Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 17:27     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
Anonymous wrote:I’ve run into quite a few people who think Purdue is private.

🙋‍♀️

TIL.

Tbf, it’s not a school that DC is remotely interested in (location as much as anything else — wants to stay mid-Antlantic) and I don’t know anyone who went there who might have corrected me.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 17:16     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
I didn’t really know until my daughter was a senior. And I’m very educated. Family all academics. My grandfather taught at UPenn, my mom got her undergrad there, and my husband his pdh (before we were together). I’d get them mixed up a bunch. Didn’t really matter to me. In retrospect my mom corrected me a lot But it never really registered. Now it does but it took a while. (I knew the difference just switched the names and then said oh yeah my bad)
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 17:00     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
I’ve run into quite a few people who think Purdue is private.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:57     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
Who cares? Get a life
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:57     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
People tend to only be familiar with their local colleges, big name sports schools, and the school they or thier kids applied to, which in most cases in most parts of the country are also their local colleges.

This is not a failure of intellect or education, it's just life experience. People don't know things they have no reason to know.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:56     Subject: Re:Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
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.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:54     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
Fairleigh Dickinson is actually a decent local school but we always referred to it as Fairly Ridiculous

I grew up near there and had some classmates go to community college at Union County College. We had a classmate go to Union College in upstate NY which is a prestigious LAC and they constantly had to answer questions about living at home to go to community college.

And of course, the fact that Rutgers is the flagship university for the state of NJ is mind-boggling for many people.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:54     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
Anonymous wrote:UPENN should change its name to UBEN or BEN & GEORGE


U Trump?
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:50     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
In early 2000s, I got into Wharton for MBA and called my parents to tell them and they had no clue what it was. I got there and realized I had never heard pf Brown or Dartmouth and that they were Ivies. Frankly, I did not Penn was an Ivy until I got there. I applied to bschool using Business Week rankings. I only learned about SLACs there. My dad has an associates degree and mom barely graduated HS but they knew all the tech schools (MIT, Berkeley, GT, UIUC). They were determined to make me an engineer so I knew only those schools as well.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:48     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Happy Penn parent here. My kid is happy and thriving academically and socially. Kid loves the restaurant scene in philly. Who cares what anyone thinks? Oldest kid went to Columbia (no name confusion) and had a lackluster experience.


why was Columbia lackluster?


Kid was probably ridiculed for having an off-brand bullhorn.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:45     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
I get that for some people, differences between colleges is not relevant to their daily existence. But if you are in a white collar job working with people who went to some of these schools, you should have a cursory knowledge of some of this.

Also, it is surprising that some people posting here don't know some of the basic differences because by opting into posting here, they are showing that they care about this topic. Though if they are using this as a way to educate themselves, credit to them for trying - you have to start somewhere.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:45     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
There are so many important things to know in life. So many signs of ignorance. This is not one of them.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:44     Subject: Re:Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
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


In the 80s Georgetown was a basketball power and the coach insisted on DEI before it was a thing so there were players who had no business being at Georgetown academically. As positive as basketball was for the school in some way, there were some who saw these players as the face of the University and assumed it was not a good academic schools.
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:39     Subject: Re:Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
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
Anonymous
Post 01/17/2026 16:29     Subject: Not knowing the difference between UPenn and Penn State
Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen several schools collaborate on Instagram basically mocking their differences eg UConn and Conn College or with similar Mascot etc. so it’s not completely unfathomable.

Personally I just learned a few years ago the differences b/w The Ohio University and The Ohio State University ….despite completely different colors etc. And I confuse Wesleyan and Wellesley all the time in that I forget which is coed vs female.

So yes, just on name alone it’s totally feasible to conflate Penn State and UPenn (Penn). But bc the latter is an Ivy, it comes across as more puzzling.


Makes it even more confusing when there’s a Wesleyan College that’s all female.