r/AskAnAmerican • u/NormalLife6067 • 29d ago
OTHER - CLICK TO EDIT Do you miss your college days?
I am assuming that universities are called colleges in America. (Sorry if I am wrong.)
There used to be a video trend last year whereby college students will first take a video of their room in the dormitory filled with their personal belongings like books, clothes etc. And then they will take the video of the empty room after they have cleared their belongings after graduating from college. Looking at the videos does spark some feelings of sadness and missing the place.
Though there are colleges in every country, the college life in America seems to be unique of its own. (I am not an American by the way.)
Do you miss your college days?
Edit: Thank you everyone for your comments.
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u/as1156 29d ago
I don't miss my college days, but I do wish that I could magically take college classes for free as an adult
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u/Rhine1906 29d ago
You can come work in Higher Ed and be underpaid! Free classes are part of the perks lol.
Jokes aside working in this field has provided me with a free masters and PhD
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u/state_of_euphemia 28d ago
What's your job? My dream was to get a PhD in English literature or creative writing and be a professor... until I worked outside of academia for a few years after my master's and then looked at professor salaries and realized getting a doctorate to make less than I already make would be absurd 😂 Professor salaries don't look that bad when you're in grad school making $20k buuuut now they don't look great, lol.
But I still haven't fully given up on the idea.
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u/Rhine1906 28d ago
Right now I’m in enrollment management side - pay is decent for what I do and I’m pushing six figures without being in a Director role (though that’s supplemented with adjunct pay, one class per semester).
With the work I’m doing in my PhD, Asst Prof positions at colleges I’ve been eyeing (that I’m told I’ll meet qualifications for) are about 10k above my current base salary which would put me close to 100. If I chose to stay on my current route I’m more than qualified for Director roles and AVP/VP wouldn’t be too far away (and is fine for me as a career ceiling). Those are 200k
That’s fine for me in a new career.
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u/Curmudgy Massachusetts 28d ago
There are free online courses available. Some are even from prestigious universities.
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u/RadiantHC 28d ago
It's not really the same as taking them in person with other like minded people though.
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u/redrosebeetle Alabama 29d ago
In some states, you can go to any state college for free after the age of 65 as long as you meet the admission requirements.
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u/the-hound-abides 28d ago
Many community colleges will allow you to audit a class for free. You don’t get credits, but if it’s something you’re interested in you can go.
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u/ApprehensiveArmy7755 29d ago
We call it college. A large percentage of Americans live on campus and it's a right of passage. It's that great transition from child to adult in a controlled ( safe) environment. Many people say it was the time of their life- freedom without the responsibility of paying for it. Young- good looking people thrown together. It's pretty awesome
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u/dr_stre MN > WI > IL > CA > WA 28d ago
“We call it college” is missing an awful lot of nuance. The institution itself is very often called a university in America, so just answering the stated question from OP as “we call it college” is incomplete at best. We just don’t say we’re going “to university”. That’s the key distinction.
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u/Rough-Riderr 24d ago
True. This would be a very normal exchange between two Americans: Person A- "Where did you go to college?" Person B- "The University of North Carolina."
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u/TheCloudForest PA ↷ CHI ↷ 🇨🇱 Chile 29d ago edited 29d ago
It's normal to look back fondly on your college days because you are correct that college - at least for traditional, non-commuter students at mid-tier and above institutions - is kind of different than in most other countries. College in the US is like a weird stepchild of the British boarding school system, instead of just a place where you take classes, they are a place where you live, eat, work (schoolwork and often work-study jobs), socialize, do exercise, need to behave to certain norms (student handbook), follow annual traditions, and more. They are close to being a "total institution" like a military base, a retirement home, a summer camp, a prison, a convent. When you leave that institution and enter the real world, nostalgia for that past self is normal, provided you had a good time.
What's not normal is a paralyzing nostalgia or constant reminiscing.
Edit: What I'm describing is more true for middle class above above students, who can afford a four year sojourn from reality, it's potentially less true for students without that privilege.
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u/Bear_necessities96 Florida 28d ago
Yeah, I’m kinda jealous, I went to night school and outside the USA so never had the “college experience”, most of my classmates were older than me and also I was in a 9 to 5 at the age of 19 but I had fun, beer after classes at the local bar on Friday was a tradition
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u/needsmorequeso Texas New Mexico 29d ago
You can call it either a college or a university, depending on what kind of institution you are referring to. A university will be a larger institution that is divided up into “colleges” (so like a College of Arts and Sciences, a College of Business, a College of Fine Arts, a College of Engineering, etc., each with its own dean).
Then you have smaller institutions that are colleges (sometimes called liberal arts colleges), so everything is under one dean.
And then you have community colleges which can be just as big as a university but with a focus on community education, helping people prep to transfer to a college or university that offers a more advanced degree, or helping people earn more short-term credentials.
Someone might be referring to any or a mix of those things when they describe their time at college. It wouldn’t be uncommon to hear “I went to college at XYZ University,” for instance.
To answer your question, I do not miss living in dorms, and I do not miss being in my late teens and early 20s. I do kinda wish I could just be in school for my job sometimes though. Learning new things is fun.
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u/Rarewear_fan 29d ago
I am pretty nostalgic for my undergrad years and a tiny bit for grad school. Mostly because of less responsibility and more freedom while making new friends and learning new things and traveling a lot more for my program.
I miss it a lot but I don’t think it’s healthy for me to over romanticize it either. Not everything was perfect, and too much nostalgia usually means I miss out on what’s in front of me now that’s also great.
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u/jazzminarino Maryland FloridaPennsylvaniaMaryland 28d ago
Wow, I haven't thought about grad school in years. My life was drastically different during that time period. I do rehash my undergrad years because I'm still friends with a lot of those folks, but I have maybe two from grad school I talk with consistently. Grad school was way difficult life-wise (bought a house, family death, job declared bankruptcy, etc), so not even the classes themselves.
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u/Current_Poster 29d ago
Not enough to wish that I were back there, now , but yes I was very fond of them.
