How about some other long, but seldom heard, names:
Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
When my kids were really small, I started teaching them about all the various types of colleges…private , public, universities, colleges, tech schools, historically black colleges, religious colleges, etc. I would.quiz them to make sure they knew the differences. At one point one kid who was overwhelmed with the various options asked , “What does Texas A & M mean? Texas African 'Merican?”
American University used to be “The American University,” but changed it by dropping the “The” – supposedly to fall at the top of alphabetically ordered lists. I think that was a few years after they renamed the Adnan Khashoggi Sports Complex.
Case Western Reserve tried to re-brand itself as Case and ran into lots of opposition from alumni. Not sure where that stands now, but Case is the engineering school whereas Western Reserve is liberal arts, so not everyone was thrilled to have engineers eat up the whole thing. Plus, tradition tradition …
I don’t think my D16 schools name is odd, Purdue University. Contracting it to PU is unfortunate :-*
Well, and Case Western Reserve is a reference to back when Ohio wasn’t Ohio, it was Connecticut’s Western Reserve—so there’s a lot of not-just-university history bound up in that name.
Yes, that is quite a mouthful. I’ve never heard anyone refer to it as it’s full name — usually as “Cal Poly SLO” or even just “SLO”.
When Wisconsin played them in football a handful of years ago – and nearly lost – they were referred to as Cal Poly (without the SLO).
Rutgers University – Does not sound like a state school.
Re: UChicago/Rockefeller U
Imagine if Vanderbilt were the University of Nashville instead.
Boston University and Boston College. It’s really just awful for brand recognition, especially outside of the northeast.
^^ Isn’t BC’s name also poor brand recognition given it’s in Chestnut Hill?
Same question for University of Miami which is not really in Miami.
Re: BU versus BC: the BU admissions website has some examples of bad essays they have seen. In one essay on Why BU? the applicant went on about how much he wants a Jesuit education. BC is the Jesuit school, BU is secular.
Johns Hopkins (my friend wrote “John Hopkins” all over her supplement…)
WUSTL (confused with UDub in Seattle), Penn (confusion with penn state, overshadowed by Wharton), Oral Roberts, Deep Springs (sounds like a forest area), Haverford College (sounds too much like harvard college), Colgate (toothpaste), Dartmouth (rarely do people in the mainstream know what it is or how to pronounce it)
Chestnut Hill isn’t a city…it’s a neighborhood…parts of which are in Newton, Boston, & Brookline. Just think of it as a postal zone.
Note that there are two Cal Polys:
California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
California State Polytechnic University - Pomona
I still cringe a little when I tell people that aren’t from New England that I’m going to a school called “Tufts”.
I was a Boston -area local at one point in my life, and never heard anybody around there pronounce the second “t” in Tufts. So, Qwerty, by the powers vested in me via my Massachusetts high school diplomer, I grant you the right to tell all, far and wide, that you are going to “Toughs.”
@moooop, I had to say the name out loud to myself to realize, as a Boston area local myself, that I say “Toughs” and not “Tufts”. Doesn’t help the awkwardness when writing it, but I suppose it sounds a little nicer!
One thing we haven’t considered in this discussion is the negative synergy of getting degrees from multple colleges. Like a bachelor’s from Morehead State & a master’s from Oral Roberts. Put those 2 on a resume and good luck getting through a job interview without the interviewer bursting out in laughter. Tufts-Hofstra-Rutgers would be quite a combination to pronounce. Has anyone ever gotten a degree from Harvard, Yale, AND Princeton? (And not been an insufferable snob?)…or having degrees from Ohio State, Alabama, and Notre Dame and not being asked about football whereever u go? How about somebody who has a degree from Cal Poly SLO & then heads for Cal Poly Pomona?? I’d hate to sit next to that person on a long plane ride and try to keep his college tales straight. What if you went to Georgetown College and got interested in government and then got a masters from Georgetown U…would all of your job interviews devolve into a geography lesson?Worse yet:B.A. Washington College, M.A., U Washington, Ph.D. WUStL.
Wow, this thread has given me some giggles.
I’ll add some that have confused me to the list.
-Several have already been mentioned such as University of Washington and Washington University in St. Louis, University of Miami and Miami University in Ohio.
-Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. There is also Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
-Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania (When I would read reports of college visits here I thought to myself why are they visiting all these colleges in the Midwest and Northeast areas and then traveling down to Lafayette, Louisiana? Don’t laugh! I had to google it to figure it out.)
-University of the Pacific, Pacific University, and Hawaii Pacific University. (My daughter had a friend that applied and considered going to Hawaii Pacific University, and when I read these college names it confused me. Don’t judge but I had to google the first two to find they weren’t in Hawaii but in California and Oregon.)
These haven’t confused me but I know that they have confused some non-Texans.
-Austin College in Sherman, Texas (259 miles north of Austin, Texas)
-Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas (227 miles northeast of Austin, Texas) When their band was in the Macy’s Day Parade in New York this past year the announcers said they were from Austin, Texas. They’re not.
-Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas (70 miles north of Houston)
-Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas (not Trinity, Texas which is 270 miles northeast of San Antonio) vs. Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut
I have to agree that the worst college name though is Ursinus!
This topic comes up frequently. I personally like Ball State and Transylvania.