A lot of my family went to SDSU and USD. No, not the ones in California, the ones in South Dakota. Yes, they have universities out there… Yes, they have enough people for more than 1 state university… SIGH…
My BA is from UW-Madison, and almost everyone has heard of the Wisconsin Badgers.
Belmont (MBA, music biz) has been in the NCAA Tournament on and off for years, so a few have heard of it. But when I get the vacant-eyed nod in response to mentioning it, I add that it’s close to Vanderbilt and Music Row. In Nashville. Tennessee.
I think this happened to me a couple of times over the years:
Someone: “You went to Boston College, right?”
Me: “No, Boston University.” 
I don’t expect everyone to know the difference. I still learn things about colleges all the time. Was looking into college visits and just discovered what someone else mentioned above about Hamilton being in Clinton and Colgate being in Hamilton.
The story of Colgate is that a rival of Hamilton sponsored that school and wanted it in Hamilton to rub him the wrong way. I forget who. But that’s the story I’ve heard.
I’ve definitely mistaken North Dakota with Notre Dame…
If you’ve ever been to North Dakota, you would not make that mistake.
I think North Dakota has some great people and interesting locations. When they say I went to ND it could be confusing.
Just saw a post recommending UMD. I’m like yeah that’s a excellent school and good lacrosse etc. they then stated University of Minnesota - Deluth. Another fine school but not where my head went automatically. But that can happen for these two frontime to time if you live in the upper Midwest
Decades ago I was considering going to law school, but was concerned that I would not be admitted at the top tier that I was interested in. I was discussing this with a lawyer who had received his JD from a local school with not-a- top reputation nationally (or even locally). In course of the discussion and his attempt to persuade me that his alma mater was a deserving alternative, he did admit that “there is some astigmatism” attached to having attended XYZ law school.
It was a very effective negative sales pitch. I went in a different direction. 
@prezbucky, just stumbled onto this thread and had to send one out to you. On the first day of law school and I was in an elevator. I happened to be wearing my UW sweatshirt. Another student said: “U Wisconsin?” Nope, University of Washington, and I said: “we’re in Calif. two states away from WA., what made you think Wisconsin”. And in typical newbie law student fashion, the reply: “Because it’s a better school”. Doh!
Just seeing this now. I won’t reiterate the Wesleyan discussion. Looks like that is covered. My D heard all of the Weslyan/Wellesley plus which “[statename] Wesleyan?”
Before transferring away, I went to Washington College in Maryland. Not Washington University in St. Louis. Not University of Washington.
On another note, I told a neighbor back when my S got into college that he was going to Columbia, and she said–“Oh that’s that teacher’s college, right?”
A few years back during a dinner for accepted students, I sat with with a wonderful family. The father had literally swam into the country and was able to eventually get an engineering degree. He still spoke with a heavy Spanish accent and he relayed the story of how he had caused great confusion with some co-workers when they asked him where his daughter was going and he answered Yale. The source of the confusion, he pronounces Y’s as a soft J!
Minnesotan: “Where do you go to school?”
My D1: “Haverford”
Minnesotan (impressed, but feeling a need to correct D1’s pronunciation): “Oh, HARVARD!”
D1: “No, Haverford. It’s a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania.”
Minnesotan (suddenly not impressed): “Oh . . . Well, how did you end up way out there? Do you have family there or something?”
To many Minnesotans:
Northwestern is the University of Northwestern, a conservative Christian college in Saint Paul with an oddly ungrammatical name.
Brown is Brown College, a small for-profit college just outside of Saint Paul. Or rather it was—it’s now closed.
Cornell is Cornell College, a small liberal arts college in Iowa.
If someone around here says they’re a Northwestern, Brown, or Cornell grad, it’s wise to ask a follow-up question.
And in the Minnesota vein, University of St. Thomas is in St. Paul and Concordia is in Fargo, North Dakota, near Moorehead Minnesota
A guy my daughter was (briefly) dating told her that, when he mentioned to a friend of his living in the Twin Cities that she had gone to Macalester, the friend asked, “What are you doing with her (or was it, ‘what is she doing with you’ 
)? All of the “girls” who go there are really smart and really liberal!”
No, Concordia College is in Moorhead MN, across the river from Fargo, ND. Not to be confused with Concordia University in St. Paul.
But there are also Concordia Colleges in Alabama, New York, and Ontario, and Concordia Universities in Alberta, California, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Quebec, Texas, and Wisconsin. There’s also a Concordia Seminary in Missouri, a Concordia Theological Seminary in Indiana, a Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Alberta, and a Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in Ontario.
Concordia College (MN) also operates Concordia Language Villages, offering excellent foreign language and culture immersion camps in 15 modern languages.
These all seem to be Lutheran schools, mostly (but not all) affiliated with the Missouri Synod. Concordia College (MN) is ELCA.
Oops, sorry about that. I have worked for the Language Villages, and got a pay stub with the Moorhead address, but it it has been a few years.
If a Chicagoan tells you he went to “Northeastern,” chances are he means Northeastern Illinois University, not Northeastern University in Boston. Northeastern Illinois is on Chicago’s North Side, which is indeed in northeastern Illinois—but not exactly in the Northeast (i.e., northeastern U.S.), as Northeastern U is.
Chicago’s Northeastern is about 7 miles southwest of Northwestern, in suburban Evanston—which of course is not in the Northwest as we now know it, but is so named because it’s in the old Northwest Territory, which now comprises the Midwestern states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the easternmost portions of Minnesota. They didn’t bother to change the name to Midwestern University when due to westward expansion the old Northwest became the Midwest. Probably wise. “Midwestern University” probably wouldn’t have the same kind of appeal to Coastal types.