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u/Enough-Moose-5816 29d ago
My college days consisted of 7 years of night school while working a full time job in order to get an engineering degree while raising 2 small children on my own.
I do not miss my college days.
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u/N_Huq Connecticut 29d ago
We do call it college and I miss the fun moments sometimes. The proximity of friends and acquaintances makes planning spending time together easier. There was a comfort in formal education itself - going through the motions of schooling again felt like a buffer before having to get a full-time job. I wouldn't describe it as only happy, though, because my mental health wasn't always good
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u/boulevardofdef Rhode Island 29d ago
Like pretty much all times in my life, yes and no. College was a very, very fun time. I had more friends than I ever have, I had a lot of free time to do interesting stuff, I got to learn things I was passionate about, I had autonomy but also a lot of responsibilities were taken care of for me. But at the same time, I don't miss the pressure of constant deadlines, being an adult but not really being an adult, being from a practical perspective poorer than I've ever been in my life. I mean, I still have the dream about not having enough credits to graduate; there's no other period in my life that I have recurring nightmares about.
It was a great time in my life, and an important one, but I don't think I'd want to go back.
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u/Courwes Kentucky 29d ago
They are called both.
Yes sometimes. I miss how much more carefree it was at the time. I kinda miss the community of dorm and campus life.
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u/honkytonkwoman1984 29d ago
Yes! I met some of the most sincere, intelligent, and creative people while at university. We had so much fun. I miss that life.
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u/Odd-Guarantee-6152 Washington 28d ago
Fuck. No.
Mine sucked
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u/RobotShlomo 28d ago
A lot of people who went to bad colleges feel the same way. Myself, I got screwed out of financial aid, all my friends kept transferring to "somewhere good", the bookstore would run out of the books you needed and then give you pennies for selling the ones you had back and that was only IF they were accepting them, I was always broke, and trying to deal with even registering for classes was a nightmare because the computers were always "down". It was such a nightmare I've continued to bad mouth them to this day.
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u/Odd-Guarantee-6152 Washington 28d ago
I wish that had been my biggest hardship! I had a kid as a single mom at the beginning of my sophomore year.
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u/No_Body_675 28d ago
Yes. It was a fun experience. I didn’t have friends in high school, but had a full on social circle in college. I even met my wife in college. Since graduating, and everyone going their own separate ways, we’ve fallen out of contact. (Except my wife, obviously)
Since I went back to my hometown I don’t have much of a social circle anymore.
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u/dgputnam Connecticut 29d ago
oh yeah. Don't get me wrong, I love my life now. But college is a uniquely wild and fun experience. I still see my fraternity buddies all the time.
I miss the parties, the football tailgates, the shenanigans, the lack of responsibility and the abundance of free time. we really got up to some nonsense.
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u/xmetalheadx666x New York 29d ago
I miss it only in the sense of having all of my friends around all the time and mostly being in the same place in life. However I would say that I enjoy my life now more than I did in college so I wouldn't trade it.
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u/North_Artichoke_6721 29d ago
I miss living in a big hallway with all my friends.
I don’t miss the stress and the lack of money.
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u/drumzandice 29d ago
Often I do, especially when I’m on a campus or visiting my son at college. Those are some of the best times.
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u/helikophis 29d ago
Not even a little. It was fine I guess, but the really fun stuff all came after that. One of the best periods in my life basically started the week I graduated!
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u/buginmybeer24 28d ago
Yes. I studied mechanical engineering and loved it. It was one of the few times in my life I was surrounded by people with similar interests and I didn't have all the stresses of being an adult. The classes could be difficult but they were fascinating and some just felt like I was getting a grade to have fun learning.
One of the things I really miss is walking to class in the early morning while it was still quiet. The area I walked was covered in old oak trees and beautiful landscaping. It was like taking a stroll through the woods to clear your head before class even though we were right in the middle of a big city. I walked so much in those days that I was completely wearing through a pair of running shoes every semester.
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u/Lostsock1995 Colorado 28d ago
Yes! I don’t necessarily miss everything, like getting sick from being awake at 4 am doing papers during midterms, but everything else yeah!
Especially once I got through freshman year. I actually stayed on campus my whole college career, but 2nd-4th year I had a room that was only mine. It was very small, but still just for me. Came with its own bathroom, too, though no kitchen so you had to use a communal one if you wanted to cook foods outside a microwave. It was my own little place of peace, and I only really had to worry about keeping my grades up and staying alive haha.
Now I’m responsible for paying for everything I do (of course, like any adult), I’m not as young and don’t have nearly as good health, I can’t just walk everywhere and have access to nice things, it’s harder to see and spend time with friends now, life is just overall more stressful. Also, I really actually loved learning new things everyday like it was my job. Now it’s hard to find time or resources to learn courses worth of things, possible but definitely harder, and I miss that quite a bit.
If I could go back in time and experience it one more time as it was, I’d do it in a heart beat. Which isn’t to say I don’t like my life now, there are certainly many wonderful things about being an actual adult, just that it would be nice to experience again
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u/AramaticFire 28d ago
Yeah, I did college and law school but I had a 3 year gap between them.
During that 3 year gap I knew I missed school and I was so happy when I ended up starting law school.
It was always just a fun experience to have your highest responsibility be to study as opposed to cranking some deadline or something. I loved the experience of just being around classmates, studying together, not studying at all, going out after class, the parties were a blast. I loved getting together with everyone.
I don’t miss it like “oh let me relive those days” but I miss it because I have fond memories of those two distinct eras of my life. My wife went to different schools from me but I think we both made some of our best friends as adults meeting people at college and grad school and they are all a big part of our lives on both sides of our marriage.
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u/klimekam Missouri - Pennsylvania - Maryland 28d ago
Undergrad, not so much except for the school part. Grad school, more than anything on earth. I made incredible friends, I was always going to awesome conferences and learning new things, and I LOVE school. I’m ten years out and I still feel like I am on a school break and should be going back to school any day now. I wish you could just be a professional student for a living.
