its name.
I’m going to go with SmackFu’s answer. I go to Penn State University Commonwealth College. The only time I mention that I am in Commonwealth College is when dealing with the PSU administration. I don’t see what the difference is and I’m getting the same education (or at least paying for it).
I guess what we’re all trying to say here is that “University College” is a subsection of the “University of Maryland.” Generally, I would think that you would just refer to it as the “University of Maryland.” If someone within the University of Maryland system wants you to be specific regarding what subsection of the university you’re in, you would specify “University College.” Only if you want to be really precise for whatever reason would you put it all together as “University of Maryland University College.” But the point is that it’s not really all one name. The name of the larger institution is the University of Maryland and one of it’s subsections is University College.
For example, Cleveland State University has a law school, which is called Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. In normal conversation you might say “I go to law school at Cleveland State University.” Or, when speaking to someone who is familiar with Cleveland State and knows what you’re talking about, you might say “I’m at Marshall.” Only on letterhead or other really formal situations might you put it all together as “Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.”
While we’re on the subject, what’s the deal with Indiana University - Purdue University Indiana (shortened to IUPUI)? There were a 16-seed in the NCAA tournament a couple of years back.
Your questions answered:
I did my undergrad at the University of Maryland, College Park (go Terps!) and even TAd a few courses at UMUC. This is how it works:
The University System of Maryland is the umbrella organization in the state. This includes smaller education-based institutions
[ul]
[li]Bowie State University[/li][li]Coppin State University[/li][li]Frostburg State University[/li][li]Salisbury University[/li][li]Towson University[/li][/ul]
and the larger research-oriented institutions
[ul]
[li]University of Maryland, Baltimore[/li][li]University of Maryland, Baltimore County[/li][li]University of Maryland, College Park[/li][li]University of Maryland, Eastern Shore[/li][/ul]
of which College Park is the flagship.
There is also the institution specializing in “continuing education”, University of Maryland, University College. This (like the others) is its own separate institution, not to be confused with the colleges within each one. As an example, I was in the Department of Mathematics, which is in the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences, which is part of the University of Maryland, College Park.
UMUC has its own “campus” abutting that of UMCP, but most of the studies go on at remote sites around the state. When I TAd classes in basic computer architecture, the professor lectured to a classroom “on campus”, which was also closed-circuit broadcast to a number of other remote classrooms. I recieved the homeworks via FedEx from those sites and they were returned by the professor the same way.
At some point, the USM decided to extend the benefits of its educational system overseas, notably to servicemen and their families stationed in Europe and Asia. This fell more under the aegis of UMUC than any of the other universities, though I imagine the foreign sites run more or less autonomously from the one in Maryland. Thus: University of Maryland, University College: European Division.