Résumé Bait and Switch

New reader “Thomas” sent an email to 12MC concerning an institution of higher learning seemingly out of place geographically. The University of California has a number of affiliated campuses, although none of them are located in Pennsylvania. Yet, oddly there’s a California University of Pennsylvania.

As always, there was a twist to the situation as I looked closer. The university sat in a town called California outside of Pittsburgh. The town dated to 1849, presumably in commemoration of the California Gold Rush that was happening at the same time. The university simply took the name of the town and the state. I replied that it reminded me of another geographically counterintuitive institution from the same state, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.


Thinking Out Loud…

This could provide an exceptional opportunity for mischief, as I considered the possibilities further. What if people wanted to misrepresent where they earned their diplomas, maybe pad a résumé or impress their friends, or for some other unknown reason? Maybe it would be easier or cheaper to attend a soundalike institution instead. If miscreants said that they’d graduated from Cal, would it be their fault if others assumed they were referring to UC Berkeley instead of lesser-known Cal U in PA?(¹).

I am certain that all of the similarly-named colleges and universities are perfectly fine places with solid reputations. However, the better known versions could convey additional benefits or prestige whether academic or athletic if used deceivingly. Those of questionable moral standing could easily employ a bait-and-switch.

I was curious to discover the prevalence of such opportunities even though I don’t condone such devious use. The examination began with a listing of colleges and universities in the US, UK and Canada. I sorted for similarities and compiled a lot of close matches in a shared Google Doc. Then I distilled it down to a handful of optimally deceptive options.


Ivy League

Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Cornell

Several opportunities presented themselves for those unable to gain admission to an Ivy League school or those unwilling to shoulder a six-figure student debt upon graduation. I called these choices the “Cheap Ivies” (do not confuse them with the Public Ivies).

How about Cornell College in Iowa instead of the Cornell University in New York? Distant cousins from the same family founded them so they’re practically the same. Right? Any of the Columbia Colleges (Missouri, South Carolina, Illinois) could substitute for Columbia University. Finally, nobody would really need to know that Penn referred to William Penn University instead of the University of Pennsylvania.


Sports

Notre Dame Band, Notre Dame Stadium, University of Notre Dame DDZ_0303. Photo by NDomer73; (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Notre Dame

Not everyone will want to attend a big-time athletics school. Those universities tend to have tens of thousands of students. They can be very impersonal places. However lots of people crave associations with athletic powerhouses.

A certain image would come across if someone mentioned they were a Notre Dame grad. It could quickly become a launching point for a thousand barroom conversations (or brawls) as long as they didn’t mention their preference for the Notre Dame Falcons from Ohio instead of the Fighting Irish. Similar situations existed for Georgetown in Kentucky, and Miami University of Ohio. How about Pitt? One could easily substitute Pittsburg State University in Kansas for the University of Pittsburgh.

Was it Seton Hall University or it’s nearly identical Seton Hill University? They both honored the same person, Elizabeth Ann Seton, so go for it.


Internationalists

Cambridge University. Photo by Caffeinehit; (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Cambridge

The University of Cambridge and its 31 constituent colleges in England are world-renowned. The institution featured some 90 Nobel laureates including Stephen Hawking. Isaac Newton went there. Its long list of famous alumni have made some of the most important contributions to mankind for the last several centuries. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to pursue a degree from Cambridge College in Massachusetts? “I completed my studies at Cambridge” would be a completely true statement.

Other substitutions could include Ottawa University in Kansas in lieu of the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Then I found the Yorks. There were York Colleges in Nebraska, New York and Pennsylvania, along with York University in Ontario and the University of York in England. Go ahead and substitute any one for any other. Enjoy!


Something Different

Lincoln Memorial; Washington, DC. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Lincoln Memorial

I found a similar situation with the Lincolns. There were Lincoln Universities in Missouri and Pennsylvania and a University of Lincoln in England. None of those were the unusual one. That honor went to Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee. Someone could have so much mischievous fun with Lincoln Memorial.

It wasn’t their fault, though. The founders established Lincoln Memorial University in 1897. The Lincoln Memorial — the edifice in Washington, DC — didn’t arrive until 1922.


12MC Loves Footnotes!

(¹) Actually that would be completely and utterly wrong so don’t do that.

Comments

13 responses to “Résumé Bait and Switch”

  1. Steve Avatar

    When one mentions California University of PA, there is a rule that one must also mention Indiana University of Pennsylvania which, despite the color scheme of the logo, has nothing in the world to do with University of Indiana in, um, Indiana.

