<p>BU mean Brown? Boston? or something else?
And Cal obviously seems to indicate california... but what university in california? Cal States series? UC series Or Caltech?
Sorry, I am a foreigner and not so acquainted with abbreviations used here..</p>
<p>BU stands for Boston University, and Cal is a nickname for UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>No need to apologize, good luck</p>
<p>i never understood that, why does berkeley get Cal? I mean, all public schools have UC in front of them.</p>
<p>and actually, the states arleady are called "cal" state, so it's interesting one of them didnt get cal as the nickname.</p>
<p>only the best (UCB) gets cal</p>
<p>Berkeley gets to be "Cal" because it's the original University of California. The other campuses back in the early days were considered to be branches of Berkeley. UC Davis was Berkeley's agricultural station. UCLA was until about the 1970s still often referred to as "The Southern Campus". UCSF was Berkeley's medical school. Etc.</p>
<p>Here are some useful names to remember:</p>
<p>HYPS = Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford
M = MIT = Mississippi Institute of Technology (joking!)
C = CalTech</p>
<p>Cal = Berkeley</p>
<p>Michigan = UMich = University of Michigan-Ann Arbor</p>
<p>NYU = New York University (Stern is its Business school)</p>
<p>GW = George Washington University</p>
<p>Chicago = University of Chicago</p>
<p>Penn = University fo Pennsylvania (Wharton is its Business school) and is not to be confused with Penn State or PSU.</p>
<p>NU = Northwestern</p>
<p>GT = Georgia Tech</p>
<p>UVa = University of Virginia</p>
<p>USC = University of Southern California</p>
<p>Wash U. = WUSTL = Washingt University (the private university in St Louis, Missouri)</p>
<p>Vandi = Vanderbilt</p>
<p>CMU = Carnegie Mellon University</p>
<p>UNC = University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill</p>
<p>AWS = Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore</p>
<p>UT = University of Texas, University of Tennessee, University of Toronto</p>
<p>Seven Sisters = Barnard, Radcliffe (now absorbed into Harvard), Smith, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Vassar (now coed)</p>
<p>coureur is exactly right. the tradition is carried on today by the sports teams, whos uniforms/helmets have no mention of Berkeley, they just say California or Cal</p>
<p>Nobody who goes to Brown say they go to Brown University. Since there is no Brown College. On the other hand, there is a Boston College, so Boston U. needs the distinction "university" to follow it after every mention.. thus, it gets BU. </p>
<p>some additons to alexandre's list</p>
<p>northwestern is sometimes (incorrectly) referred to as NW or NWU. The proper is NU</p>
<p>Boston College = BC
Johns Hopkins = JHU
U. of Pittsburgh = Pitt
i guess columbia doesnt get an abbreviation</p>
<p>One of the reasons that Northwestern gets "NW" or "NWU" is that Northeastern is also NU. Leads to lots of confusion!</p>
<p>what does LAC stand for?</p>
<p>liberal arts college</p>
<p>theres also Newman University, Niagara University, Northwood University, and Norwich University. </p>
<p>Along with Northeastern, none of these share Northwestern's academic stature or national, and international, acclaim. We wouldn't confuse them with NU... At least BU and BC are of similar academic stature. </p>
<p>/sorry, im going to NU and im sick of people telling me about boston and northeastern. for whatever reason, its more well known out here on the west coast.. probably because so many people want to go to Boston for college, and so many people are too dumb to get into BU, BC, MIT or Harvard.. so they apply there from here.</p>
<p>Northeastern = NEU</p>
<p>haha, does Duke get an abreviation?
DU</p>
<p>coureur:</p>
<p>a small nit: I believe that baby bruin school in LA was officially known as 'The University of California, Souther BRANCH' LOL</p>
<p>If I read the UC history correctly, UCSF never was Berkeley's med school, i.e., under Berkeley's Chancellor, altho the interconnections make it appear so; the campus was formed when the University of California Regents took over a failing hospital and medical center in The City and established a medical program within the University -- at that time, one campus grew to two. When merged, SF brought its own staff and admin, but many faculty were given joint appointments to make the deal work.</p>
<p>I know this confuses the hell out of me:</p>
<p>UIC: University of Illinois in Chicago
U of C: University of Chicago</p>
<p>Okay, well it's a lot less confusing on the computer.... but in conversation it gets confusing!</p>
<p>yup, and UC = Cal-Berkeley; the UC's = the whole system.</p>
<p>UIC, U of C, and USC all sound similar.</p>
<p>what does CIT stand for? california institute of tech. or carnegie institute of tech.?</p>
<p>There is not Carnegie Institute of Technology...at least not that I am aware of it. </p>
<p>CIT = C = California Institute of Technology</p>
<p>CMU = Carnegie Mellon University</p>