Medical Malpractice

What is the difference between a College and a University? Law/medical school and colleges?

I saw the movie "monster." And a guy made fun of her for wanting to become a lawyer without going to law school. Then she said she wanted to become a secretary. Then he said that most of the secretaries had specialized in law at college? What is the difference?

Public Comments

1. Okay so for law and medicine, you go to a school for 4 years (any major of your choice but you have to take certain classes in order to qualify for med school, there just basic sciences). Then after you graduate you apply to law school or medical school and these are colleges & universities that really focus on the field and prepare you to be a lawyer or doctor. If you have anymore questions just email me or ask another question.
2. Usually, colleges offer four-year Bachelor's degrees. Universities in addition offer Master's and Doctorate degrees, usually in many fields. It gets more confusing though; some universities call their four-year Bachelor's program "the college", even though it is within a university. Law school and medical school come after you get your Bachelor's degree. They almost always are within a university. A perfect example is the University of Chicago, which has "the College", plus offers many MA, MS, and PhDs, and also has Law and Med schools. Some colleges offer degrees in "Pre-Law". This may help one subsequently get in law school, but an undergraduate degree does not qualify one to be a lawyer. There is such a thing as a "law secretary", but becoming that doesn't require a degree, just secretarial skills and maybe some knowledge of legal procedures and forms. A local community college would probably provide all of that. High school is all that's needed to be a secretary.
3. A university is a collection of colleges usually on the same campus. For instance, Harvard is a university, but it is called Harvard College. Universities have colleges of humanities, science, business etc. they form a university. In the US there are some small colleges that just have a liberal arts college and nothing else. They are not universities, but they are very rare. In Europe once you get beyond a certain level i.e. high school equivalent it is called university. You cannot be a lawyer without going to law school and passing the bar. Even just graduating from law school does not make you a lawyer. She probably meant that she wanted to be a legal secretary which does not require nor would she be admitted to law school if that were her only goal. Some colleges have some law courses, but that does not make it law school.