<p>^For some reason, about half of the speech at my high school graduation was about the importance of saying “THE” when talking about OSU. I have no issues with the school more generally, but I can’t take their insistence on the definite determiner seriously.</p>
<p>msmom, except if it’s (The) Ohio State University… :-)</p>
<p>This reminds me of the “prestigiosity” thread!!</p>
<p>They should probably change their website to <a href=“http://www.tosu.com”>www.tosu.com</a> but it’s not its <a href=“http://www.osu.com”>www.osu.com</a> (sounds like Oklahoma State).</p>
<p>Even though their website is “osu” rather than “tosu”, it’s not as if all of their headings don’t say “The Ohio State University”…</p>
<p>In Ohio…Ohio State has instant name recognition! INSTANT. </p>
<p>I think some of this is regional. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And presumably Michigan also has instant name recognition as the arch-rival school.</p>
<p>True that, UCBA! </p>
<p>Miami University and University of Miami have instant name confusion.</p>
<p>How about Smith?
(it’s the most common name in the US, no?)</p>
<p>"Cptofthehouse…I love your field test there with your Joe Shmo guy! "</p>
<p>Soozievt, I swear, the doorbell rang as I was reading this thread, so I asked him. He looks so Joe Shmo, that he could have been the poster guy for the role! I think he lives over the Connecticut line since he named Sacred Heart and Fairfield and some schools I barely knew, and would not have been able to come up with if asked offhand to list nearby schools, though I recognized the names. </p>
<p>I have to face the fact that I must be a college snob because if I were asked the question, the top 25 schools, the ivies, would all come to mind first. I’d have trouble listing all of the local schools, though I’d recognize the names if I saw or heard them. Might give my husband the Joe Shmo test of colleges tonight and find out what he comes up with right off the top of his head.</p>
<p>“University of <insert state=”" here=""></insert></p>
<p>As far as I know, every state has one. "</p>
<p>A lot of New Yorkers would fail this one for their own state. As I said earlier, it took me a while and some concerted effort necessitated by my kids’ college search process to figure out the SUNYs and CUNYs. And I thought for a long time before I moved here, (actually I did know before I moved here 15 years ago) that NYU was a state school. A lot of people do. A quick glance at their costs will correct that, though you know, after all it is in Manhattan so, the price might just reflect that. </p>
<p>NY does not really have a flagship university like that. The various SUNYs are referred to by the city in which they are located. Buffalo is the the largest of the bunch. SUNY, State University of New York, refers to the system of a number of schools. </p>
<p>I’ve yet to figure out Rutgers and how one picks which campus for which student. </p>
<p>Just did a whitepages.com search - we have a few of own Joe and Joseph Schmos and the uppercrust Schmoes with an “e” around the Atlanta area. I wonder if they get surveyed much.</p>
<p>Colgate</p>
<p>The first thing my search turned up was Schmo’s Tax Service. Not sure about anyone else but I don’t want any old schmo doing my taxes.</p>
<p>But that’s “Ohio State,” and nobody calls it Ohio. Actually I think when people just say Ohio, they’re talking about Ohio University in Athens. So the naming convention is a little bit different (it’s Ohio University instead of the University of Ohio), but still very similar to other states, right? </p>
<p>Sorry, I’ve been offline for a while, and didn’t see all the posts on the last page. I was responding to @momofthreeboys comment
which I thought was still right above my response. </p>
<p>The exceptions I thought of after I posted earlier today were schools like UConn, UMass, and UPenn. Those are the University of [state name], but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard them referred to as simply Connecticut, Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania…although perhaps locally they are. Maybe someone from those states can enlighten me. :)</p>
<p>Lumping UConn, UMass, and UPenn together lends itself to the whole Penn/PennState confusion lol. </p>
<p>I very rarely, if ever, hear UMass referred to anything other than simply UMass. (Sometimes ZooMass, but thats a different story.) </p>
<p>I have never heard Penn referred to as UPenn.</p>
<p>
That was my point. Earlier I talked about the convention of calling the University of [insert state name here] simply [insert state name]. For example, Florida is really the University of Florida, and Michigan is the University of Michigan. </p>
<p>UMass, UPenn, and UConn were exceptions I thought of. I’ve never heard those referred to by simply the name of their respective states… Although if I heard someone say Connecticut, I’d assume they were referring to UConn. </p>