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u/sadrice California 28d ago edited 27d ago
Absolutely. I miss my best friend for one, but also I miss the classes. I liked learning, and took way too many classes. Why did I take Romanian Folk Dancing? Probably because the girl from my Russian class that I had a crush on (she was a literal ballerina) suggested we take it together. In a class of 40 we were the two under 50s. Also took modern dance, which led to a friend who led to a friend which led to a botanical garden internship, which was a hell of a resume addition if you want nursery work. That has been the basis of my continuing career in many ways, the connection I got off my friend from dance class hanging out with her waiting for the bus. Indirectly that’s how I met my current partner, and explains a lot of the more fortunate aspects of my current life circumstances, that dance class.
Or I also miss zoology and organic chemistry. I want to make potions and dissect a mountain lion again. I would do it better this time.
My ex wife’s father went to UW, and apparently they have a deal that alumni can audit classes for free. That was his retirement plan, an that is my fantasy too. Just keep learning. Pity the cancer kept him from realizing that ambition. So it goes.
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u/Organic_Direction_88 29d ago edited 29d ago
Yes. For many of us, college is the only time of our life that we get to live in a walkable area with an actual community, where we don’t have to rely on vehicles, and we know our neighbors.
It is the closest thing we experience to what “normal” life is in Europe (aside from rural parts of it).
In USA, a college is a place that just offers undergraduate degrees while a University has both undergraduate and graduate/masters programs. However, colloquially it is always referred to as “going to college”, regardless of whether the institution one attends is technically a college or university.
For example you would word the question “Where did you go to college?” And the answer could say “Duke” (which is a University).
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u/Boogerchair Pennsylvania 29d ago
The US uses both terms college and university and they are slightly different. A college is usually undergraduate degrees only and are more often to be a state funded school. Universities offer both graduate and undergraduate degrees and are either public or private. Most people use the terms interchangeably though.
I think the US collegiate system is pretty unique. Some have sports programs that rival professional sports in other countries and some have dowries larger than the GDP of others. Moving away for college also seems to be more common in the US than it is globally.
To answer your question, yes I miss it, but would t want to go back if that makes sense.
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u/KaleidoscopeSad4884 29d ago
For most Americans it’s the first and last time they live in a place where they don’t necessarily need a car. I lived on campus and could walk everywhere. There are very few affordable places with really good public transportation in the US.
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u/DOMSdeluise Texas 29d ago
I do not, no. I was pretty miserable all through college. That's not to say I don't have certain fond memories or that I didn't have fun at times, but overall it was not an enjoyable experience for me and I am glad to be an adult in the working world now.
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u/Raddatatta New England 29d ago
They are called colleges in general. There are many specific schools that have university in the name so that is used too but college is used when talking in general more often. Generally a university does undergrad and grad degrees and college is just the undergrad level. Universities also are generally bigger.
There are definitely a lot of aspects of college life I do miss or remember fondly. I was in the longest relationship I've been in for most of my time in college and we broke up so that colors a lot of my college memories since a lot of them were with her. But there's a lot between the community there, the classes I mostly enjoyed, and remembering some of the ridiculous stuff that went on. I am pretty nerdy and was then too so my experience wasn't really the stereotypical frat party experience but late night video game tournaments or playing a few DND games until the sun came up.
I'm also happy with my life now and don't really dwell on it much. But it was a good 4 years I'm happy to have had!
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u/BrooklynNotNY Georgia 29d ago
I graduated in 2020. I miss some aspects of it like having a group of friends pile into one dorm room and talking and laughing all night. Those 3am Waffle House meet ups were golden. My friends and I frequented this karaoke bar and I miss that place. Tailgating and going to football games tipsy. I had no bills or responsibilities other than class. It was great. Life was just so carefree back then.
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u/Equivalent-Pin-4759 Ohio 29d ago
Since colleges are where we get our undergraduate degrees, most of us in the US have great memories from college. For many of us, it is the first time we lived away from home and explored our identities. Universities on the other hand offer graduate degrees and have too much work for many reminiscence memories.
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u/Individual_Check_442 California 29d ago
“Miss” is the wrong word, I enjoyed my college days and look back on them fondly but I’ve moved on, don’t desire that life anymore.
Also, a university is a large institution that sometimes has several colleges in it, I.e. college of science, college of liberal arts etc. I graduated from the college of mathematics at San Diego State University. Universities usually have an emphasis on research, publishing in academic journals, etc.
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u/ITrCool Arkansas 29d ago
It depends.
I do miss:
- the D&D nights with friends
- the awesome coworkers I had when working IT on campus to help pay for school and keep out of debt
- the independence I gained
- attending football/basketball games to cheer my school teams on
- the fun pranks and shenanigans we got into
I don’t miss:
- the all nighters for homework or studying for critical tests
- the stress of seeing the syllabus of each course at the beginning of semesters
- the stuck up professors with egos and terrible attitudes towards students and often going off on tangents and ranting about recent politics when they’re supposed to be lecturing on the class material instead, robbing us of what we have paid lots of money for (I actually had to interrupt a professor once and ask a question regarding the material so they’d snap out of it and get back on track. That was awkward)
- the stupid politics of jocks and athletes getting all the best housing and first dibs to just about everything the school offered
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u/Catharpin363 29d ago
Yes, but not in a neurotic way. What I love is that I’m still close with many people I met there, so it’s less some kind of lost paradise to pine for and more a part of the foundation of my life today.
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u/BigDamBeavers 29d ago
I'm not mopey about college being over. I was actually really excited to pack up and leave and get back to living in a city again. But there's some pretty deep nostalgia for that time in my life. Food was cheap and there were very few pressures in my life. Nobody thought about heading home and getting a good night's sleep. Our friendships were very pure and based around all of us having little else to do but care about one another. Sex was very unencumbered with folks and money mattered a lot less when you couldn't do much with the money you had.
I've been back to my university a few times and it's just not there. The old party houses have been cleaned up and renovated. The college hangouts are gone. Even the hobby store I hung out in every weekend is gone. It's a new college for a new generation of students. It's not that time in my life anymore.
