I guess it’s harder to screw this up now that everything’s online but when I applied back in the day when everything went thru the mail I heard multiple stories of people applying to one school when they thought they were applying for another?
http://blog.cappex.com/blog/college-ranking-lists/college-names-that-sound-the-same/
Have you heard of anyone recently?
Still more: The list doesn’t include Georgetown College/Georgetown University, or the various St. Mary’ses (how do you pluralize that, anyway?) and St Thomases and Westminsters, which in some cases involve more than just two schools.
Wheaton College (IL) / Wheaton College (MA)
Xavier University / Xavier University of Louisiana
Loyola Marymount University / Marymount California University / Marymount College
Saint Mary’s College (CA) / Saint Mary’s College (IN) / Saint Mary’s College (MD) / Mount Saint Mary’s University
USC (Southern California) / USC (South Carolina) / SCU (Santa Clara; formerly USC)
(University of) Washington / Washington (University of Saint Louis)
Jackson State University / Jacksonville State University / Jacksonville University
Stanford University / (University of Connecticut) Stamford
SDSU (South Dakota) / SDSU (San Diego)
Penn State (University Park) / Penn State (any branch campus)
And, since Penn State got mentioned, one I’m surprised I forgot about: Pennsylvania State University vs. University of Pennsylvania.
Indiana University / Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Any California university / California University of Pennsylvania
Transylvania University / Transilvania University of Brasov (Everyone mixes up these two.)
Stanford/Samford (college in Birmingham, AL)
Harvard/Haverford
Williams College / William and Mary
Grinnell/Cornell (?)
University of Miami/Miami-Ohio
Loyola New Orleans/Loyola Marymount/Loyola Chicago/Loyola MD
Northwestern vs Northeastern is a classic.
Humboldt State University vs Humboldt University.
OU (University of Oklahoma) vs OU (Ohio University) vs (Oakland University)
Emory University vs Emory and Henry
Oxford College of Emory vs Oxford University
Lewis & Clark College vs Lewis and Clark State College
Austin College vs Austin Community College
Berkeley; Cal; UCB. These universities’ names don’t sound the same, but I associate them with each other.
Dartmouth College; UMass Dartmouth. In the immediate aftermath of the Boston marathon bombings it was reported that one of the bombers was a Dartmouth student. He was at UMass Dartmouth.
Colby College (ME)/Colby-Sawyer (NH)
University of Notre Dame vs Notre Dame de Namur University
Columbia University vs Columbia College (made even more confusing by the fact that the main undergraduate college in Columbia University is called Columbia College)
St. Joseph’s College (IN) vs. St. Joseph’s University (PA)
Westminster College (MO) vs. Westminister College (UT) vs. Westminister College (PA)
Northeastern State University (OK) vs. Northeastern University (MA)
College of the Ozark (MO) vs. University of the Ozarks (AR)
Though technically it’s unambiguous, I still get a little confused when people refer to the University if Idaho as UI. I saw it on a job candidate’s CV the other day and thought, “Wait . . . yeah, all right.”
My daughter wanted to apply to Boston University, but we applied to Boston College instead. it was my mistake. she got accepted too. It would have been really crazy if she decided to go there.
Swarthmore vs Skidmore
Washington U. in St. Louis v. Washington College v. George Washington v. University of Washington v. University of Mary Washington v. Washington & Lee University v. Washington & Jefferson University
Wellesley vs. Wesleyan