Did you go to College in the US?

[SevenSquared]

If so I could kind of use your help. I am currently writing a story set in an American college. I went to college, but in the UK where it is a bit different. The main difference is that here the alcohol age limit is 18 meaning that all students can legally drink and the university has no problem with them doing so. I'm sure there are other differences too, so if you could answer these specific questions that would be great.

1. I know a lot of 'partying' goes on at college. Who usually hosts these parties? I know some are frat parties at frat houses, but I assume this is only a small proportion. Do dorms arrange their own parties? Societies?

2. I assume most parties have alcohol at them to some extent. Do the university allow alcohol at parties situated on campus (in dorms for example)? Do they turn a blind eye to it? Or do all parties where there is alcohol need to be situated off campus and if so where?

3. Do only first year students stay in dorms or are they open to students in all years? If the latter will students usually stay in the same dorm for their whole time at college or would they switch every year?

4. Do members of sports teams just stay in dorms with regular students or do they have their own special dorms?


That will do for now. Thanks in advance to anyone who can give some insight.

 

[JagFarlane]

Part of it depends upon the school, some are more strict about it than others, some take it as part of the college experience and some are horrified at it. This past year the University of Virginia was named the number one party school in the US and they were very upset with this.
Some schools are exploring alternate ideas, Virginia Tech is looking into having the drinking age on school grounds declared 18 and allowing on campus restaurants to serve alcohol. Their view is the drinking is almost inevitable and hope to be able to at least better watch over students alcohol consumption as well as the fact that there is a large international population at the school who would normally be of age to drink.

Dorms tend to be open to all students, first year students are usually required to stay at them unless they're a commuter student [parents reside nearby]. There tends to be not enough dorm rooms to go around so some places have apartment complexes that simulate the dorm experience by having bedrooms with a central living area.

In the schools I've had experience with, the athletes usually share dorms with others their freshman year and then most move on to live in town after the freshman year.

 

[Ironiclaconic]

1) Most common parties were House parties, where all the residents of a house bought a few kegs, hid all the breakables, and charged a few bucks for an empty cup with a mark on it.


2) Dorm parties happened but fewer people are of age. That said, the drunkest I ever got was when a cute blonde RA was pouring shots. Alcohol in dorms would vary by school policy, but if disallowed the odds are the dorm staff would ignore it unless they couldn't turn a blind eye without getting fired.

3) anyone can live in dorms, but it's usually 1st and 2nd years. Some schools require freshmen to live in dorms, as I recall.

4) my experience was that all the athletes for a given sport were housed in the same part of the same dorm, for at least their freshman year.

Mileage varies. There is no single universal college experience, save getting 'faced and sleeping with the Dean's daughter.

 

[PennLady]

As JagFarlane said, much of this depends on where -- and when -- you go to school.

I attended a school in Pennsylvania from 1987-1991. It had been an all-male school until 1972, so thee were 33 (I think) fraternities and 6 sororities. The frats all had houses on the upper part of campus, and all parties that I knew of were at the frat houses. The sororities were housed in dormitories and IIRC, their charters or whatever prohibited parties. Not to say there wasn't alcohol; there may have been, and probably was, but I didn't join a sorority or do the party scene.

I do remember that the joke was weekends started on Tuesdays, and flyers for parties were up all the time. My school at first turned all blind eyes to the parties, I'd imagine. And yes, alcohol is a huge factor. Also at this time, the US drinking age was already 21, but plenty of underage drinking goes on at college, never mind the drinking age.

As for first year ("freshmen" at US colleges or universities) students, whether they live on campus or not depends on the school. At my school I don't think it was required, but if you did live on campus, freshmen (or "frosh") were not allowed to have a car. You could live on campus all four years if you wanted/could afford it, or off-campus at any time as far as I know.

I switched dorms, but you don't have to. Much of that depends on availability and such, and I think one dorm was more dedicated to freshman, so after that year, those students would be relocated. You can also request a change.

Not sure about athletes but I'd imagine most just stay in regular dorms. There might be off-campus houses were students on a team rent together, but my college didn't have just a dorm for any team. For one thing, dorms hold a couple hundred students (I'm guessing) and a team wouldn't be anywhere near that.

