(10-19-2020 02:01 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(10-19-2020 01:55 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(10-19-2020 09:50 AM)CrazyPaco Wrote:  

(10-19-2020 09:20 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(10-19-2020 08:31 AM)esayem Wrote:  Most students make their college choice based on something other than sports. Rutgers sounds more prestigious than SUNJ or Jersey State. Temple sounds more prestigious than Philly U.

Yes, changing those names would be dumb. First, nobody is confused by the names "Rutgers" and "Temple", and most everyone knows who they are.

Second, the most prestigious schools are the Ivies, and they all have names like Harvard, Yale and Princeton. None are called "The University of Philadelphia" or anything similar. So in that vein, as you say, names like "Rutgers" and "Temple" sound more Ivy-like, and thus more prestigious.

Except for the University of Pennsylvania.

No one is mistaking Rutgers or Temple for Penn.

You just reinforced my point - nobody refers to "Penn" as the "University of Pennsylvania". It's just "Penn".

Which sounds a lot more like "Rutgers" and "Temple".

We hear Penn, UPenn, and University of Penn when that school is referenced. They come up often on the local NPR station. But, yeah, no University of Pennsylvania references. Of course, UPenn spends a lot on marketing to make sure those other names stick. Who knows if some day they take the long official title for marketing purposes. It does present as that in scholarly works.

Thanks, during my four years on Penn's campus, I always wondered what all those "University of Pennsylvania" signs were referring to.

Seriously, "UPenn" is never used by the school, students, or alumni. It's a bastardization that comes from the web address. Neither is "UPitt" on the other side of the state.

You know what is? Both "Penn" and the "University of Pennsylvania"