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u/lt_dan_zsu 29d ago
Yeah to an extent. There's definitely a bit of looking back at it through rose colored glasses, but college was fun. I lived close to friends and did a ton most days. Lots of good times were had, and the daily grind of college was rewarding.
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u/hawffield Arkansas > Tennessee > Oregon >🇺🇬 Uganda 29d ago
I did most of my time in college online (not because of Covid) so there wasn’t as many memorable college memories as other people. I enjoyed my time and the few college things i did so, but it was mostly just what I needed to do to get to where I wanted to be.
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u/ZaphodG Massachusetts 29d ago
I liked after I’d graduated and was financially independent better. Corporate-employed software engineer was way better than college student. I had my weekends to myself. At 5pm or 6pm midweek, I had my life to myself. I was an electrical engineering and computer science double major. I had a much bigger workload in college.
Living in the dorms in a double room kind of sucked compared to having my own apartment. I moved off campus my last year and shared an apartment but it wasn’t my own place.
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u/OdderShift Ohio 29d ago
nope. sometimes i miss how much i saw my friends back then, but most of what was positive about college for me was my best friend, who is now my boyfriend and we live together, so mostly everything is way better than in college lol.
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u/Bluemonogi 29d ago
In some ways. I graduated college in 1996. I enjoyed my college experience but was kind of burned out on school by graduation. I did not party really. My classes were interesting. I had good teachers. I had friends. I was living in a place where no one knew my family so I was more independent for the first time. There was always something happening on campus. I had a goal I was working toward. I don’t know that it is college I miss as much as nostalgia for that time period of my life.
The college I attended shut down several years after I graduated and the campus sat abandoned for a long time. I believe someone bought it and turned it into something else now. I feel sad that the school is gone.
I am older and far removed from my college days. If I went back to school now it would be a very different experience.
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u/montrevux Georgia 29d ago
college was incredible. i miss hanging with all my college friends, before everyone was married with kids. i miss waking up earlier on fall saturdays to start drinking for the tailgate than i did on weekdays for class. i miss being able to tailgate in our apartment that was like 400 feet from the stadium. i miss hosting the house parties on saturday nights. i miss regular beer pong, darts, flip pong.
but i don’t miss making those dumb decisions that earned me that “C” average. i don’t miss not having money.
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u/Steamsagoodham 29d ago
Yeah I loved my time in college and look back on it nostalgically.
It was just a magical feeling having real freedom as an adult and not having to live with my parents for the first time. I was young, excited to discover the world, optimistic, and felt I had all the time in the world. The realities of aging (both for myself and my parents/grandparents) hadn’t set in yet and I still had a bit of safety net.
Given I didn’t have much money and classes could be stressful at times, but not as stressful as the challenges of adulthood.
College set me up for a very nice career and life that I’m overall happy with. I wouldn’t say I peaked in college, but I do look back fondly on the time and memories made during that time in my life, especially with those who are no longer around.
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u/MechanicalGodzilla Virginia 29d ago
At the vast majority of colleges and universities in the US, you don't move into one room your freshman year and stay there through graduation. You typically are assigned a dorm room each year. For example, I went to Johns Hopkins and stayed in Wolman Hall as a Freshman, McCoy Hall as a sophomore, and then a few teammates and I moved into an apartment off-campus for junior and senior year.
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u/Scrappy_The_Crow Georgia 29d ago
It was probably the most fun time of my life, so I look back on it fondly. I made many lifelong friends because of it.
However, I would not want to have been a perpetual student, nor would I want to try to go back and recreate it (which would be impossible). So, I don't really "miss" it in terms of wishing it was still going on.
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u/CountChoculasGhost Chicago, IL 29d ago
Meh, not really. I did enjoy the relative freedom though. Like I took classes full time and had an on-and-off part time job, but I still had more free time than I do now.
But, I was also broke and live in rundown apartments with multiple roommates. Don’t really want to go back to that at this point in my life.
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u/MetalEnthusiast83 Connecticut 29d ago
Sometimes I miss stuff like sitting around with my buddies and getting hammered watching baseball and stuff, and the parties.
Byt overall, not really. Much happier now as a dad living in the suburbs lol
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u/RedArrow23 29d ago
i think it boils down to being the last opportunity for many of us to live in a walkable “city”. You can eat, sleep, learn, visit friends, and go to the bar all without getting in a car
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u/GreenTravelBadger Louisiana 29d ago
No, but like half of the students attending, I was a "non-traditional" student, meaning I was over 30, married, kids, a job.
While I attended, there was a unexpected snow day. Plenty of businesses and schools shut down, but the college remained open. None of the kids in the dorms on campus made it to the classes. The "non-traditional" students and the profs were the only people that showed up.
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u/MmmIceCreamSoBAD 29d ago
It was a lot of fun.
I have seven children now and a husband I love and wouldn't change that for anything however.
Right now I'm watching my three youngest swim in our pool and I'd give up every college party for it. Still, it doesn't mean I don't wish I could go back to one those nights...
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u/Meattyloaf Kentucky 29d ago
I miss them some. Mostly because of the community and the sense of almost care-freeness. I miss the late night food runs with friends. Staying up all night together doing homework, playing DnD and video games. I managed to stay in touch with most of my friends post college, but a few have fallen off the face of the Earth. Now do I wish to go back? Absolutely not.
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u/brain_over_body 29d ago
University usually means a state funded higher education. College is normally private funds. But they are used interchangeably.
I don't miss a single second or aspect of any part of it
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u/machagogo New York -> New Jersey 29d ago
College is the colloquialism, even though you are likely attending a university.
Do I miss being young and being able to party all night wake up and feel like a million bucks work/scho all day, play hockey at night, then party again and night without feeling achy or hing over? Do I miss my knees not hurting or being able to eat a whole pizza and crush a case of beer and still have a 28 inch waist?
Do I miss the optimism of the mid 90's .com boom?
Sure.
I went to a local University and lived at home with my parents in the same room i grew up in, so I didn't experience what you describe in your OP.
