College Name Mistakes... looking to fix on Wikipedia

naraht · #1 10-14-2014, 08:27 PM

I've spent about a week correcting most of the instances of "John Hopkins University" across Wikipedia (there were about 4000 of them most from one book on Sharks used as a reference produced by "John Hopkins University Press")

So what's next?
I've looked for "University of William and Mary" and "Carnegie-Melon"

What other college name mistakes should I look for?

honeychile · #2 10-14-2014, 08:48 PM

Extra credit for those who mispronounce Carnegie Mellon. It's Car-NAY-gee, not CARN-a-gee.

I remember when I was accepted to W&M - my parents were so thrilled that it was a college, not a university. Well, also that it was a full ride!

The only other examples I can think is how many people confuse Stamford, Stanford, and almost any other school that starts with ST. Sorry that I'm not more help.

angels&angles · #3 10-14-2014, 08:52 PM

In real life, people confuse W&L, W&M, WashU, GW & like six others, but not so much on Wikipedia, so I'm not that much help there.

naraht · #4 10-14-2014, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeychile

Extra credit for those who mispronounce Carnegie Mellon. It's Car-NAY-gee, not CARN-a-gee.

I remember when I was accepted to W&M - my parents were so thrilled that it was a college, not a university. Well, also that it was a full ride!

The only other examples I can think is how many people confuse Stamford, Stanford, and almost any other school that starts with ST. Sorry that I'm not more help.

I went to Carnegie-Mellon.

Refering to the school we said CARN-uh-gee, referring to the Library between our campus and Pitt, we said the Car-NAY-gee Library...

Low D Flat · #5 10-14-2014, 08:54 PM

There's probably some Standford out there. Dartmouth University.

"California University" will likely get you a lot of hits to episodes of 90210.

StealthMode · #6 10-14-2014, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Low D Flat

There's probably some Standford out there.

There are. An abundance.

als463 · #7 10-14-2014, 09:14 PM

I find myself always correcting people regarding the difference between Penn State and University of Pennsylvania.

chi-o_cat · #8 10-14-2014, 09:35 PM

The official abbreviation for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is UNC Charlotte. Not UNCC and not UNC-Charlotte. I don't know if they're on Wikipedia, but the local media uses them all the time and it drives my significant other (a marketing/branding nerd who works at UNC Charlotte) absolutely nuts.

33girl · #9 10-14-2014, 09:37 PM

Indiana University of Pennsylvania has nothing to do with Indiana University.....and California University of Pennsylvania has nothing to do with CA the state (or 90210).

MysticCat · #10 10-14-2014, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chi-o_cat

The official abbreviation for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is UNC Charlotte. Not UNCC and not UNC-Charlotte. I don't know if they're on Wikipedia, but the local media uses them all the time and it drives my significant other (a marketing/branding nerd who works at UNC Charlotte) absolutely nuts.

Meanwhile, the official short form for The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is UNCG, not UNC Greensboro (or UNC-Greensboro or UNC-G). But for Carolina, it's UNC-CH (or, of course, just UNC).

Quote:

Originally Posted by naraht

I've spent about a week correcting most of the instances of "John Hopkins University" across Wikipedia (there were about 4000 of them most from one book on Sharks used as a reference produced by "John Hopkins University Press")

So what's next?
I've looked for "University of William and Mary" and "Carnegie-Melon"

What other college name mistakes should I look for?

Okay, I'll ask: Why? I mean, that's a lot of time involved.

naraht · #11 10-15-2014, 11:19 AM

"Standford University" has about 400 hits, so it is next.

"Dartmouth University" actually existed as a part of an effort to force "Dartmouth College" to be public. US Supreme Court got involved. But my guess is a good number of the hits are wrong. I'll take a look.

"California University" may get some hits to 90210. more likely would be google hits on pages with strings "attended University of Southern California, University of Texas", so may be too many false positives...

University of North Carolina Charlotte
The page starts "The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, also known as UNC Charlotte, UNCC, or Charlotte, ..." . While it would be inappropriate to delete UNCC because there are lots of people who use that albeit improperly, I think that *adding* what the formal abbreviation is (with reference to UNC Charlotte's marketing web page) would be appropriate.

As for why? If I saw it in a paper encyclopedia, I'd write the company. Since it is Wikipedia, I'd fix it myself. I live in the DC area and have worked with the students at that school (as well as others in DC/MD) so I've had to check it in my own work.

I've got a semi-automated tool, so it isn't quite so bad, but I've got to do each language separately with "John Hopkins University Press" showing up in references in languages that I didn't know *existed*, it was an adventure.

TonyB06 · #12 10-15-2014, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeychile

Extra credit for those who mispronounce Carnegie Mellon. It's Car-NAY-gee, not CARN-a-gee.

But it's CARN-a-gee Hall, not Car-NAY-gee Hall, right?

My ex-wife is from Cleveland. I still laugh at the story of the first time I drove to Cleveland to visit her during a college break. Carnegie Avenue is a major street there and she'd given me directions to meet her at a restaurant on that street.

Well, I found Carnegie Ave. ok, but had to call her and ask directions. Me: "Hey, I'm on Carnegie. Where is this Car-Nay-gee Avenue you're talking about??"

To this day, I can tell if someone is from Cleveland or not when I hear them pronouce "Car-Nay-gee/CARN-nay-gee." Every Clevelander I've ever heard pronounces it Car-NAY-gee Ave.

MysticCat · #13 10-15-2014, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by naraht

University of North Carolina Charlotte
The page starts "The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, also known as UNC Charlotte, UNCC, or Charlotte, ..." . While it would be inappropriate to delete UNCC because there are lots of people who use that albeit improperly, I think that *adding* what the formal abbreviation is (with reference to UNC Charlotte's marketing web page) would be appropriate.

Personally, I'd assume that a school like UNC Charlotte or any other major university has someone monitoring its Wikipedia page, and that if they wanted it changed they would have already taken care of it. Correcting references elsewhere might be one thing, but I don't think I'd correct something like that in the page on UNC Charlotte itself.

Just my $0.02.

DrPhil · #14 10-15-2014, 12:00 PM

Many colleges and universities have people who correct this.

Just like many GLOs, companies, and (inter)national professional organizations have people who make corrections wherever necessary.

PersistentDST · #15 10-15-2014, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyB06

But it's CARN-a-gee Hall, not Car-NAY-gee Hall, right?

My ex-wife is from Cleveland. I still laugh at the story of the first time I drove to Cleveland to visit her during a college break. Carnegie Avenue is a major street there and she'd given me directions to meet her at a restaurant on that street.

Well, I found Carnegie Ave. ok, but had to call her and ask directions. Me: "Hey, I'm on Carnegie. Where is this Car-Nay-gee Avenue you're talking about??"

To this day, I can tell if someone is from Cleveland or not when I hear them pronouce "Car-Nay-gee/CARN-nay-gee." Every Clevelander I've ever heard pronounces it Car-NAY-gee Ave.

Yep. It's all about linguistics. I tend to say Car-Neh-Gee. And yes...that is how Clevelanders say it (although I'm not from there).