40 Tremendous College Traditions - mental_floss List Show (Ep.220)
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- Опубліковано 1 сер 2024
- A weekly show where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. This week, John tells us about 40 wacky college traditions!
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I never thought I'd hear John say "boned" and "stoned" so often in close proximity.
Here's John Green talking shit again. He says that dragons were still around in 1901. Absolute bollocks, that. Saint George killed the last dragon and he died in the year 303 A.D.
He was joking -_-
GoldenSoccerBall
So was Dean -_-
Sorry, I can't take you seriously when you use the word "bollocks".
I absolute love that. SAINT George did something in any year AD.
You win my humour award of the hour.
butternutsquashpie I don't get it...
Swarthmore College has a pterodactyl hunt, in which three students dressed up as pterodactyls are faught off by legions of foam sword wielding students. They also celebrate Valentine's day with a tradition called ninjagrams in which students dressed up as ninjas deliver valentine's cards to other students around campus. Plus of course a primal scream, streaking (canceled in recent years), and a midnight breakfast before finals.
Can't believe you left Texas A&M off here. Talk about tradition! There's a statue of one of the first presidents of the University, Lawrence Sullivan Ross. People leave pennies that the feet of the statue in order to get a good grade on their next test. I've seen nickels, quarters, dollar bills, and even fast food coupons. I did see a $50 on there once.
There's also the Century Tree, a 100+ year old oak, on campus. Legend has it that if you walk under the tree with your sweetheart, you're destined to stay together forever, but if you walk under it alone, you're destined to never marry.
You should also look up Aggie football traditions, like Midnight Yell, and others, like Rink Dunking, Elephant Walk, and much, much more.
I was hoping to see TAMU :|
Or Bonfire...
I agree...we are a school built on traditions. Maybe there were just too many good ones to chose from. But to mention another school's "midnight yell" and not Texas A&M's is insane.
icemancad unfortunately, bonfire hasn't been an official tradition since the collapse early in the 2000s
He mentioned another event that is no longer practiced too. But as other people mentioned there are NUMEROUS traditions at A&M. My fav? Reveille, when she barks in class while, the class is dismissed!
I was hoping the whole time you'd mention Texas A&M. We have so many great traditions!
Hey random UA-cam commenter, I agree. And I'm a bit offended. What about OUR Midnight Yell? and the Century Tree (I know someone who even got engaged under it), and Ring Dunking!
You can get kicked out of Texas A&M for doing nothing wrong but not following tradition.
Which means you can be illegally expelled from A&M
I'm not going.
But it's in Texas.
PurpleCircleMan Ummm..no you can't?
PurpleCircleMan
I don't know to what tradition you're referring, but you definitely can't get expelled for not following tradition at A&M. Tradition is a big part of our culture here, but it is just part of student life. As for official rules, the only Aggie tradition that lives there is the Aggie Honor Code, which is basically the "don't cheat" rule. Plagiarism will get you kicked out of any college.
Apparently Carleton College also has a silent dance party during finals to relieve stress, which is pretty awesome. The organizer of the party puts together a playlist and sends it out to the students. They then load the songs on their portable media player, plug in their headphones and all hit play when cued. Then they take their dance party all around campus.
Flunk Day at Knox College is a thing that exists. ( I can't believe it didn't make the list! )
Every year four students (who are part of the Union Board/ student group for campus events) plan a day of shenanigans and cancelled classes for the entire school (including the student body, the faculty, and staff). Usually there's a carnival, races, free food, and illegal drinking.
I went to Knox and I was waiting for that to pop up too! That or Pump Handle because getting in line to shake every single student and staff's hand is a pretty weird and cool thing.
Westerlywick I know! I was surprised that neither Knox tradition was mentioned. Last year was the first (and probably only) year that I will do the Pump Handle but it's still a cool idea that I think should have been mentioned in the video.
1:52 - He has that right. Given that most college campuses are secular liberal training grounds, it's strange that they have all kinds of superstitious traditions.
It's also strange that John eats dead flesh off of a cow's ass, but calls bug-spitting "disgusting".
Diana Peña With bugs, it's a visual thing. They just look disgusting. But hamburgers look tasty.
Diana Peña Would you prefer if it was live flesh off a cow's butt?
Human nature
M. Strain Jr.
Well, I don't see the difference.
***** Can you at least try to be original?
24680kong Excuse me for exposing the blatant hypocrisy of meat-eating westerners.
I like how Roanoke College's seal admits that the college is in Salem, VA, and not actually in Roanoke. They could move the campus about ten feet and be in Roanoke, but I guess it's easier to just change the sign.
