Starting your college journey means you’ll probably run into words you don’t recognize or understand very well. That’s normal! We’re here to break it all down for you in the College Knowledge Basics series, specifically how and why these definitions matter at Colorado State University.
When you’re first starting the college journey, you’ll find a lot of terms used in multiple places and for a variety of reasons. We’re here to help break down those definitions for you, give you some context, and clear it all up. Read on to learn how we define the university, the colleges, and the departments under the CSU umbrella.
#1. University
This one’s fairly straightforward, and you won’t hear “university” used in many other contexts at Colorado State. The university is the whole of Colorado State University — every academic program, every administrative program, all the staff, students, and faculty. If CSU terminology were a tree, “university” would be at the top.
#2. College
Things get a little trickier when we use the term “college” at CSU. In the greater world, you might say you’re going to college, and mean you’re going to pursue higher education. But at CSU, we often refer to a college when we’re talking about one of CSU’s academic colleges. CSU is a large university, housing hundreds of academic options. Under the Colorado State University umbrella, you’ll find eight academic colleges, each with its own unique set of departments, majors, concentrations, minors, and certificates.
The eight academic colleges at CSU are The College of Agricultural Sciences, The College of Health and Human Sciences, The College of Liberal Arts, The College of Natural Sciences, The College of Business, The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, The Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering, and Warner College of Natural Resources.
#3. Department and Schools
Departments and Schools at CSU are found within each of CSU’s eight academic colleges. They’re even more focused in a particular academic area than a college. Within departments and schools, you’ll often find several majors, and, sometimes, just one. Then you’ll have options for concentrations, minors, certificates, and more. It all depends on the size of the program and the amount of students within.
Some examples of Departments and Schools include the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance within the College of Liberal Arts, and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering within the College of Engineering.
In short, there are a lot of layers to explore within Colorado State University, and understanding the hierarchy can be a great place to start. You’ll always be a Ram at the “university,” but you might be a Ram in a different “college” and “department” than some of your peers.