 

[YDB95]

I went to a small college in the Midwest with no fraternities or sororities, but plenty of drinking...

1. I know a lot of 'partying' goes on at college. Who usually hosts these parties? I know some are frat parties at frat houses, but I assume this is only a small proportion. Do dorms arrange their own parties? Societies?

We had a rec center on campus with a big auditorium where there was a huge party every Friday and Saturday (unless there was some other special event like a concert). The hosts could be the residents of a given dorm, or a campus group such as a sports team (this was Division III, sports weren't taken all that seriously) or a political activist group, etc. Since we couldn't spend college funds on alcohol, the way it worked was that the people in charge of the party would go around campus asking people for their spare change, and then pool it to buy the beer. Sometimes dorms also had parties in their lounges - anyone was welcome to turn up, but people who didn't live there might be asked for beer money at the door.

2. I assume most parties have alcohol at them to some extent. Do the university allow alcohol at parties situated on campus (in dorms for example)? Do they turn a blind eye to it? Or do all parties where there is alcohol need to be situated off campus and if so where?

My college definitely turned a blind eye to it. It was officially a dry campus, and I'm sure the administration knew what was really going on but looked the other way. Speaking of off-campus, though, there were also parties there of course.

3. Do only first year students stay in dorms or are they open to students in all years? If the latter will students usually stay in the same dorm for their whole time at college or would they switch every year?

Depends entirely on the school. At small colleges like mine, a lot of people lived on campus all four years (I did). In many cases you're required to live on campus for the first two years unless you have some medical reason not to. Rooms were assigned by a draw with a lottery: the person with the highest number could choose any room on campus (with the exception that some floors were single-sex). You didn't have to stay in the same dorm all four years when I was there, but at other schools (like the one where I did my master's degree) you were stuck with whichever dorm you'd started out in.

In my experience, people who go to big state universities often move off campus as soon as possible. A rule of thumb is the smaller the school, the likelier a given student is to stay on campus all four years.

4. Do members of sports teams just stay in dorms with regular students or do they have their own special dorms?

Again, sometimes yes, sometimes no. At my college they tended to congregate in a couple of particular dorms (nearest the physical education building), but that was by choice. At bigger universities where athletics are big business, I imagine it's different but I have no firsthand experience.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

If so I could kind of use your help. I am currently writing a story set in an American college. I went to college, but in the UK where it is a bit different. The main difference is that here the alcohol age limit is 18 meaning that all students can legally drink and the university has no problem with them doing so. I'm sure there are other differences too, so if you could answer these specific questions that would be great.

1. I know a lot of 'partying' goes on at college. Who usually hosts these parties? I know some are frat parties at frat houses, but I assume this is only a small proportion. Do dorms arrange their own parties? Societies?

2. I assume most parties have alcohol at them to some extent. Do the university allow alcohol at parties situated on campus (in dorms for example)? Do they turn a blind eye to it? Or do all parties where there is alcohol need to be situated off campus and if so where?

3. Do only first year students stay in dorms or are they open to students in all years? If the latter will students usually stay in the same dorm for their whole time at college or would they switch every year?

4. Do members of sports teams just stay in dorms with regular students or do they have their own special dorms?


That will do for now. Thanks in advance to anyone who can give some insight.

As others have already stated, the answers vary depending on the school and the era. You will probably get enough of a variety in the answers to suit whatever your story may require. Some things remain fairly constant, however.

1. Parties can be hosted by Greek organizations; private individuals in apartments or houses; dorms--either by floor or wing, or by the entire dorm; or campus groups or organizations; or sometimes even by non-campus organizations looking to make a splash on campus.

2. In my experience, the university mostly turned a blind eye to on campus drinking. During homecoming week, one Frat even hosted the "beer olympics," on their property adjacent to a dorm. Most of the bars around the campus were also rather lax about enforcing the drinking age. Only the liquor stores were sticklers for valid IDs.

3. Dorm residency policies vary depending mostly on the availability and demand for on-campus housing. Many--but not all--schools require freshman to live in a dorm. Some even require it of sophomores. Beyond that, there are few requirements and most upper classmen choose to live in private housing. As far as switching, that is usually done to move to a dorm closer to one's classes, or to room with someone in a different dorm.