It was renamed Roanoke College because it's in the Roanoke Valley. Even though it's in Salem, it's still the Roanoke Valley, so the name didn't need to be changed to Salem College.
Some additional ones for Roanoke College: There is a seal in front of the administration building. If you step on it, you won't graduate on time. Also, the walk leading up to that building is Heritage Walk. If you walk up it holding hands with someone, you'll get married in the future. There was also a tree (until recently) known as the Bittle Tree. It had mulch around it, which you weren't supposed to step on. Supposedly you wouldn't graduate. They cut that tree down a little while ago though.
Bam! I love mental floss, plz make these videos forever,
Sincerely,
The Internet
I cannot believe that Texas A&M, from the Aggie Muster to midnight yell, was not on the list. There are a ton of traditions that the Aggies have.
How in the world did you leave out Texas A&M??? It's nickname could essentially be the "University of Traditions". Very disappointed...
Seriously, that's some bad bull right there John.
Bad bull, indeed
Silver Taps is the most beautiful tradition I have ever witnessed in my life.
I always hope every month we don't have Silver Taps, but there's nothing else in the world like it. Goosebumps & tears.
He even said the phrase "Midnight Yell". I my jaw hit my desk when I saw we didn't make it. There is literally a tradition for every single aspect of life: no walking on the grass, pennies on Sully, Silver Taps, no hats in the MSC, Wildcat-ing, pushing, "Howdy-ing, and a PLETHORA more if you're in the Corps. It just sucks.
The bit about Cornell's dragon day makes me love Andy from The Office even more. I'm picturing him helping build the dragon and it's fantastic.
I can't believe you left out Fox Day at Rollins, considering you grew up so close to it! Best tradition ever, IMO. They even have the "Fox Day Cam" now, so you can keep an eye on the flagpole at all times and know exactly when the Fox makes his appearance!
Texas A&M has the most traditions if any schools. It makes me mad you don't have it.
My university (University of Birmingham [UK! NOT ALABAMA]) has a similar tradition that you are not supposed to walk under "Old Joe" the clock tower when it is chiming for fear of being cursed that you will fail your degree. Also fun fact, Old Joe (named after Joseph Chamberlain, the firth Chancellor of the university) is the world's tallest free-standing clock tower!
I participated in the Virginia Tech snowball fight my freshman year. It happens on the first night we have snowfall, and the center of the fight is essentially an icy mosh pit of people (mostly cadets) throwing punches.
I'm sure that someone has already commented on this, but we UGA graduates are quite proud of our school's main symbol, which is called "the Arch" not "the Arches." The Arch is a symbol for the University of Georgia and for the State of Georgia. The Arches is for McDonald's. uga.edu/profile/arch/
You didn't mention that Columbia College Chicago holds an event called Manifest every single year. It is the biggest urban arts festival in the midwest and is thrown to celebrate the graduation of about 2,000 CCC students. It showcases the artistic work of all of the graduating students with live performances, art galleries, etc. This event though is open to the public as well as other CCC students and draws in about 30,000 people to the South Loop every year for this event! :)
Yay for the albino squirrel! You know, one of the albino squirrels hung out outside my dorm, and I STILL never managed to catch a glimpse of it while on my way to an exam. On my way back, sure...
Liked that you mentioned my collage of Murray State. Along with that tradition, couples that nailed their shoes to the tree would often come back and nail up their children's shoes as we'll.
YOU'RE BACK! We missed you John! Thank you for making my day yet again.
I can't believe that the University of Montevallo in Alabama didn't make this list. They have an annual home coming tradition called College Night where the students divide themselves into two teams (either purple or gold like the school colors) and have to write, costume, direct and preform their own original musicals. All of the work is student done
At my law school, we applauded our professor at the end of the last lecture of the semester.
I'm so excited for next week's list!!
You should do this list again but internationally, with bizarre or funny traditions from Universities all over the world!
Tinker Day, at Hollins University, is another quirky, cool tradition - they cancel classes, serve donuts in vast quantities in the dining hall, and students don costumes to hike a nearby large hill/small mountain, then return for fried chicken for dinner.
Once again, a US-focused video. Well I'd say why ot for this one (just call it Tremendous US College Traditions) but you could make more world-wide subjects, or better : sometimes focus on an other region (the Indian states have a lot of strange things to give).
This is a show written by, filmed by, and hosted by Americans ... you're really shocked that these lists aren't less about America?
