Talk:State college

the target of this redirect

State college with a small c refers to the type of educational institution, not to the town. Bwrs (talk) 04:59, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Organization of page

This list is getting fairly long, even after I have hidden schools that are on other lists. I also believe that there are other articles out there that I haven't found yet. I have left out all the articles/redirects that have some other term between "state" and "college", such as "state teacher's college", "state community college", etc. The items that are former names for schools are mostly redirects, but a few are real articles. Any suggestions on how to better organize this page? - Donald Albury 15:33, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

This is really getting out of hand. Per WP:Partial title match, A disambiguation page is not a search index. Do not add a link that merely contains part of the page title. State College, Pennsylvania was at one time the primary topic for [[State College]]. Now it's buried deep on the disambiguation page. You're trying to make a list of state colleges / list of state universities under the guise of "disambiguation". – wbm1058 (talk) 14:17, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

You're creating a WP:content fork of List of state universities in the United States at State college (disambiguation) § In the United States. – wbm1058 (talk) 14:25, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

Just taking one example, it is highly unlikely that anyone refers to Prairie State College as simply "State College", but Prairie State is a likely name for that college. – wbm1058 (talk) 14:28, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

There were already a number of schools with "State College" in their names on the page. I just added more. If you feel that they shouldn't be included, then I'm willing to remove all of them for which there are no reliable sources that support that they are, or have been, commonly known as simply "State College" (which, I suspect, is all of them). I do think, though, the former version in which the primary meaning was given as a link to State university is not adequate, as "State College" has been used in the names of secondary schools, community colleges, four-year schools awarding batchelor's degrees and schools awarding graduate degrees. - Donald Albury 19:27, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

I think that "must have a reliable source directly linking the target article to this phrase" is a reasonable first step to trimming this article. ElKevbo (talk) 19:35, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

• Public college has redirected to public university for ten years. I take "state" and "public" to be synonyms; these describe one of the two major types of colleges/universities by funding; the other being private college/private university
• State colleges and universities has redirected to Public university for nine years, so it feels odd to me that State university and State universities redirect to State university system rather than Public university. If you mean "system" you have to say it. A generic state "college" or "university" is just one school which may or may not be part of a "system".
• On 12 November 2006, State university moved to List of state universities of the USA. That's a good indicator of what could be considered a prime contender for primary topic – a list. I'm not saying it should be made primary; rather the disambiguation should contain links to all possibly applicable lists rather than any individual institution. I agree with you that I can't think of a single college that could reasonably go by the common name "State College". So pull them all and replace them with links to lists.
• The disambiguation could also reasonably include Community college. – wbm1058 (talk) 18:02, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

"Community college" is too specific to be included in this discussion. I think there are also some U.S. institutions that people could reasonably label as "private community colleges" (but I'd have to dig to find some examples). ElKevbo (talk) 18:41, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

All I'm suggesting is that the generic article on the topic could be placed in the "see also" section as I believe at least some community colleges get state funding. wbm1058 (talk) 18:59, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

I came to this subject from a perspective of what "State college" meant in the US, that is, a State college is a four-year post-secondary school, funded by and under the control of a state, awarding batchelor's degrees as their highest degrees. (As an exception, Bay State College is a private school, i.e., it is named for the "Bay State".) Universities, including State universities, award batchlor's and graduate degrees, and include divisions called "colleges" organized around academic fields. Junior colleges (now often called community colleges) are two-year post-secondary schools awarding associate degrees as their highest degrees. (Sorry for the pedantic manner, but not all Wikipedians are familiar with the details of the US educational system.) This also ties back to the differences between "college" and "university", whether or not government funded/controlled.

"State College" now is used for schools at different levels, depending on the country. In Queensland, new government controlled secondary schools (often including primary grades, as well) are being called "State Colleges" (older "State High Schools" are apparently keeping that form of name). At least one secondary school in Ghana is called a "State College". In the Philippines, most "State Colleges" award graduate degrees in at least one discipline, usually education. In the US, many junior/community colleges have been renamed "State College", in some cases because they are now allowed to award a limited number of batchelor's degrees. So, depending on the country or US state, "State College" can mean a secondary school, a post-secondary two-year school, a post-secondary four-year school, or a school which awards graduate degrees.

I think that, however we handle it in this article, it needs to reflect the different ways "State College" is used around the world. One way is to do what I did for the Philippines, and link to a list of schools in a jurisdiction. The US is more of a problem. Some states have a "system" of state colleges, with a WP article that can be linked. Other states have state colleges, but no WP article listing them. Besides which, I don't think we want up to fifty links under the US. - Donald Albury 19:44, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

You're calling this an "article", but it's not that – it's a disambiguation page, which has a manual of style: MOS:DAB. DIsambiguation pages aren't really good for explaining such 'round-the-world nuances. Maybe you want to make this a WP:Broad-concept article, but then it would need to move to a title that did not include the parenthetical "(disambiguation)". – wbm1058 (talk) 20:05, 18 December 2018 (UTC)