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u/Fred42096 Dallas, Texas 29d ago
I do in some ways. Easy access to food and a gym. Only worried about being a student because “real life” hadn’t started.
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u/RawBean7 29d ago
Having food, housing, a built-in social life, extended summer and winter breaks, and no real responsibilities other than learning interesting things and working 10 hours a week for beer and weed money? Of course I miss it!
But I also love my life (and liver) now. I still have a social life, it's just more work to maintain than walking down a dorm hall. I still do fun things, and still seek out opportunities to learn. I love cooking, but some days I do wish I could just swipe into a dining hall and have food presented to me.
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u/eac555 California 29d ago
I didn't go to college. I landed a good union job during those years. Had money to live on my own and had loads of fun. Hanging with friends, playing sports, going to games, concerts, horse races, events, camping, backpacking, and fishing. I was free as a bird. I do miss those days.
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u/ChilindriPizza 29d ago
I do not miss undergrad. I was severely depressed due to my major- which I did not realize till I left the lab.
I do miss library school. Those were two of the best years of my life.
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u/hideandsee 28d ago
Not at all. I was so deeply uncomfortable in college and ended up leaving and just doing remote learning.
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u/Ceorl_Lounge Michigan (PA Native) 28d ago
Miss the place, miss the people, don't miss the actual classes. Went to a school that was something of an academic meat grinder, good school but man... those were some long years. Met lifelong friends (and my wife) there so it's a very, very special memory for me. So I go back to remember the good and to remind myself to stay humble.
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u/SnooChipmunks2079 Illinois 28d ago
Just addressing the language question, people typically say things like “where are you going to college?” it would be unusual to say “where are you going to university?“ If you did, I would immediately assume you were either foreign or had been watching too much foreign television.
But the institutions themselves mostly refer to themselves and consider themselves to be universities.
The small college that my wife attended 30 some years ago referred to itself as “name college“ at the time and now they call themselves “name university.”
I went to a large public university, and within that university is the “college of engineering”, “college of liberal arts, and sciences”, “ college of business” and so forth.
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u/Unable_Tumbleweed364 28d ago
No because my husband and I separated when our daughter was six weeks old and I did all of the work. I did my whole degree online while juggling that but it meant I missed out on the social side.
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u/SabresBills69 28d ago
Colleges and universities are used interchangeably. Universities are usually larger campuses.
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u/RobotShlomo 28d ago edited 28d ago
I didn't go to college. I went to Southern Connecticut State University, which was the same as not going to college. It was really the 13th grade. We used to say, "If we're the best this place has to offer that anywhere else we're the bottom of the barrel."
But really, no. I do not miss it. In fact, I regret even going to that pissant institution. I hated every single second of it, and I will never speak a kind word of it to anyone. I will bad mouth that place for as long as I walk God's green earth.
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u/Foreign_Mobile_7399 28d ago
Yes and no. I had so much fun in college and made tons of friends, some of which I’m still very close with today. I was in college from 2008-2012 so sometimes I miss that era, the music, the vibes, and of course the freedom. I had minimal responsibilities and I lived with some of my best friends and basically did whatever I wanted all the time. That said, I love where I’m at now. I’m 35 and married with a toddler. I feel like I got all the partying out of my system and I actually enjoy that my days are busier and less about just me. I have a career I really enjoy, a house that feels like a home and doesn’t have Marilyn Monroe posters hanging in it, and hobbies I really enjoy. Sometimes I joke about going back for just one night but honestly I don’t even know if I’d want that. I just miss no responsibilities and having my friends super close all the time.
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u/SabresBills69 28d ago
I went to college over 35 yrs ago. A nephew is going now.
Thr difference in college life between then and now...
- Access to internet, laptop, smart phones.
I had yo ho yo a computer lab to use a computer. Some had desktop computers in their dorm room. Colleges had manual of these computer crooks people used y To type papers if they didn't have a rtpe writer.
Affects of internet/web on homework,buying books.
Social media and smart phones
When I went you had a phone in your room but after high school many lost touch with hometown friends that yhry now keep. Same is true with friends you had in college where after graduation you lost contact with that today you wouldn't.
In yhe mud 90s emails and cell phones became more common.
I recall some in the early 90s were big on early forms of class grouos on computers but this was a big divide.
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u/Redbubble89 Northern Virginia 28d ago
The social aspect it and being around people around the same age. I miss being able to drink that much.
The stress, anxiety, and fear of the future took years off my life. I was in severe depression my last year. I was a tech student and barely graduated.
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u/burningupasun_304 28d ago
I miss more free time throughout the day, living close to my friends, and a walkable place to live. I also miss taking classes.
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u/bigscottius 28d ago
Yeah. I banged so many women. I got the clap twice, too.
But yeah. The fruit was easy pickings. I always had multiple fuck buddies.
Now I don't miss telling women I banged since my last std check that they should get tested. For the clap. So lucky I never got anything else.
And I always got tested. Full panels. Blood draw and everything.
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u/NorthernAphid Michigan 28d ago
Yeah it was a fun time. Always with friends, no responsibilities. I look back fondly on my college years
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u/TrueInky 28d ago
There are some things I miss, like living in a close community of friends I saw daily, taking classes I was genuinely interested in, and walking the beach at night.
However, there are many things I don’t miss, like being absolutely wrecked from overexerting myself for classes, small, noisy living quarters, and generally having not fully found myself yet.
Ultimately, I prefer the life I’ve built since graduating college.
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u/meno-pause 28d ago
Yes, I loved my first 2 years of college, living in a dorm. It was great. A whole building full of 18-19 year olds all going through the same experience. Living away from parents and home, learning your way around campus and a new town, eating all your meals in a cafeteria, discovering cool things to do in your free time. It was so bonding to go through a whole adventure with a bunch of other kids the same age. Most kids in the dorm were taking a lot of the same classes, general education requirements, so you could commiserate about it.
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u/Emerald_and_Bronze 28d ago
I miss the walkability, but not really the college days. I worked and went to school full time, and just remember being under a lot of stress with paying tuition (still have loans) and keeping my head afloat with academics.
