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[revelator]

There's Cornell College in Iowa, Cornell University in Ithaca, and Ithaca in Ithaca.  

There's also Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and UMass at Dartmouth in Massachusetts.  

Not to mention Transylvania U., which is perhaps disappointingly in Kentucky, not Romania.  

Then there's Worcester and Wooster, which are, to the casual ear, homonyms.

[revelator]

Kansas is KU at least in part because University of Kentucky is already UK.  I was in Louisville a while back and was terribly confused when everyone was talking about watching the UK basketball game.  I thought to myself, "I thought the British weren't very good at basketball.  And what are they doing here anyway?  How odd."

[jrscholar]

OSU-The Ohio State University
OSU-Oklahoma State University

Don't forget Oregon State University, too.

My new favorite is one I saw on higheredjobs.com the other day: University of Rio Grande in Rio Grande, Ohio.

As for the University of South Florida, it was named when it was the southernmost public university in the state.  My pet peeve are the folks who insist on calling it the University of Southern Florida.  Also, its initials (USF) are also those of the University of San Francisco, and both use green and gold for their colors.

[case_insensitive]

Kansas is KU at least in part because University of Kentucky is already UK.  I was in Louisville a while back and was terribly confused when everyone was talking about watching the UK basketball game.  I thought to myself, "I thought the British weren't very good at basketball.  And what are they doing here anyway?  How odd."

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

[case_insensitive]

As for the University of South Florida, it was named when it was the southernmost public university in the state.  My pet peeve are the folks who insist on calling it the University of Southern Florida.  Also, its initials (USF) are also those of the University of San Francisco, and both use green and gold for their colors.

Yes, but back then did they refer to the Tampa area as South Florida? 

I used to live in the part of Florida everyone calls South Florida and that's much further south than Tampa.  So shouldn't USF have been the U of ... I dunno... West Florida (nope, that one's up in the panhandle)... or... Southwest Fl.  I dunno, but South just doesn't make sense to me there.  And, of course, no one wants to be a minor point on the compass (Southwest?) rather than a major one (South) if they can help it!  And USF was created long before FIU, which is actually in South Florida but for which "international" is much more appropriate.

[revelator]

Also, speaking of Kentucky, they've got a Morehead State University, not to be confused with Minnesota's Moorhead State University.  I pity the fool who applies excpecting warm southern weather and is slapped with Minnesota winters. 

[sciguy]

Thinking about Northwestern University in Illinois (Named after the Northwest Territory I believe).

There are several other Northwesterns too - there is a Northwestern College in Minnnesota and a Northwestern College in Iowa.

Illinois also has North Central College (I guess plain old North wasn't enough) which used to be (many years ago) another Northwestern College - but changed its name to avoid confusion.

[infopri]

And, then... there's the country Columbia which has entries such as Universidad Autónoma de Colombia ...

Actually, the country, like the university, is spelled Colombia.  (Hey, anything to help reduce the confusion!)

[revelator]

Sorry to post so much.  I also just remembered from years ago when I was being courted for undergrad by Harvey Mudd, one of the items on their Reasons To Go To Harvey Mudd" list was, "If you say it fast enough, people will think you're attending Harvard Med."  Cute.

Also, the University of Phoenix has pretty much nothing at all to do with Phoenix. 

[case_insensitive]

You know, if these towns and country are named after Cristobal Colon, then why aren't they all Colombia or Colonbia (nope, not going to happen, yuck)...

[iomhaigh]

Also, much like Auburn is Clemson - another public, land-grant university that is often assumed to be a private school. 

As is Purdue....

and then there's Cornell College (not Cornell U). 

[prytania3]

Bob Jones University--not that it's geographically so confusing, but it sounds like a sausage joint.

[zharkov]

There's also Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and UMass at Dartmouth in Massachusetts. 

When Southeastern Mass U was renamed U Mass-Dartmouth, they knew full well that using the name "Dartmouth" would give them a bit of a prestige boost.

While we are on U Mass, some people confuse U Mass-Amherst (the state flagship) with Amherst College (a high end SLAC).  Someone made this mistake this week in another forum here.

[case_insensitive]

Also, much like Auburn is Clemson - another public, land-grant university that is often assumed to be a private school. 

As is Purdue....

and then there's Cornell College (not Cornell U). 

Speaking of Purdue University...  what's with it?  And, that whole state... Purdue has three campuses in three towns... well, that's not so weird.  Then, there's Indiana University which has about six campuses in six towns (plus there's that Indiana University of Pennsylvania confusion).  And, just to be interesting, there's an additional Indiana University-Purdue University in Fort Wayne and another in Indianapolis, where there's also a University of Indianapolis.

Cornell University is in Ithaca, New York and Cornell College is in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and then there's also a Weill Cornell Medical College in NYC.

[threefive]

Kentucky seems to be a favorite: Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky and Georgetown University in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington D.C.