I’ve noticed that when someone, usually an alum, is referring to the state sponsored university in Columbus, Ohio, they will usually refer to it as “THE Ohio State University”, with emphasis on the article ‘the’.
Is this common among graduates of a college or university? I’ve never heard PSU refered to as “THE Pennsylvania State University”, or one of the institutes I attended referred to as “THE Lackawanna Junior College”. Do they say “THE Oxford University” or similar things in Europe, or Australia, or Asia?
I apologize if this belongs in GQ, but I thought that there might be more opinions based on school pride than on actual facts. Please move it to THE General Questions forum, if warranted.
I have heard a pro football player or two refer to it as “The Ohio State University” during pregame introductions. Just good ol’ school pride I imagine.
Well officially its name is “The Ohio State University,” if that makes any difference. I didn’t realize anyone actually said the “the.” I suppose they think it’s the only state school worthy of recognition in THE Ohio.
Right. I’ve heard players say “The University of Miami”, or “The University of Michigan”, for example, not emphasizing the ‘the’. But more often than not, if a player is from Ohio State, they will say “THE Ohio State University”. It just seemed more than coincidental, and I thought there might have been a reason.
“THE Ohio State University” is a mark of sheer pretense and nothing more. It is the official name of the school, but many of those who emphasize the “THE” act like the school is the equivalent of Harvard, Yale or Stanford, which it isn’t, and cannot be, given that Harvard, Yale and Stanford are private schools and OSU is a state school. OSU is the largest school in Ohio and has the best football team but that’s about it. Qualitatively, as an educational institution it isn’t any better than any other Ohio state university such as Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, or Miami (of Ohio) University, among others.
There is an Ohio University in Ohio. It is located in Athens, a city in the Southeastern part of the state. “OU” as it is called by the locals may be as old or older than “OSU”. I’m too lazy to check. From what I can gather, the raging egos in Columbus wanted to find a way to distinguish their University from Ohio U. Insisting on being referred to as THE Ohio State University sort of leaves the impression that it is the only one. But it isn’t. Sorry Buckeyes. Now settle down.
Ohio State grad checking in here. It is true that the official name is “The Ohio State University”, but the “The” was never used until about 1988 or so, when the university started a long, slow campaign to change from a generic state college to a nationally recognized university a la U of Michigan or U of Virginia. Prior to that time, any graduate of an Ohio high school was guaranteed acceptance to OSU, leading to unimpressive SAT statistics and academic ratings. They gradually started tightening up the standards and closed down some inferior departments. I would say they are about halfway to their goal - OSU is certainly above average in the class of all state universities, but not yet up to e.g. U of Michigan academically.
Personally, I never put the “The” on my cv. It doesn’t really add any prestige and generally bugs people. The “The” is the object of some controversy and scorn on campus. People who say “The” are usually your pep-rally and alumni-association types.
OU (founded 1804) is in fact much older than OSU (founded 1870).
THE major airport in Atlanta does this as well. It is known as THE William B. Hartsfield International Airport. So when it is listed in government-issued publications, it falls under…T. Yes, to find the Atlanta airport you look under T. Endlessly irritating to pilots, and pretentious to boot.
Do they say “THE Oxford University” or similar things in Europe, or Australia, or Asia?