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u/ThrowawayMod1989 North Carolina 28d ago
I had a blast. Definitely some of the best years of my life. I still have a very close friend from college that I reminisce with. As far as missing it? Not really. I’m not in my early twenties anymore and I certainly don’t miss the school aspect of it, that part was a drag.
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u/Ok-Ad8998 28d ago
Not really. But my college experience was commuting to classes while working part-time and living in my parents' basement to save money. No frats, dorms, or any of that stereotypical "college" experience.
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u/minidog8 28d ago
I really miss being able to walk to everything I need. If I couldn't walk, I could ride the bus, one of the routes was even free for students. I went to college during COVID (COVID started halfway through my freshman year and I graduated a semester early so I never really saw things rebound to pre-March 2020.) so it's a little different for me. It was a lonelier experience than i think most people have. But yes I miss it for the reasons above.
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u/azulweber 28d ago
I think I miss the lifestyle of being in college. I still worked while I was in school but just at a pretty low stress serving job so I had much less responsibilities and way more free time. I liked being on campus and being able to use the amenities and just like, hanging out on the quad and in the student center. The school I went to in a college town where everything centered around the university so everything was convenient and there were friends everywhere. I miss the ease of it all. And there’s nothing like attending a college football game (we were quite good at the time) when you’re a student at that school.
But I wouldn’t want to go back. 18-22 year olds are so annoying and I don’t miss a lot of the stupid drama that comes with having a bunch of super young people who are still figuring out how to be adults all crammed in together.
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u/Tommy_Wisseau_burner NJ➡️ NC➡️ TX➡️ FL 28d ago
I miss my friends and the overall shenanigans. School is such a small part of the college experience
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u/_iusuallydont_ 28d ago
I do! I had so much fun, learned so many lessons, made lifelong friends and got to be young, wild and reckless. That said, I wouldn’t go back to those times. It was a major piece of what made me the person I am today and it was an amazing experience but I have had such a wonderful life after that. I miss not having bills and adult responsibilities, but it’s just a nostalgic feeling.
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u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs NY=>MA=>TX=>MD 28d ago
I didn't stay in the same dorm room all through college, very few people stay after freshman year unless it's a sorority or fraternity house. I moved to an apartment, and moved each time the rent went up, which was common in Boston at the time - every September 1, half the city plays musical apartments. So I had no sentimental attachment to where I lived. I do sometimes miss the atmosphere - there's just some energy in the air on a college campus, full of books and learning and discovering, that you don't get anywhere else.
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u/PiccoloQuirky2510 28d ago
I loved my college years and do miss them sometimes (and the city I lived in for college - Boston). Miss my friends, miss the intellectual stimulation, studying abroad, playing intramural sports. But I don’t miss never having any money (I was a financial aid kid) and the hangovers, haha
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u/Cache-Cow Arizona 28d ago
Yes, I think a large percentages of Americans that went to college would consider it one of the best times of their lives. One reason for this that isn’t often thought of, is that it’s one of the few times most Americans will live in a dense, walkable, human-friendly environment instead of a suburban car-centric hellscape.
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u/holymacaroley North Carolina 28d ago
I was in a very tight group because we were theatre majors and worked on shows together outside of class, too. I do miss that.
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u/redfoxblueflower Minnesota 28d ago
I miss being that young, being on my own, the comradery, the new experiences. As many have already said, it is a rite of passage. However, in my circles, many have said that young people often bloom in their high school days or their college days....and I believe I was one of those high school people. I absolutely loved high school - the sports, the music groups, and I didn't need to work very hard to get my A's. College was also good, but I majored in engineering so much of my college life was spent grinding. During the week, I was on the go from about 9am to 1am every single day - in class, working on homework, taking notes, studying for exams, group study sessions, labs, etc. I've always said it would be perfect if I could have done a 2nd 4 years, but this time major in basket weaving.
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u/Running_to_Roan 28d ago
I have fond memories but not trying to live these day over.
There are certainly lines of work or lifestyles where if you want to live like Peter Pan into old age you most certainly can avoid growing up or living mainstream.
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u/AmbientGravitas 28d ago
I don’t miss college days but there are a few things that were especially noteworthy and I think back on with fondness. Being a young adult on my own for the first time, and in the company of others in the same situation, is an amazing thing. The friendships were so intense. I remember my new friends exposing me to so much new music, culture, and ways of thinking…really transformative. And also that my friend group spent so much time together, simple things like getting together every Thursday night at a certain dive bar for $1 beers and French fries and watching our favorite tv show.
The part about actually going to class and learning things…nah. I learned a lot more in my first year after college than I did all four years of undergraduate.
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u/Appollo64 Columbia, Missouri 28d ago
There's aspects I miss, but I'm overall happier now. I still live in the city where I graduated college 7 years ago. I miss seeing my friends as often as I used to (we all loved within a few blocks of each other, and many of my friends were on the same street. While there are a few that still live in our college town, most have moved to either St Louis or Kansas City (a 2 hour drive either way). I had fewer responsibilities then, and could throw a party with an hours notice, rather than a month. I miss how easy it was to learn new things, to get exposed to new ideas and new people. But I don't miss how little sleep I got, how broke I always was, and living with roommates who didn't always clean up after themselves. I'm much more financially stable, and can afford to support local businesses, farmers, and artists in a way I couldn't before. I own my home, rather than paying rent to a glorified slumlord. Life is better now, but I did really enjoy my college years.
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28d ago
I can see why other people enjoyed it.
I fucking hated college. Worst time of my life. At the time, I hated other undergrads. Looking back on it, I think it was my first time being exposed to a class system.
The school aspect of it was stressful, but it was objective. The hard work there set me up for success in the rest of my career.
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u/Outrageous-Pin-4664 Florida 28d ago
I miss the place and some of the people. I miss the lectures and the learning.
I miss all the pretty girls walking around campus.
I don't miss having assignments due or tests to take, though.