  2. Fritz Keppler Avatar
    Fritz Keppler

    I remember back in Vietnamese Language school at Fort Bliss TX that a number of my classmates and fellow draftees were from Iowa, and several of them had gone to Cornell College. They found it an easy way to impress their dates (when they were a safe distance from Iowa) to state accurately that they went to Cornell. It apparently impressed the dates no end. Only rarely was any of them pressed for more specific details, such as when it turned out that one of the dates had gone to Ithaca College not far from Cornell University.

    1. Twelve Mile Circle Avatar

      Yes! That’s what I was proposing!

  3. Philip Newton Avatar
    Philip Newton

    You may also be interested in this article about similarly-named colleges in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford in England: http://fanf.livejournal.com/89717.html

    (Which currently gives me a 503 cache error, in which case you might want to try Google’s cache or some similar: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kllxfqwqtfAJ:fanf.livejournal.com/89717.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk )

  4. RSN Avatar
    RSN

    A minor point of contention: Miami University in Ohio predates the founding of the city of Miami by 16 years, and the founding of the University of Miami by 116 years. One could say that those attending the Florida school are the real pretenders.

    Also: Lake Forest in Illinois vs. Wake Forest in North Carolina. “I played basketball for *mumble*-ake Forest” would probably work on the ladies, too.

  5. TB Avatar

    The mindtrip the NFL ‘sArizona Cardinals pulled on some football fans not familiar with the Grand Canyon State by playing at first in Arizona State University’s home stadium and then inside a stadium named after the University of Phoenix might not technically qualify in this category, but boy, it’s up there.

  6. January First-of-May Avatar
    January First-of-May

    I used to think that the Russian abbreviation for Moscow State University is shared with at least two other universities in Moscow. Turned out one of them doesn’t appear to exist, and the other has a different abbreviation. (There are, apparently, several universities elsewhere that do have the same abbreviation; but not in Moscow.)
    Nizhny Novgorod State University[1] has a funny situation with how it’s abbreviated in Russian; the Russian adjective for “Nizhny Novgorod” is, technically, a single word, and there is actually only one N in it (for complicated historical reasons), but the abbreviation has two Ns anyway – possibly because the version with one N is already the abbreviation for Novosibirsk State University 🙂
    And while it’s not particularly useful as bait and switch, it is certainly pretty funny that so many of the world’s top universities are located in Cambridge (the entire top three, according to one study).

    [1] aka “Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod”, apparently

    1. Twelve Mile Circle Avatar

      You’ll be happy to know that the University of Idaho is located in Moscow. Well, the Moscow in Idaho.

      1. January First-of-May Avatar
        January First-of-May

        I would certainly be very happy to know that 🙂
        I actually wondered whether there were any universities in any of the American Moscows, but wasn’t sure and didn’t want to search too much. So your reply was very helpful in that regard.

      2. January First-of-May Avatar
        January First-of-May

        PS: And looking at the Wikipedia article for Moscow ID, apparently, “Main Street runs north-south through Moscow along the 117th meridian west”. That’s pretty cool (even though, according to all map sites I checked, the actual meridian is one block east at Washington Street).

  7. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    Legend has it (citation needed) that the founders of California, PA had set out from the east coast with a slogan of “California or Bust”. They did not make it nearly as far as intended, (I guess traveling was harder than they anticipated) but, to be men of their word, they established the town of California at the spot where they gave up.

  8. Peter Avatar

    Some administrators and others connected with the University of Central Florida want to change the institution’s name, which perhaps isn’t entirely surprising given the lingering prejudices against directionals. They’ve successfully agitated for sports media to refer to the school as UCF.

    One proposal that’s been getting some support is to change the name to University of Orlando. Bad idea, I’d say. While some perfectly fine universities have “University of [City]” names (e.g. Chicago, Houston, Miami, Pittsburgh), any new additions are too likely to be suffer by association with the University of Phoenix. That’s a worse taint than any directional name.

    Actually, if there’s a Sunshine State university that’s urgently in need of a new moniker, it’s the University of South Florida. Not only is Tampa geographically not in the southern part of the state, the term “South Florida” has a very specific meaning – Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties – that needless to say excludes Tampa.

  9. Brandon but Avatar
    Brandon but

    Figured it’s worth a mention that there’s a College of Notre Dame of Maryland located in Baltimore that wasn’t mentioned on your Google Doc. It definitely causes a little confusion for out-of-towners. And it famously has the unfortunate abbreviation of C.O.N.D.O.M. That’s made for a quite a few jokes over the years… I went to Loyola University across the street from Notre Dame (another university that has 4 similarly named locations across the country, but I have a feeling they’re all somehow related), and the jokes about the school were endless. It doesn’t help that they’re an all-girls college…

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