what is college seminar?

It is a meeting to acquire specialized knowledge.

It depends on the college and your major. My seminars were discussion sessions on literary criticism, but I was an English education major. Had I been a business major, my seminar would have been geared to that discipline.

I don’t know who told you to stretch the interpretation but that’s not true. College is more challenging than high school (even AP courses) because you’re dealing with literature at an accelerated pace and supposedly delving deeper into the texts. However, as with high school, professors are all different and have varied expectations.