Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's refreshing to me in Michigan how completely unimpressed people here are with my Georgetown degree (as much as the topic ever comes up). I've mentioned it several times here on DCUM. I'm the 03/12/2025 13:00 "LOL Georgetown" poster:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/120/1262471.page#29649794

My sister went to (then) Seton Hill College (now Seton Hill University), which of course is not Seton Hall University (named for same Seton though).

The only people who are impressed by Georgetown degree are from Georgetown

People in Spain are impressed because the current king got a master’s there.

People here generally have no idea that Spain still has a king.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's refreshing to me in Michigan how completely unimpressed people here are with my Georgetown degree (as much as the topic ever comes up). I've mentioned it several times here on DCUM. I'm the 03/12/2025 13:00 "LOL Georgetown" poster:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/120/1262471.page#29649794

My sister went to (then) Seton Hill College (now Seton Hill University), which of course is not Seton Hall University (named for same Seton though).

The only people who are impressed by Georgetown degree are from Georgetown

People in Spain are impressed because the current king got a master’s there.

People here generally have no idea that Spain still has a king.

El Guapo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People get Georgetown, George Washington, and George Mason confused. People get Penn state and Penn wrong. People get Dickinson and Fairley Dickinson wrong. People are largely uneducated.

For the most part, who cares?

My parents were checked out so I did not know squat about colleges while growing up.

People also confuse U Florida and Florida State and USC and U of SC.

If the schools do not like it, they could change their names.

It’s not a big deal except to status seekers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD was rejected from Penn last cycle. The only bright spot was knowing we didn’t have to explain the difference for the next 4 years. 😏

Not having to spend 4 years in Philadelphia is a huge win.

+1

A friend of mine attended Penn and loved it but I visited a friend’s sibling there and found it very depressing in winter…

[Anonymous]

It is depressing in DC in the winter too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe how many adults derive the bulk of their self-esteem from how “selective” the college they attended decades ago was…

Yes, it’s funny to me. And now they do this with their kids. 😆

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD attends Loyola Marymount in LA. People get all the Loyolas mixed up even though they are not affiliated. It doesn’t bother us. We just explain.

There are also all the Mary schools.

St Mary’s College of Maryland
St Mary’s in California
Loyola Marymount
Marymount in Virginia
And more I can’t remember…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about people that don’t know what Barnard is or that it is an Ivy League school and part of Columbia? This is a weird one too. Almost like a litmus test for your education level.

Hilarious ignorance here. Ironic since you’re dissing people using it as a litmus test, one that you resoundingly fail.

Barnard is not an Ivy League school. It is a Seven Sister college. It is affiliated with Columbia University, not part of it.

Barnard graduates receive a degree from Barnard College, not Columbia University.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The difference between Penn and Harvard is that at Harvard everyone says they go to school “in Boston” because they want you to believe they’re humble, whereas at Penn, people are crass enough to allow themselves to be seen to care about being mixed up with Penn State.

lol no! We say school “in Boston” because people act weird if we mention Harvard. Like the nail salons suddenly charge extra, parents with kids in school start getting obnoxious with their questions about how to get in, parents with older kids who did not get into Harvard get insecure and start bragging about their kids,….IYKYK it’s a PITA.

This is spot on. It's so strange how people think this is braggy when it's literally the opposite. We just don't want yet another awkward conversation.

Signed,

someone who went to college "in Connecticut."

I think most people would think you went to UConn or Wesleyan if you said Connecticut. Plus the only way anyone would guess you go to Harvard if you correctly say “I go to school in Cambridge”.

I just saw a clip where Andy the Housewives guy asked Matt Damon if he and Ben Affleck went to the same high school when they grew up in Boston. Matt answered that they both went to Cambridge Ridge and Latin High school, the only public high school in Cambridge where they lived.

People have a hard time understanding that Cambridge is a very unique city. It’s very distinct from Boston.

