What's in a name?

Parent Cafe
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<p>What's in a name? Alot to a 17 year old apparently! Image is everything...
While searching for possible Engineering Colleges on the west coast, we came upon Harvey Mudd. A highly rated school but, one we had never heard of. When I brought it up to my 17 year old ,junior student, he said that he could never go to a place with a name like that. -no one would ever believe that he actually went to college.
What other colleges/universities have you run across with 'different' names that possbily your pre-college student turned their noses up at? I can think of a few names of colleges on the east coast that sound odd to me, but I won't name any names. I'll leave that to you all!</p>

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<p>Harvey Mudd sends out a brochure that proclaims “Our name is Mudd.” That put it back on the good list. :)</p>

<p>I think I’ve known kids who didn’t like that Colgate sounded like toothpaste.</p>

<p>And it’s certainly a problem that RPI is impossible to spell. (See how I am avoiding it.)</p>

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<p>I have a student who refuses to look at Campbell University.</p>

<p>Why? Its nickname. The Camels.</p>

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<p>Thousands of kids have diplomas from Beaver College…</p>

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<p>People have mentioned having problems with Tufts, as well.
A couple of Asian kids mentioned being uncomfortable going to Rice University.</p>

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<p>Tufts has the added distinction of being the “Jumbos”. When my d’s friend was accepted earlier this spring, the girl group bought her some sweats with that word across the rear. Embrace it, I say.</p>

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<p>Beaver actually changed its name to Arcadia to eliminate this problem. My daughter has problems with Skidmore.</p>

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<p>Bates always reminds me of “Psycho”.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/69302-colleges-best-worst-names.html?highlight=worst+college+names[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/69302-colleges-best-worst-names.html?highlight=worst+college+names&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>(^ Further reading on this topic!)</p>

<p>OP: Mudd has a t-shirt that jokes about the top reasons for attending, one of which is something like “I thought I was going to Harvard Med.” So your son can (and should, really!) still look…just encourage him to slur ;)</p>

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<p>Actually, your 17 y.o. is wrong - everybody who is anybody in the world of academics in science and engineering knows Harvey Mudd. It produces the highest % of PhDs of all the colleges and universities in the US.</p>

<p>All top liberal arts colleges (Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, Pomona) have a similar lack of name recognition “in the street”, but they are very highly regarded and respected by grad schools and employers, and they provide the finest education you can get.</p>

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<p>My D wouldn’t look at Whitman because of the connection with the missionaries that she had studied to death in middle school.</p>

<p>I can’t really think of any others, but there are some that I like because of the name.
College of Wooster & Kalamazoo. :)</p>

<p>mathmom I found this

</p>

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<p>skidmore (please, no more!)</p>

<p>salve regina (save a What??) If we lived on the East coast though this would be on DDs list.</p>

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<p>I agree with the some of them up above. Colgate does sound a little weird but lay off the toothpaste jokes.</p>

<p>I vote Marist and Franklin & Marshall as worst names…</p>

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<p>You may not believe this, but we live far, far from the eastern US geographically and “higher education awareness-wise”, and the name “Princeton” is considered kind of silly sounding. Are there really princes there? Is it a training ground for future princes? Nothing against Princeton, but first impression of name- meh.</p>

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<p>When I started this topic, I had no idea the laughter it would bring,LOL! :)</p>

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<p>familyoutdoors:</p>

<p>I echo ‘nngmm’, Mudd is well-known within the engineering world, academic institutions, and employers which is probably all that really matters to the grads. Check out their ‘average SAT score’ of the freshman class compared to most other colleges. For 2006 the median score (Verbal+Math) was 1480. The other deal about Mudd is that it’s a part of the ‘Claremont Colleges’ so they can take classes at the other colleges and mix socially with them easily. </p>

<p>Don’t judge a book by its cover (or title)!</p>

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<p>"I have a student who refuses to look at Campbell University.</p>

<p>Why? Its nickname. The Camels."</p>

<p>As the resident Connecticut College shill, we in Conn Coll land embrace our mascot, also the Camel. Although just about every school in the nescac has a, well, unusual mascot (e.g. colby mules, bowdoin polar bears, amherst lord jeffs, williams ephs aka purple cows, tufts jumbos, etc etc). and if we are talking purely in mascots, i know someone who refused to apply to nyu because he didnt want to be a ‘fighting violet.’</p>

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<p>I had a friend in high school whose Dad graduated from Ball State. We were immature and collapsed into a fit of giggles whenever he mentioned it.</p>

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<p>College Misericordia, which apparently does not actually mean “college of misery” in Latin, but still needs a new name.</p>

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<p>. . . and what’s with Villa Julie College in Maryland. Is that like going over to Julie’s house to play?</p>