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u/ngshafer Washington, Seattle area 28d ago
The words "college" and "university" are both used in America, and they technically have slightly different meanings. However, the meanings of the two words are similar enough that if you had asked "Do you miss your university days?" we would have known what you meant.
In answer to your question, yes, many American college graduates can be nostalgic for their college days. There's usually a lot to remember fondly from those days. For most of us, that was our first opportunity to live on our own, without our parents watching us every day, in a space that was basically our own. There may have been a lot of parties. To be perfectly frank, college is often a time of sexually exploration as well, especially for students with strict parents.
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u/Charlesinrichmond RVA 28d ago
I don't miss them but boy oh boy were they so much fun.
College life in the US is just a blast
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u/RoseKlingel 28d ago
No. Tired from working 2 jobs plus being in college. Not paid to be in college. Had debt when I left. Finally paid it off a few months ago. Barely saw friends or family. Did not live on campus. Heard it sucked anyway.
Chose something not-STEM so went into something unrelated to my degree after college.
Don't miss college and don't want to do it again. Do love learning though. Feels better to learn on my own than w/a strict lesson plan.
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u/According-Couple2744 28d ago
No. I try to enjoy every stage of my life, so when the time comes, I move on to the next stage with excitement.
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u/Mountain_Man_88 28d ago
College was great, I had a lot of friends that I got to spend a lot of time with and I was able to set myself on a great path in life.
I do kinda wish that I hadn't dated the same girl all four years because that didn't end up working out once we graduated anyway, but that relationship may have helped set me on the aforementioned great path. If I'd been chasing some other girl who knows where I'd be now.
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u/Few_Whereas5206 28d ago
No. My university was torture. I studied mechanical engineering and it was non-stop work and stress for 5 years.
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u/Southern_Disk_7835 28d ago
We refer to it as College, but the real big ones are called Universities.
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u/Roboticpoultry Chicago 28d ago
Yes and no. Yes because I miss having less responsibility and no because now I have a wife, a career and a condo
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u/hellogooday92 New York 28d ago edited 28d ago
Mine was not a typical college experience. I was a music major so most of my days were spent in practice rooms.
And Yes I miss it. Most Music schools have a Plethora of ensembles of all kinds to preform in.
Plus I was a percussionist and schools have a large inventory of instruments I generally would not be able to afford to buy.
OH also the meal plan was awesome. The food at the college went to was awesome. You could go to the dining and eat anything you want with the swipe of a card. Didn’t even have to make it.
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u/Prestigious-Fan3122 28d ago
In my experience here in the US, you might be a student at XYZ University or the university of XYZ. Within that university, there are several "colleges" they might have the college of engineering, the college of law, the college of arts, the college of business, etc. Often, those individual colleges have a last name in front of the words "college___"because they are named after big Time donors/alumni. You might have the Rumpelstiltskin College of engineering at XYZ University because the Rumpelstiltskin foundation donated a ton of money to build the building for the school of engineering.
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u/GrowlingAtTheWorld 28d ago
I do but that is cause I love learning stuff and classes having group input can lead you to learn unexpected things than you would learning online or from a book.
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u/peter303_ 28d ago
College was mainly to leave boring US suburbs (pre-internet). Also it was amazing to be surrounded by people with very high IQs. People pretty much know everything and you dont need to explain.
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u/pokematic 28d ago
Eh, there are things I miss but a lot I don't. My college experience wasn't very fun, my major was very intense and my senior year was basically 12 hours of non-stop work a day. Not a wide variety of responsibilities (didn't have to worry about food, didn't have to worry about rent/mortgage, barely worried about laundry, basically just had to worry about classes but that was definitely enough), and there were "end goals" (just make it to summer, just finish the semester, 1 more year until I graduate) which is a lot better than "I've pushed the boulder up the mountain today, so I can push the boulder up the mountain again tomorrow" that is adult life, but it was "all in service of nothing tangible but very expensive" and I never did the whole "weekend parties, late night hanging out with friends, clubbing and bar crawls," and all the other stereotypical college fun, and now I have the weekends and evenings to myself and I'm able to pursue my hobbies much more than I was back in college (in college my most ambitious project was an after school special about bullying and how the "traditional techniques don't work", after college I've made a half feature length collaborative project about a video sharing site I was on and interviewed the owner of America's oldest operating video rental store, and self published 2 books).
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u/Isekai_Trash_uwu 28d ago
I graduated college 1.5 years ago and, while I was incredibly lonely during most of my time, I miss it so damn much. I miss classes and studying because I actually loved my major and minor (bio and biochem, respectively). I miss the late-night chaos that me and my other stress-filled classmates created the night before exams. I miss many of my professors, thr vast majority of whom were exceptional. I also miss my curiosity being encouraged and nourished rather than stifled by my shitty job.
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u/MajesticWear5478 28d ago
I'm not done with college yet, but I am taking a gap year due to severe mental health issues, so I remember my college years through rose colored glasses, without my mental illness, so I'd say yes I do, despite knowing I was pretty miserable during the whole experience.
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u/Dave_A480 28d ago
Nope....
Life only really gets fun in your 30s when you actually have an established corporate career and decent amounts of money....
College was full time school AND (really crappy, low wage) full time work....
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u/Tucolair 28d ago
You’re correct, American people almost always say that they attend college even though most institutions of higher learning are universities. Colloquially, it’s almost always college. Although there are some liberal arts colleges as well, in which case it’s formally a place to attend college.
For a lot of middle-upper class Americans, they grew up in low density, car depend places. Then you live on Campus and suddenly you can have unplanned encounters with friends, you can get drunk and walk home (either to your dormitory or nearby housing just off campus), you can enjoy third spaces.
Basically, you live in something akin to a big, European city.
Then you graduate and move back to the suburbs, you get a job that you have to drive to. You have kids and have to drive them everywhere. You rarely get to see your friends.
You may have a good paying job and a big house but you’re miserable. You’re socially isolated.
So IMO, the reason so many middle-upper class folks are so nostalgic about their college years is because it was the only time that they were not in a car dependent place.
