Community or junior colleges offer primarily two-year Associate's degree programs. Some programs overlap with the type curriculum that trade schools specialize in. Associate's degree programs may focus on the equivalent of the first two years of a four-year curriculum which incorporates a scope of general studies. Alternately, community or junior colleges offer career-oriented programs in a trade field such as carpentry, horticulture or certified nursing aide. Some students choose to begin a four-year college program by attendance at and completion of the general studies portion of the program at a community college then transfer to a four-year college to complete coursework in a Major and Minor.
Four-year colleges and universities offer primarily Bachelor's degrees. Four-year colleges fall into four categories: state college, state university, private non-Ivy League college and private Ivy League college. Some private colleges have the further distinguishing status of operation by an organization with a religious affiliation such as Notre Dame or Boston College or various Bible colleges. Another circumstance involves a cooperating college system wherein enrollment in any college in the system affords opportunity to take some coursework at any of the other colleges within the system. The five-college system in western Massachusetts that incorporates The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst College, Smith College, Hampshire College and Mount Holyoke College provides an example of such a cooperative arrangement. Four-year colleges may offer post-Bachelor's level degrees such as Master's or Ph.D. programs.
Trade schools, also categorized as vocational and technical schools or colleges, offer programs focused on developing career-related skills. These schools offer curricula with durations as short as several weeks for programs such as medical assisting up to approximately two year programs, depending on the study area. As with four-year colleges, trade schools can have a private or public ownership status: although with public trade schools the ownership tends to be at a community or county level rather than at the state level. Trade schools can have association with high-school level institutions such as vocational or technical high schools or agricultural high schools.
Another college-related option involves where you'll live as a student. Community colleges and trade schools typically involve a commuter status for all students. Four-year colleges, however, may involve either a commuter or residential status for students and many four-year colleges have a mix of residential and commuting students. Residential students often live on campus in a dormitory with two or more students sharing dormitory rooms. Students who qualify for sorority or fraternity membership may live in the sorority of fraternity house. For some colleges, owners of homes nearby actively seek student tenants to live in these homes within walking distance of the college campus but not actually on the campus itself.
Available Majors for college-bound students provide a broad range of options. The College Board website lists 38 categories of Majors each of which has a variety of specific Majors to choose from. The College Board website also lists 25 different career categories that these different Majors support.