An index related to tropes centering around college and university, the time of life embodying young adulthood and the late teens and early-mid 20s. College is the time where adolescents make the transition out of the compulsory school system and get education for specialized careers that goes beyond what is provided in high school.
This includes undergraduate programs providing Bachelors degrees (B.A., B.Sc, etc), professional schools in law, medicine and so on (LL.B, M.D., etc) programs providing Masters (M.A., M.Sc., etc) and doctoral degrees (Ph.D).
The tertiary education system and the terms used to describe the process and degrees is different around the world.
Tropes:
- All Guys Want Sorority Women: College girls have to join sororities to score guys.
- Artistic License – University Admissions: When university admissions are portrayed inaccurately.
- British Unis: A Useful Notes page on the British university system.
- Oxbridge: A Useful Notes page on the two most prestigious British universities, Oxford and Cambridge.
- California University: A fictional university used to retain a high school series' main cast.
- College Is "High School, Part 2": College settings hardly differ from high school.
- College Radio: Radio stations run in college, by college students.
- College Widow: A local widow in a college town whom the university students are attracted to.
- Collegiate American Football: A Useful Notes page about American Football played in colleges.
- Collegiate American Football Conferences: The various athletic leagues American colleges play in.
- Power Five Conferences: The five most prestigious college football conferences and the schools that play in them.
- Southeastern Conference Football Programs: The largest and wealthiest college football conference.
- Group of Five Conferences: The five next best conferences and the schools that play in them.
- Ivy League: A northeastern athletic league known for its academically elite member schools.
- Power Five Conferences: The five most prestigious college football conferences and the schools that play in them.
- Collegiate American Football Conferences: The various athletic leagues American colleges play in.
- Dean Bitterman: The stereotypical nasty school principal but applicable to postsecondary education.
- A Degree in Useless: A person has few job opportunities or applications for their major.
- Elite School Means Elite Brain: Smart people went to well-known schools (usually Oxbridge or the Ivy League).
- Experimented in College: College students explore same-sex relationships.
- Fiendish Fraternity: Fraternities are horrible.
- Fratbro: College boys known for partying, stupid stunts, and loutish behavior.
- Higher Education Is for Women: Female characters are more likely to pursue university or postgraduate education than male ones.
- I Minored in Tropology: A character is revealed to be educated in an unexpected field.
- Ivy League for Everyone: Apparently, in fiction everyone with a degree went to an elite university.
- Japanese Universities: A Useful Notes page on notable universities in Japan, and by extension universities commonly portrayed or mentioned in Japanese media.
- Majored in Western Hypocrisy: Non-Western characters who attended Western colleges and universities and comes to believe the West to be evil (or at least severely flawed).
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: PhDs are dangerous.
- MRS Degree: A woman goes to college to secure a husband.
- Phony Degree: A character fakes a diploma.
- Sinister Sorority Sisters: College sororities and/or their members are terrible.
- Starving Student: A poor student.
- Strawman U: Stereotypes associated with certain colleges and the people who attend them.
- Student Debt Plot: College's expenses and expensiveness are used to motivate a story.
- Unconventional Electives 101: An elective that covers a random topic.
- Wacky College: Plenty of exciting events happen on this college campus.
- Wacky Frat Boy Hijinx: Frat boys getting involved in wild events, played for laughs.
- Worthless Foreign Degree: A college or postgraduate degree from a foreign country isn't considered useful or valuable.
