This article describes how the state colleges in Massachusetts are discussing a possible option for a designation change from "college" to "university." The argument goes something like "institutions with university in their name are more prestigious/respected than institutions with college in their name."

We've actually done research that supports this hypothesis. In a recent survey of 400 college-bound high school seniors between D.C. and Boston, respondents were asked to name "excellent colleges and universities." It was a completely open-ended question. There were 769 mentions of universities compared to just 143 mentions of colleges.  So, prospects are about 5 times more likely to mention a university than a college.

In a closed-ended question in which current students of a particular college were given a list of 20 top colleges and 20 top universities, the undergraduate students were almost twice as likely to identify a university as opposed to a college. The graduate students were more than twice as likely to identify a university.

There was a lot more to the study; additional questions about prestige, what looks better on a resume, etc. The findings were consistent.  Even though there are many notable exceptions in schools like Dartmouth, Amherst, and BC, the "university" name, on the whole, is associated with a higher level of quality. I know there are a lot of folks out there who don't like this data....but that's what the survey says!

-Elizabeth Scarborough

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