If you want a more Euro-centric (or wherever you're from) list, write it yourself and start a UA-cam channel called "StickUpMyButtEU."
People write what they know. If you want info about foreign countries you can look that up, but would you really want John pontificating about topics he knows almost nothing about? All of the comments would be complaining about how inaccurate he was!
The night before exams russian students wave their student's record book outside of a window and shout "Give me luck"!
Colorado State University also has an undie-run night - friday before finals every spring. students shed thier clothes in the plaza, and then run around campus. the clothes are collected and donated to charity.
Knox College's Flunk Day is a pretty awesome tradition too! The day itself is a huge secret; you never know when it's going to be or what it will involve. There are scares all spring at 6am until finally one day the ruckus is accompanied by the Flunk Day email from the Dean. Everything is cancelled and it's like a carnival all day! It's always so much fun, and the students' dedication to keeping the Mud Pit alive is great :)
As a current UVa student (Wahoowa), I feel that people should know that the streaking ritual also involves peering through a keyhole of the Rotunda to see the statue of Jefferson and saying "Good night, Mr. Jefferson," before one puts on one's clothes. We're a classy bunch 'round here.
I grew up in Austin and a lot of my family went to UT, and then I came up to Cornell for my own undergrad. So exciting that my favorite traditions were first and last haha. Fun video!
At the University of Central Arkansas we have an "Undie Run" which is a relatively new tradition started by our track team. We hold it every finals week. We start at the cafeteria, make laps through the library, and finish at the campus fountain.
Texas A&M has a tradition that when the football team scores a touch down you kiss your date, coining the phrase "When the team scores, everyone scores."
Touchdown mug down! I can't believe I failed to remember that when I was trying to list off our traditions to someone else.
Well, as an alumna of the University of Michigan, I feel obligated to point out that Ohio State's tradition of jumping into a lake isn't the brightest thing to do AT THE END OF NOVEMBER! (Which is when the OSU vs UM football game occurs)
My favorite tradition at Herron School of Art is the printmaking shrine. I haven't actually taken a printmaking class yet, but apparently the whole process leaves a lot to chance, so students make offerings to the printmaking gods while they wait for their prints.
At University of Pennsylvania they throw toast on the field in the 3rd quarter of football games. This used to be an actual toast with whiskey until the drinking age was charged to 21 and students decided to switch to the other toast
at FSU it's tradition to be thrown into the fountain at midnight when it's your birthday, too! uvu
Central College in Pella, Iowa, has a tradition of throwing students into the pond on the middle of campus on their birthday.
We also have a tradition called the lemming race where many students dress up in costumes and run into the pond, swimming to the island in the middle, and singing the school fight song.
A classic tradition from my alma mater, the College of Wooster: whenever we get a massive snowfall, we try to fill up the arch at Kauke Hall with snow. I kept waiting for that to come up what John had all those facts about arches.
Super excited to see the Shoe Tree on this list!
Michigan State University also has a tradition of screaming at midnight during finals week.
As a current Iowa State Student I was expecting him to say the Zodiac tradition but the Campanile one is good too. Fun fact: the act of kissing at midnight under the Campanile is called "Campaniling."
Yay! I'm applying to four colleges on this list!
Stony Brook has the midnight scream every night of finals too!
At Longwood University we have a giant paint battle called Color Wars every year with students who started in Even years (Red team) against those who started in Odd years (Green team). This kicks off our Oktoberfest weekend. It's based in an old tradition where the girls would paint a bell on campus with red and green paint but since the bell has since been removed from the tower, now we paint each other. Apparently when they removed the bell and cleaned it to display in our library, there were spots a half-inch thick with paint...
"Journalism is still alive. Thanks Buzzfeed" I died
At MSU we also have a midnight scream that is most popular the night before finals but people can also be heard screaming every night of finals week.
A couple of additional college traditions that I think are kind of cool:
1) Hope College- The Pull, super intense tug-of-war between freshmen and sophomores over the black river. This has been going on since 1898. (Just do a "hope college pull" image search you'll see what I mean).
2) Michigan Tech University- Winter Carnival, a weekend festival with a student ice sculpture competition, student use scaffolding and spend days working on their various structures.
3) Taylor University- Silent Night, at the men's basketball game the Friday before finals students don't make a single sound until Taylor scores its tenth point.
Hi John, Texas A&M has a lot of traditions that it's known for, 1) why didn't you mention any?, and 2) are you going to make another video mentioning them?
UGA student checking in. We have one Arch. Not Arches. McDonald's has arches, we have an Arch. Also, whatever was in that picture was not the Arch. That aside, great video.
