system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are there "colleges" for specific majors inside of large universities?

Ex: College of Engineering @ University of X; Also, for undergraduate applications, do you apply to these specific colleges, or the larger one?
gpt
The first universities, as we understand the term, came into being when multiple smaller institutions (colleges) joined together under one name, but retained their individual identities and traditions. Oxford, for example, is made up of 38 colleges. They all teach the same stuff, but they all have their own flavor. Kind of like the houses in Harry Potter.

In the modern day, colleges aren't for individual majors, they're for groups of disciplines. The college of social sciences, for example, would include the departments of psychology, sociology, and communications. The college of physical sciences would include physics, chemistry, and astronomy, and so on. They organize this way for a number of reasons: Tradition, because some classes don't fall neatly under one major, and because it facilitates fundraising--a super-rich surgeon might want his donation going directly to the departments whose classes he took. Hence the Bill Q Moneybags School of Business, or whatever.

To answer your question, generally you apply to the university, then select the college if they make you choose (not all do).