Re: use of the names “UPenn” and “UMich” (versus “Penn” and “Michigan”)
Perhaps the internet age is influencing us. Those schools domain names are upenn.edu and umich.edu .
Miami U in Oxford, OH existed some 40 years before Miami FL was even part of the US.
My family is very spread out geographically, so I had first or secondhand knowledge of a lot of schools even before CC. We have family who went to Cal, UCLA, UCSD, Yale, Emory, Vassar, Columbia, SMU, Antioch…and friends and acquaintances who went to many more schools of course. I’d even heard of Pomona, though not Olin, before CC 
My kid is at an LAC in New England and we are in Ohio, and most top kids go to OSU. SO when people ask where she goes I say schoolname-in-Massachusetts, to allow them to not have to ask where it is if they don’t know it. Sometimes people who don’t know it ask why she went so far away. I usually say we have family in that area and she wanted to experience a different part of the country for awhile and that seems to make sense to people. If they do happen to know the school, they say “wow” or something along those lines.
Miami of Ohio - founded in 1809
^ Florida became a state in 1845 
Don’t go to Pennsylvania where towns are named the same as other states, cities that are better known in other parts of the country, that sound the same as other cities or states but may be just slightly different…confusing.
Trying hard to recall my 7th grade Ohio history and Ohio geography, lots of Miami’s related to Ohio, Miami River, Miami Indians whom occupied the Maumee Valley in Ohio. Isn’t the Miami river somewhere close to Miami University? Not sure if the names derived from the Indian tribe…
I’m a Buckeye by birth, but from Central Ohio, a little bit away from Oxford. Miami University is located in what we often call “The Miami Valley”, a broad region of southwest Ohio. There are many small rivers and creeks in this valley that feed the Great Miami and Little Miami Rivers. The Miami people at the time of European settlement were towards Lake Erie, but got pushed from the great lakes down into Ohio and Indiana.
In Florida, the city of Miami is named after the Miami River, which derived its name from Lake Mayaimi. The Mayaimi tribe, settled near Lake Okeechobee and south.
I don’t think the two cultures are a split, I think one is Algonquin, and the other not?
@ElMimino: We were having this conversation last night at my house! I live with a hubby who is secretly a cartographer, and a child who was a local geobee winner. I am lost in all of it, but sit back and enjoy the show.
That was a great little bit of info…nicely laid out.
My good friend ( with college age kids) recently asked me if D is going to a small, commuter school by the beach. Nothing wrong with small commuter schools by the beach, but no, she is not going to one. I finally asked her ( joking around) why I would send her so far away to a commuter school? Wouldn’t that be lonely? If she wanted to commute we live in an area with 15+ schools within commuting distance. My friend is one of these people who does not pay attention or get involved in college talk ( despite going through the process).
Later in the day we ran into an acquaintance who asked D where she goes. After she responded he said, “I love the triangle!”
Two of my coworkers ( with college students) looked at me strangely after hearing where D was going. They knew the type of student she was in HS and assumed she would attend a “well known school.” They did not realize she was at a “well known school” ( not that I care- she applied to schools that we thought were right for her). I had another coworker who said " wow," and cornered me to ask a bunch of questions about the application process.
Another “friend” said, " I knew somebody once who went to that school and he was not a good student. When did it change?"
I think peoples reactions will be based on where they live, whether it’s a big sports school ( if they follow sports), and the type of school their own kids are researching and applying to.
Here is one that I struggle with every year. When I was IN high school in Ohio (in the 80s)- anyone who graduated from an Ohio HS could go to OSU- it was everyone’s “safety”. Over the last couple decades they have changed their policy and become more selective. But my Brian has never rewired how I think of the school. (I lived away from Ohio for a decade, and am not a sports person) I have a dozen HS students apply to OSU every year, and (since I teach AP) most are accepted. And when they come to me, excited with the news, it takes my brain a half a beat to remember that it actually IS good news
@toowonderful my D16-4.02 weighted GPA, all honors, ACT of 28 was denied at OSU this year. But, she could go to a branch and pay the same money (full freight) and transfer with a GPA of 2.0. Go figure.
OS is a little weird (at least this year) in who they accepted. This year they rejected some kids with a 4.0 - 2200 yet accepted others with a 3.6 and a 25 ACT. I wonder if it had to do with the fact that the “lower” students would be full pay.
“(in the 80s)- anyone who graduated from an Ohio HS could go to OSU- it was everyone’s “safety”. Over the last couple decades they have changed their policy and become more selective.”
I know what you mean. When I graduated from HS (1977) I think their average ACT was around 21 and you had to be a pretty poor student not to get accepted. Today tOSU avg. ACT is around 29 (mid 50% is 27-32) and is pretty much the premier university in Ohio with perhaps CWRU, Oberlin and Kenyon being the only ones giving it a run.
Our D is a good student and chose to only apply to 4 schools, 3 were instate publics. The school she prefers, Ohio University, is the least selective and it seems when she lets her friends know where she would like to go they nearly always express surprise laced with a bit of condescension. It has the exact programs she is looking for and she loves the atmosphere and campus. Nearly everyone wonders why she didn’t apply to “better” schools. She usually just tells them she thinks OU is the best for HER.
DS goes to Berkeley.
“He’s so smart! Too bad he had to go to a public school.” - lol.
That’s my favorite @LVKris !
Does The Ohio State University admit by major or division? If so, are these seeming anomalies explained by the major or division applied to?
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1807 indicates that “Financial need is not a consideration in the admissions process” at The Ohio State University.
S at Columbia and D at Stanford.
Lots of “Wow, I always knew they were smart!” but also a fair amount of “Where is that?”, or “How far is that?”, and then “Holy Cow, 2 in college at the same time, no wonder your H looks so tired - must be working 2 jobs to pay for that!”,
Most folks don’t know they get plenty of need based financial aid - way better than Flagship State. I used to like to ask friends / acquaintances where their kids were going, especially when our kids attended nursery school together, and played soccer through elem school, etc., but we don’t see these people everyday like we used to. Now, as proud as I am of them, it is also awkward to ask as I don’t want to sound like I am bragging,
I read somewhere that when Quakers advanced to 1979 NCAA Final Four, they found hawkers selling pins that said Penn State - ouch.
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I have a daughter at Duke and a son at UNC. You can imagine the reaction to that if you are a sports fan at all. That's very cool. Couple of years ago, I got a flag for my next-cube colleague whose kids were going to Cal and Stanford. The flag was divided diagonally with Stanford's tree on one side and Cal's bear on the other and there is a caption at the bottom that said "A House Divided".
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There seem to be several vendors offering “house divided” flags like this one.
http://www.collegeflagsandbanners.com/house_divided_flag_unc_vs._duke_66558_prd1.html
http://www.collegeflagsandbanners.com/images_products/house_divided_flag_unc_vs._duke_66558sma.jpg
There are also things like license plate frames of this nature.
I see “house divided” stuff all the time here in NoVA but it’s usually UVA and VATech.