Does naming a division after a someone (other than whomever the school itself may be named after, if applicable) make it seem more prestigious to potential applicants?
Example (business): Wharton, Stern, Ross, Kelley, Smeal, Haas, McCombs
Example (engineering): Cockrell, Jacobs, Samueli, Viterbi, Tandon, Wertheim, Fu
It depends on the name.
Zuckerberg School of Business: yes
Kardashian School of Medicine: uh, no…
Not as I look at it, no.
I would just assume that a Mr. (or Ms) Something donated enough money to get something named after themself.
Tells me someone had a big ego trip and the money to let everyone know.
That is the weirdest question. It just means that someone donated a lot of money, that’s all. It’s a real head scratcher that you even asked. It’s about as nonsensical as suggesting whether the school address ends in Street, Road, Lane or Avenue has an impact on the prestige. Or whether the zip code is odd or even.
It’s not always that someone donated a lot of money. Hoover Institute at Stanford, for instance or Humphrey School of Public Affairs at Minnesota.
Sometimes the branding can be very effective, especially if it’s related to the program itself. The Newhouse school of communications at Syracuse comes to mind as an example of this.
In some cases it makes zero difference. Particularly with medical schools.
I don’t think a “named” medical school is going to draw that many more applicants. Unlike law or business school, med students are more limited applicant pool. You actually have to be smart to go to med school.
Northwestern just renamed its law school to Pritzker as the Pritzkers donated a boatload of money. (Pritzkers of Hyatt fame - they are very philanthropic towards both NU and U Chicago) Good for the Pritzkers, I say. Nothing wrong with it and may they keep donating generously.
ETA: the U Chicago Med School is also named after the Pritzkers. God bless em. At least their money is going towards education instead of being piddled away on an uber lavish lifestyle a la the Hiltons with Paris Hilton.
Kardashian School of Law? Not too shabby.
Blech, tacky. Like everything else about them.
Having a schools named after someone does not make it more prestigious in and of itself, it just means that the school got a large donation or has a historical reason for naming a particular school after someone. For example, Harvard Law School & Harvard Business School seem to be doing just fine!.
The custom of naming schools, buildings, and other university facilities after major donors is well established, but I wonder whether it makes some students – those whose names aren’t similar to the ones on the buildings – feel less welcome.
Oh good grief.
My daughter’s college (Wellesley) has a student center named after a Chinese-American alum who donated generously. (Good for her!) My daughter didn’t feel less welcome in the student center because her name wasn’t similar to Wang.
Three of Northwestern’s four most recent significant name changes (college of arts and sciences, medical school, law school) were named after donors who happen to have Jewish last names. Should non-Jewish students feel unwelcome because their names aren’t Weinberg, Feinberg or Pritzker? The other significant name change is Ryan, another family that donates heavily. Should non-Irish students feel less welcome?
Ridiculous premise. Imagine applying it to every building or institution you ever entered.
Time smooths it all out. I don’t know, today, that one can tell any significant prestige difference between institutions named for a donor (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cornell, Brown, Duke, Amherst, Williams, Wharton, Kellogg) and those not named for a donor (Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth, MIT, Chicago, Northwestern, Swarthmore, Pomona).
Hey . . . I resemble that remark. 
It is based on the observation that many prospective students posting on these forums will name the division by its person (often donor) name instead of its more descriptive name (e.g. “IU Kelley” instead of “IU business” or “NYU Tandon” instead of “NYU engineering”).
well, why wouldn’t they? That’s what these places are called. My company does consulting work for NU’s graduate school of business. Everyone - students, profs, alums, business people - calls it Kellogg. Why? Because that’s its freaking name. I don’t get why you are perplexed that people call things by what they are named.
@Pizzagirl Robert Kardashian was a tremendous lawyer. He kept a murderer out of prison.
That’s not something to admire.
I think the closer you are to the school,the more likely you are to call it by the name of the college or school, such as Kelly business or Kennedy school of government. If you are the general real public, you are just going to call it BU or DU, ’ and I’m majoring in business’
The school I went to was named for a supreme courtjustice. When someone donated money for a new building, it was ‘so long, Mr. Justice, hello $$$’ and the name was changed. The only reason I even noticed was the emails begging for alum donations changed. I never say I went to the Xx school, I always just say the name of the universityso it doesn’t matter to me if the change the name of the school every year. If Kardashian wants a school named after himself, bring out the checkbook!