Universities in Taiwan can be divided into two major categories of comprehensive universities and technological universities. Students studying engineering majors in comprehensive universities are often recruited from academic high schools while those in technological universities tend to be recruited from vocational high schools. The purpose of this research was to investigate differences in learning efficacy between college students with academic backgrounds and those with vocational backgrounds. Results indicated no significant differences in cognition between the two groups of students. Additionally, students with vocational school backgrounds performed better in comprehension skills compared with those with academic backgrounds and were more able to apply acquired knowledge to practical tasks according to path analysis studies and the Mann-Whitney "U" test.