What is an Institute, a College, and a University?

For prospective international students, these are terms important to distinguish when looking for colleges and universities to apply to in North America.

In the United States, educational institutions that grant post-secondary school degrees bear any one of these terms in their names. Neither one implies superiority over one or the other. The terms do however imply the types and levels of degrees offered in each institution.

Admission Requirements for North American Universities

Each college and university posts their unique admissions requirements on their own website. Here, we summarize the common requirements so you don’t have to search every individual college’s webpage yourself.

Requirements for admission to most North American universities consist of very similar things: a high school diploma, a U.S. standardized test score, a test score showing your English language ability.