As part of undergrad college tours, I often heard guides tell tales of campus superstitions. Some brought bad luck (walking through the main wrought iron gate from Princeton campus onto Nassau Street would prevent a student from graduating on time, or at all) and some brought good luck (rubbing a certain part of a certain statue would guarantee an A on a test), etc.
I thought it would be fun if the CC community shared tales of superstitions that they’ve heard.
The tradition at Tufts was to stick a coin in the trunk of the taxidermed hide of Jumbo for good luck before an exam. After the fire at Barnum Hall, the ashes were put into a peanut butter jar and the current tradition is that athletes touch the jar before a major sporting event.
At most schools, stepping on the school seal if it is embedded in the ground is bad luck and should be avoided.
I remember a strange one at UCLA during orientation. We put our hands in the water of this certain fountain and were “Bruintized”. From that day, if we were to come in contact with the water - even a splash - it meant an extra year at UCLA. The student orientation leader said if anybody splashed him, they would have to pay for the extra year’s worth of tuition.
WPI has one about stepping on the school seal in the middle of the quad. It’s unclear whether it applies to freshmen or the whole school but I still don’t step on it just in case. We also have a fountain in the middle of campus, and you’re supposed to jump through the stream after you finish your last final of the school year. This isn’t so much a superstition, but we also have several buildings that may or may not be haunted.
At Brown, the Van Wickle gates are only opened twice per year- when new freshman walk through at the beginning of the year and when graduates walk through at the end of the year. Supposedly, if a student walks through them at any other time, he or she will not graduate. At least, this is what we heard at the orientation tour.
^ And significantly, the Van Wickle gates are opened inward for Convocation, toward the quiet Green, for freshman and outward, toward the city of Providence, for the graduation procession.
If you want to get into Harvard rub John Harvard’s show on the statue. So many have done this is really worn down. I don’t think it works ~X(
At UW-Madison, we have a status of Abe Lincoln. If you sit on his lap before you graduate (it’s tradition for graduates to pose for photos there), you won’t ever graduate, and if you need luck for a test, you rub his shoe.