# "The" Ohio State University

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ohio-state-university/322724>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 21, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ohio-state-university/322724 "2005-09-21T15:59:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ohio-state-university/322724/21 "2005-09-22T03:42:53Z")

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This is so random … I never noticed the “The” until last night when someone pointed it out on a scholarly paper I was reading, where under the author’s name was “The Ohio State University.” I figured it was a typo. Huh.

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**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ohio-state-university/322724/22 "2005-09-22T08:18:11Z")

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I blame A. Whitney Brown and A. Bartlett Giamatti.

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**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ohio-state-university/322724/23 "2005-09-22T14:56:21Z")

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> [@liberty3701](#):
>
> This is so random … I never noticed the “The” until last night when someone pointed it out on a scholarly paper I was reading, where under the author’s name was “The Ohio State University.” I figured it was a typo. Huh.

If you notice it is on the University logo/seal/whatever you want to call it. Go to www.osu.edu and look at it on the top left.

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**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ohio-state-university/322724/24 "2005-09-22T15:10:15Z")

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> [@CynicalGabe](#):
>
> I had a related experience, but not because of arrogance on the part of the college. I went to “Columbia Community College”. They referred to themselves as “Columbia College” for the sake of brevity.
> 
> When I went to UC Davis, which is only a few hours away, people would ask where I transferred from. Where I came from, you casually referred to the school as “Columbia”. So when I said this I was always met with 1 of 2 reactions:
> 
> 1. Awed stare
> 2. “So, how did you like New York?”
> 
> Each of these resulted in me sighing and responding: “No, not that one.”

Heh, reminds me of the local community college where I grew up: Harford Community College. For laziness’ sake, just “Harford” and said fast enough, it sounds very much like “Harvard.”

That or it’s other name, UCLA (University of Churchville, Left of Aberdeen) 😉

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