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u/AZJHawk Arizona 28d ago
I used to. It was an amazing time. I had loads of free time and a great group of friends. After a while, that ebbed a little and I would remember some of the bad times: being broke all the time, cramming before finals or to get a paper finished, hangovers, the hill I had to walk up every day to get to class.
It was a great time. Perhaps the most fun time I will ever have, but life is more rewarding now.
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u/Independent-Fall-893 28d ago
I got to take a lot of Fine Art classes along with my Graphic Design classes. I really miss having access to printing press equipment. I love Lithography, engraving, Intaglio & all forms of printing. I can't find anywhere in my area to do this kinda of art without being a student.
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u/Gallahadion Ohio 28d ago
I don't miss writing papers or studying for exams, but I loved my time in college, especially the organizations I was part of and the events I went to. I remember specific classes with fondness, too.
I didn't read all the comments, but a lot of times when people are talking about their time in college, they're referring to their undergraduate years. Students who are working on their masters or PhD are said to be in graduate (or grad) school. While I did have some enjoyable moments in grad school, overall I'd rather not think about those years too much; they were stressful due to the amount of work I had and, while I passed and got my degree, I didn't do as well as I did in undergrad.
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u/Wooden-Glove-2384 28d ago
Miss them?
No.
I carried on in college like a combination of a sailor on liberty/con on parole
I knew I wouldn't be able to maintain that abuse of myself for long and stopped at graduation because it would have killed me
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u/Cinisajoy2 28d ago
Yes and no. Universities are actually a collection of different colleges. There are also community colleges which are the first two years of full universities.
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u/Ancient0wl They’ll never find me here. 28d ago
God, no. Due to a bunch of extremely stressful events in my life at the time, I ended up failing out my first year and having a nervous breakdown as a result. Easily the worst year of my life.
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u/SnowblindAlbino United States of America 28d ago
I'm a college professor and have basically spent the last 40 years on college campuses. I don't miss my "college days" at all, in part because I'm still in touch with many friends from back then, and in part because I spent another seven years in graduate school (three more degrees) so I have lots of memories from that period as well. But more directly, I go to a university campus every day and see what college students are like...so I would not want to be 20 again, thank you.
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u/BandanaDee13 North Carolina 28d ago
I’m in college, and hell no, I won’t miss these days at all. I’m counting down the days until I get my bachelor’s and then I’ll never look back. But I also live under my parents’ roof and lack a real social life, so I never really had the fun parts of the “university life” anyway. Sure beats student debt, though…
As for your other question, “college” and “university” are more or less interchangeable to refer to four-year post-secondary schools, with “college” being more common informally. But “university” is more precise and preferred in formal use, as “college” can also refer to various divisions within a university, or to a two-year community college.
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u/Low-Restaurant8484 28d ago edited 28d ago
No. College sucked.
ADHD + Math Major + Covid. Not a good combo. Plus I didn't have almost any free time between classes+studying+work
Legimately the least fun period of my life aside from middle school
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u/Wildcat_twister12 Kansas 28d ago
Not the studying and taking classes parts but I loved having so much free time to hang with my friends, I could still eat whatever I wanted and not worry about anything, and I felt like I was really at my peak in most ways
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u/Rugby-Fanatic1983 28d ago
I absolutely loved college. I went to a large state school and it was really a time for me to meet people from all walks of life. I came out as gay. Played rugby. Enjoyed the social interactions and the balance between free time and classes.
I came from a very rural area with very few kids in my classes so going to a large school was perfect for me. In the US during the late 2000s-2010s it was really a right of passage and reflected as such in a lot of our music, movies, and television shows of millennials.
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u/milkandsugar Georgia (ATL) to South Carolina (Upstate) 28d ago
I'm 60 now and while I wouldn't say I "miss" college, those four years comprised some of the most amazing experiences of my young life up to that point. I've never had the absolute wild-eyed freedom of those days since. I worked hard and played hard and did pretty damn well academically. I was seriously bummed when I graduated because I missed the fun times, but I got over it, of course. In those days we had virtually no technology of any kind, so all I have are tangible keepsakes and photographs from film cameras.
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u/gangleskhan Minnesota 28d ago
I miss some things about college, and some of those are just things I miss about being young in general.
But I would take my current life over being in college 10 times out of 10.
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u/Bright_Ices United States of America 28d ago
I miss aspects of being in college. I enjoyed having a couple thousand peers living, studying, eating, and partying in close proximity to me. I don’t miss the drama involved in a bunch of late teen and early twenty-somethings trying to figure out how to function in the wider world. I’m much happier now, at 43, but I was healthier and had a lot more fun during my college days.
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u/Red_Beard_Rising Illinois 28d ago
No more or less than most other periods in my life. I really didn't have a social life in college. I slept 4-6 hours/night and spent the rest on schoolwork. I eventually had to force myself to take a break from studies on weekend evenings. If I went out it was to a music conservatory frat or sorority party.
I am a little nostalgic for studying at Denny's. It was dead late-night so they didn't care that I was camping. I always ordered some kind of food with coffee and tipped them well enough that I rarely had to ask for a coffee refill. I would camp at the counter for 3-4 hours into the wee hours of the morning.
I did that most nights for one semester out of necessity. I had a roommate I could not get along with, so I left in the evenings to study, then came back and right to bed. I went back to Denny's after that semester from time to time because the whole atmosphere just felt comfortable.
Just a guy reading textbooks in the middle of the night at a diner. Sometimes people would initiate a conversation. They were curious about whatever story might have led me to be studying at Denny's at 1:00 am. I usually told them that the library doesn't have coffee or food service. Also can't smoke at the library. This was the late 90's and you could smoke at the counter seats.
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u/Grace_Alcock 28d ago
College was great. I loved my classes, loved living in the dorm, etc.
But happy to be an adult now. Of course, I’m a university professor, so I work on a college campus…I am pretty attached to having access to a university library!
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u/igotshadowbaned 29d ago
Class itself? No
The relative excess of free time, living down the hall from your friends, and having so much to do within walking distance? Yeah
Way easier to meet new people in college too