I don’t know if any of you Dopers have this commercial in your neck of the woods, but over here on television we always have ads for “ITT Technical Institute,” a technology-related trade school.
For some reason, I got this itch to know exactly what ITT stands for. It’s probably becasue I’m kind of hoping it’ll be a redundant abbreviation like “PIN Number” or “ATM Machine.” Ideally, it will stand for "<B>I</B>nstitute for <B>T</B>echnological <B>T</B>echnology Technical Institute, though probably not.
This urge was even strong enough to get me to go to their website, www.itt-tech.edu to see if there was any mention of the complete name of the school. None whatsoever.
Does anyone have any idea what the full name of the school is?
“PIN number” is not redundant. “Number” is essential to differentiate between a “PIN” and a “PIN number,” especially since you can’t hear capitals in speech. If someone says “I lost my pin,” do they mean a personal ID Number or a sewing tool?
Neither is “ATM Machine” redundant. If someone says “I need to use an ATM,” do they mean “Automatic Teller Machine” or “Asynchrous Transfer Mode”? Are they talking about “Amateur Telescopy Makers” or “The Association of Teachers of Mathematics”? Granted, these are less likely to come to mind, but ATM itself can mean more than one thing and “ATM Machine” nails it down.
Yes, PIN Number is redundant, Chuck. If you wish to argue its redundancy should be excused, that’s another topic. To say that PIN Number and ATM Machine aren’t redundant implies you don’t know the meaning of the word redundant.
As to the OP, I’m sorry, I haven’t the foggiest what ITT means.
Wasn’t it “International Telephone and Telegraph” back in the day? It’s got the same logo as the old ITT company - I always figued that they were connected.
It’s not an acronym. The institute was named after its founder, a short long-haired chap with a unique speech impediment.
What?
Ok, I don’t really know. Acronymfinder has several listings. Independent Technical Training seems the most likely.
AFAIK, the 2 companies are not related. I work for ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph) and its logo is different than the ITT tech school logo.
From http://www.ittesi.com/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=ESI&script=1801
“ITT/ESI is a Delaware corporation incorporated in 1946. From 1966 until the initial public offering on December 27, 1994, ITT/ESI was a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation. Following the IPO, ITT held approximately 83% of ITT/ESI’s common stock. In February 1998, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. acquired ITT. Public offerings of ITT/ESI common stock by ITT in June 1998 and February 1999 and ITT/ESI’s repurchase of 1.5 million shares of ITT/ESI common stock from ITT in February 1999 completely eliminated ITT’s beneficial ownership.”
Forgot to add that ITT-ESI is the company running the schools, which may not have been obvious in the previous post.
From www.ittesi.com
“the company: ITT Educational Services, Inc. (“ESI”) is a leading provider of technology-oriented postsecondary degree programs. As of December 31, 2002, ESI operated 74 ITT Technical Institutes in 28 states, which predominantly provided career-focused degree programs of study in fields of technology to approximately 33,000 students. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, ESI has been actively involved in the higher education community in the United States since 1969. Shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ESI.” ESI has graduated approximately 150,000 students since 1969 including 80,000 in the last 10 years”