Talk:Junior college

reformat

it would be great if we could redirect everything here, make it a disambig, and go from there. there are many types of junior colleges and this would make a great disambig page. and the US difference of community and junior colleges needs to be stressed, as the discussion below shows of ignorance.

redirecting everything to one clearinghouse is probably the easiest answer, with specific pages for each type and detailed page titles so there is little to no confusion. sorry, but the US just can't have a monopoly on such a vague title page.

I just went in and re-worked this page a bit, trying to expand on the cultural connotations of jucos in the US. Just before I submitted the change I chased the link to community college and found that it had a much better developed exposition of what I was trying to say. Clearly there is overlap. As I understand it, the best approach is to break out and consolidate the material for the various kinds of school — "Junior/Community College (US/Canada)" might be one — and then put together disambiguation pages for the names (e.g., "Community College" might disambiguate between "Junior/Community college (US/Canada)" and "Community College (UK)", and "Junior College" might simply redirect to "Junior/Community College (US/Canada)"). I'm not saying these are the best Wikipedia article names, just that there should be some kind of breakdown along those lines.

The present article should be merged with the bulk of the present community college article, while the parts of that article not pertaining to the US/Canada should be broken out into a separate article or articles.

As to the suggestion that the article gives two different definitions for the same term, I don't think that's the case (particularly in the present version). There does seem to be some conflict between popular usage and what the colleges themselves would like people to say, but that should be discussed in the article body. As always, what terms are "correct" is a matter of usage, not of fiat. The article should note any usage differences between the US and Canada concerning what the schools are called. -Dmh 06:03, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

old discussion

This article is not correct as it applies to the United States. In the U.S., while the term "junior college" has been largely replaced with the term "community college", a number of community colleges, such as Pensacola Junior College, continue to formally use the older term. In conversation, community colleges are often referred to as junior colleges. There is no difference between a school called a junior college and one called a community college. The term "junior college" is not limited to private schools or military academies. DS1953 01:05, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

For what it's worth Houghton Mifflin says a community college is "A junior college without residential facilities that is often funded by the government." I only came to this article because in the new season of Family Guy, they mentioned that Peter went to Junior college. --Sketchee 03:06, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC)

I think Houghton Mifflin probably is using the term "junior college" to mean a two-year institution (freshman/sophomore only) as opposed to a "senior college" (referring to a junior/senior only institution), or a regular four-year institution (freshman through senior undergrads). HollyAm 9 July 2005 04:59 (UTC)

Completely agree. The information in this article was added by an anon who did not cite a source. This article should either be a redirect to community college as it once was, or a disambiguation page to account for the Singapore usage and any other countries. HollyAm 9 July 2005 04:59 (UTC)

I don't agree with this characterization of Junior Colleges:

"Junior colleges originated in the Chautauqua movement in late 19th century New York State. By the turn of the century, groups from established colleges and universities would travel around the nation, visiting small towns that did not have access to upper level schools, to offer eight to ten week course on subjects such as the arts, science and literature."

Furthermore, there is no documentation of a causal link between what was essentially a traveling form of "Sunday School" entertainment, and what we now know as the "junior college" movement that began with William Rainer Harper of the University of Chicago. Gsmcghee 23:07, 29 December 2006 (UTC)