A note on Clark's spree day: I don't think spree day was almost cancelled due to binge drinking, but rather low attendance after the last two years took place in the gym due to rain. With low attendance, it was hard to justify the cost (particularly when we were getting famous musical acts). Last year was a success. I was the one riding the mechanical bull for hours.
The sarcasm is strong in this one.
University of Georgia alumna here. The "arches"mentioned in #6 are actually just "the arch," as depicted in the seal in the top right corner. The picture shown underneath the seal isn't even from the University of Georgia.
We swiftly correct anyone who asks directions to the arches. It is true, however, that students don't walk under the arch for fear of never graduating; the steps around the arch are worn down due to centuries of this tradition.
i love how you missed Elmira College which has the most traditions of any college: freshmen beanies, candlelight ceremony, mountain day, spoon assassins, various campus songs sung at noon, alma mater played in the bell tower at 6:55 (1855) every night, may days, swimming in the fountain, iris planting, lunch tray sledding, orientation tug of war, i could honestly keep going...
Wartburg College also has a day off, called Outfly (a deliberately bad mis-translation of the German "ausflug" or "excursion") the students get woken up at 6 am by people running through the dorms and then gather at the victory bell where, once there are enough people, the president cancels class.
No Texas A&M?!
Haha, should have brought up Wake Forest! We "roll the quad" and toilet paper our own trees after sports victories.
The Albino Squirrel is also a sign of good luck at the University of South Carolina Aiken. His name is Bowie.
As a newly-minted Aggie grad student I was a little surprised that none of Texas A&M's ridiculous number of traditions made it onto this list, and then I realised you could probably make an entire 40-item list of *Texas A&M's* strange traditions, so it was probably too hard to pick just one.
At my school, Chestnut Hill College, there is a superstition that if you walk down the main staircase in the oldest part of the building, you won't graduate. Also, every year we have a Christmas Decorating Night where each class is assigned a different part of campus and decorate it according to a theme, we decorate all night long and then around 6am, we storm the dorms with pots and pans from the dining hall and collect students to walk through the campus to the President's House and sing her Christmas Carols. I definitely have the best school ever.
Smith College also does the Primal Scream! We also have an unexpected day off, but we call it "Mountain Day".
I just started as a Doc student at Purdue. There are so many crickets here that I'm not even surprised haha.
At the University of Maryland it is good luck to rub the nose of the statue of Testudo (the mascot) and give him offerings before finals. It is also bad luck to step on the old center of the campus (you won't graduate at your expected time)
Yay for a Mizzou tradition! There is also a superstition that if you walk on the Shamrock by the Engineering building then you'll fall in love/marry an engineer. Worked for me and my hubby! :D
At the University of Montevallo, we have College Night for our basketball homecoming. The school basically splits in half into purple side and gold side, the school colors. Each side must write, direct, compose, and perform an original play. It's a lot of fun actually. PV y'all!
The VT snowball fight is really fun!
The most important tradition was forgotten! Mount Holyoke College has Mountain Day! This is an unexpected day in the fall when the President of the college rings the chapel bell 100 times, classes are cancelled, and the students climb Mt. Holyoke where the school provides ice cream at the top (and singing of the Alma Mater)!
What John failed to mention about the Mirror Lake jump is that it takes place in late November, when the temperature is often below freezing.
Yay, John's back!!!
Stanford also does a Primal Scream at midnight each night during finals week.
We also celebrate Hallowe'en with a party at the Stanford family's mausoleum.
I'm curious as to how the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt didn't make this list. Given that it holds a Guiness World Record for the largest University Scav Hunt, lasts for 4 days, and has asked students to do such things as build a geographically accurate Risk Board, create a table-top RPG using only things found in people's pockets, get a signed apology for the Star Wars Christmas specials (max points if George Lucas writes one), and build a gigantic, fully functional pop-up book, it seems perfect for the list. Oh yeah, those were all from last year's hunt too.
That sounds so cool! I can't believe they did not put it in here!
It is a lot of fun, but it is really stressful. It's remarkable how quickly a dorm's public spaces can get completely trashed by what 50 people are doing. But yeah, there are a ton of awesome things. Some of the mementos also are: A statue of a chainsaw, carved by a chainsaw. a massive paper mache bust of Edgar Allen Poe, and more. The full list, in its glory, can be found here.
scavhunt.uchicago.edu/list2014_2final.pdf
I forgot that Dooley was even a weird Emory thing. That dude's everywhere.