One thing they do have in common is that even though the US has the most racist politician since Jim Crow in the South, and as president Trump has ordered states to shut down DEI programs both cities refuse and have actually built up the programs.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It wasn’t until after I graduated from an Ivy League school that I knew that “Cal” and “Berkeley” are the same school.
Ivy League schools can be as far off some people’s radar as California schools were off of mine.

Really? I had no idea.

You didn’t know Cal was Berkeley?

I think another phenomenon this points to is the ridiculous obsession with going OOS for “prestige,” not realizing that state college systems are inherently regional and serve the good of the state. So yeah, I knew Cal was Berkeley because I grew up there, but totally reasonable if you are in DC and didn’t know that.

Californian living in DC. If someone doesn’t know Cal is Berkeley, I figure they are mildly uneducated or first gen. Just like I would feel the same way if they didn’t know the difference between Penn and Penn State or that Brown is in the Ivy League, or that Barnard is part of Columbia, etc.

DP. I know all of those things listed in your last sentence, but I didn’t know Cal and Berkeley were the interchangeable. Growing up on the East coast, I’ve just never much paid attention to things in California I guess.

This. And I was born in the Bay Area and visited the Berkeley campus as a child and my Dad was 2x employed by the University of California. We moved east when I was in middle school. I think only California people and sports people know Berkeley as "Cal".

I only learned this from my son's OOS friends at his school explaining where their friends went to school. I was really confused as to why Berkeley is "Cal" and not UCLA.

As a native of Southern California, I never knew “Cal” referred to Berkeley. Why should it when all of the UCs are “The University of California.” Berkeley is just one campus, albeit the flagship. But why shouldn’t UCLA, UC Irvine, UCSB, UC Santa Cruz, and all the others have the right to call themselves “Cal”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD attends Loyola Marymount in LA. People get all the Loyolas mixed up even though they are not affiliated. It doesn’t bother us. We just explain.

There are also all the Mary schools.

St Mary’s College of Maryland
St Mary’s in California
Loyola Marymount
Marymount in Virginia
And more I can’t remember…

Mary Mary. Why ya buggin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It wasn’t until after I graduated from an Ivy League school that I knew that “Cal” and “Berkeley” are the same school.
Ivy League schools can be as far off some people’s radar as California schools were off of mine.

Really? I had no idea.

You didn’t know Cal was Berkeley?

I think another phenomenon this points to is the ridiculous obsession with going OOS for “prestige,” not realizing that state college systems are inherently regional and serve the good of the state. So yeah, I knew Cal was Berkeley because I grew up there, but totally reasonable if you are in DC and didn’t know that.

Californian living in DC. If someone doesn’t know Cal is Berkeley, I figure they are mildly uneducated or first gen. Just like I would feel the same way if they didn’t know the difference between Penn and Penn State or that Brown is in the Ivy League, or that Barnard is part of Columbia, etc.

DP. I know all of those things listed in your last sentence, but I didn’t know Cal and Berkeley were the interchangeable. Growing up on the East coast, I’ve just never much paid attention to things in California I guess.

This. And I was born in the Bay Area and visited the Berkeley campus as a child and my Dad was 2x employed by the University of California. We moved east when I was in middle school. I think only California people and sports people know Berkeley as "Cal".

I only learned this from my son's OOS friends at his school explaining where their friends went to school. I was really confused as to why Berkeley is "Cal" and not UCLA.

As a native of Southern California, I never knew “Cal” referred to Berkeley. Why should it when all of the UCs are “The University of California.” Berkeley is just one campus, albeit the flagship. But why shouldn’t UCLA, UC Irvine, UCSB, UC Santa Cruz, and all the others have the right to call themselves “Cal”?

Most people know most schools from athletics. So far as I know, only one of those schools has "Cal" on their helmet.

[Anonymous]

I think the funniest thing about Princeton is how it gets confused with Rutgers all the time

[Anonymous]

Penn would probably get much better name recognition if it weren’t, by far, the most overrated football team in the Big 10.

Having pedo apologist Joe Paterno as the President of Penn probably doesn’t help Penn’s reputation anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the funniest thing about Princeton is how it gets confused with Rutgers all the time

Really? They don’t even sound alike. I’ve never heard this….