At Middlebury College, if the song "Like a Prayer" is ever played at a party, students immediately remove their shirts.
Hi! I'm currently a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and I just wanted to point out that the journalism arch legend doesn't stem from bad luck. The reasoning behind being quiet under the journalism arch is:
It is said that, at some point, a professors office used to be above the arch. Some students were discussing plans to cheat underneath the arch and, due to the professor's office window being open, the professor overheard them and they were expelled. It's been a superstition ever since. Also, supposedly the two Chinese lions roar if a virgin walks between them, but that's one of the sillier rumors.
Not to mention getting together and having a smoke out lol
I graduated from Murray State. It makes me insanely happy to see the shoe tree in this video.
The University of Hartford has a plaza with a smooth stone 'H' in the middle, which gets very slippery in the winter. They say that if you slip on the H, you won't graduate in 4 years.
John's mispronounced word of the day: "campanile"
Yay for Cornell being the first mentioned! c; I went there last year!
Well, damn. College sounds interesting, I should really go.
It gets expensive, but I think it's better than high school and I've only been there a week
DrewKW96 haha, I should've gone 4 years ago.
Ravenclaw1991 or you can end up 40k in debt without a degree like me!!!! :D
(really though college is amazing and i'm only slightly bitter about not graduating)
I wish the college I went to had some cool traditions like these.
Smith College fits three of these!
-bad luck to walk through the Grecourt Gates before graduation
-primal scream before finals that goes in a wave across campus
-surprise day off! although it's in the fall and called Mountain Day
Sad my alma mater didn't make the cut :(
My college had traditions around albino squirrels, too! There was even a "cult" built around them. Especially weird considering I went to a college that exclusively trained Christian missionaries...I remember one day when I watched one of the albino squirrels confuse one of my classmates for a tree (they don't see very well, apparently) by climbing up his body! I'm not sure which of them was more astonished, but I'm pretty sure the boy will tell that story for the rest of his life.
I'm shocked, but delighted to see Iowa State made the list. "Campaniling" is a big deal here. We also walk around the zodiac symbols on the entrance floor to the Memorial Union, lest we be cursed on our next exam.
I think the strangest tradition we have is the Beardshear Curtis run. It's a naked run from Beardshear Hall to Curtis Hall, through central campus, which must be done in the time it takes the campanile to chime the 12 tolls for midnight.
BYU use to (and I think still does) a Rock, Paper, Scissors Showdown giving the winner a prize. At one point they held the Guiness Book of World Records for largest Rock, Paper, Scissors game.
Wellesley College does the primal scream too and it hurts my ego to think we didn't develop that tradition first. (Screams)
"2chainz is FANTASTIC!"
- John Green, 2014
Hey we have a midnight scream at Michigan State too. If you live on campus, every week for finals week around midnight everyone yells from their dorm room.
At the University of Queensland, there are a lot of jacaranda trees that come into flower right around the time of exams in second semester. It's supposedly bad luck if a jacaranda flower falls on you before you finish your exams that semester.
Rollins College in Orlando has Fox Day, which is held on a day that is too nice to be in class. No one knows when, but when it happens, there are tons of activities on campus!
I know these were all american schools, but I am disappointed that you did not mention Canadian Engineers who dye themselves purple for frosh week.
A couple of traditions from my sister's college, the University of Kansas: on graduation day, each senior walks through the campus clock tower on their way to the graduation ceremony. If you enter the tower, and leave through the same door, that's fine, but to walk in through one door and out the other before graduation is considered bad luck. Also, if you kiss your sweetheart inside the clock tower at the strike of midnight, it's supposed to guarantee that you will be together for the rest of your lives. The latter tradition has significant evidence to the contrary -- oddly, relationships between hormonal teenagers tend not to last forever, the myth notwithstanding.
So happy you started with Cornell's Dragon Day! You forgot to mention the green beer, tho.
Oooh Buzzfeed burn. +1 to John! :D
Also it should be noted that Lorain County Community College has a tradition that there are no traditions and is generally boring. I can't believe that wasn't mentioned.
The University of Central Florida has a tradition called spirit splash where everyone runs into the reflection pond and gets rubber ducks thrown at them.
I go to Purdue and just learned about the Bug Bowl due to this video, Strange that I had to go to an outside source to learn about my own college's tradition
My school has a couple weird traditions like sack day, where once a semester, theater students dressed in colorful sacks invade the student union, and midnight breakfast (which, since reading TFIOS, I think John would have a problem with) the night before finals, during which, you can see the college president in black tie formal wear.