4. I'm pretty sure that NCAA regulations prohibit special dorms for athletes. They would be seen as a special benefit not available to regular students. Most schools do house their athletic teams in dorms, at least for the first year, and they tend to group them together by sport. But these are ordinary dorms, open to all students.

I'll never forget the day my girlfriend and I were moving into the dorm as freshman. She was a little thing, around 5'2" and 100 lbs. Just as the elevator door was closing, a massive hand reached in and stopped it. Three offensive lineman from the football team stepped inside. They were each over 6'6" and 300 lbs. They seemed to block out all the light, and suck up all the air. She was on the last floor, so it was a long, dark, dismal ride.

 

[SevenSquared]

Thanks everyone for your help so far. It sounds like there are a wide range of policies out there, which is great because I can pick and choose the ones which fit my story best. One last question if people don't mind.

5. What is the typical size of dorms and how are they arranged? Sofla talked about 'floors' and 'wings', is this a typical arrangement? If so how many students would be in each, or can it really be any number?

 

[uberundunter]

I was the chief of police at a large private (non-profit, but independent from our state funded university system). We were instructed to look the other way, unless student engaged in some other form of illegal behavior (e.g. operated a motor vehicle under the influence, became violent, etc.) or there was a imminent threat to the student's health or safety. If a student drove a car under the influence or became violent or destructive, they were arrested and transported to the county jail. If a student was dangerously intoxicated, but refused medical assistance, he or she might be placed under arrest, as there otherwise was no way to assure the student's condition could be monitored.

In our case, alcohol was not served in the dorms, but beer sometimes was served at functions (concerts, etc.) to students who provided proof that they were of legal age (They would be issued an wrist band in whatever color had been decided upon immediately prior to the even...some of the fraternities maintained an inventory of wrist bands and would send "scouts" to discover which color was being issued for the particular occasion. Also, there were students who operated profitable businesses in creating phony drivers licenses, but that was before most states begin using holographic markings.).

Although the administration eventually changed its policies (after a death and several near deaths), there were several years when, during certain occasions, things got so out of hand that there were, literally, thousands of intoxicated young people staggering around Fraternity Row, who refused to clear the street even to allow ambulances through (to rescue comatose students). In a couple of cases, drunken students surrounded police officers who were trying to revive kids who'd passed out on the lawns in front of fraternity houses, a demanded that the police leave. Another time, things got so bad inside a fraternity house (bottle rocket fight inside the house, large screen TVs smashed, egg fights inside the house, etc.) that the previously reticent school officials requested that our tactical team invade and occupy the house, lest it be burned to the ground or otherwise destroyed. Ah, sweet days of youth!

As far as dorms, at our school, most freshmen lived in dorms, but there were separate dorms non-freshmen, and still other housing for grad students. Some dorms were better than others, and assignments were based on seniority. Hence, most students would change dorms each year, at least until they were assigned to one of the better dorms (usually, that was in their junior year), in which case they might choose to remain there for the next year(s). Of course, many students moved off-campus after their freshman year.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Thanks everyone for your help so far. It sounds like there are a wide range of policies out there, which is great because I can pick and choose the ones which fit my story best. One last question if people don't mind.

5. What is the typical size of dorms and how are they arranged? Sofla talked about 'floors' and 'wings', is this a typical arrangement? If so how many students would be in each, or can it really be any number?

At my school the dorms ranged in size from around 450 students to over 1200. Approximately 75% of the rooms were doubles (2 students), and I estimate the size around 12' x 14'. About 20% of the rooms were singles, and these were smaller (10' x 12'). The remaining 5% were three or four person suites, consisting of two 12' x 14' rooms connected by an open doorway.

The buildings were 4-8 stories high. I know some schools have dorm buildings as high as 12 (University of Miami) and 22 stories (University of Massachusetts).

The dorms were organized into smaller units of approximately 20 rooms each. These were called "wings", and identified by floor and location (e.g., 3 East). Each wing had an upper classmen called the Resident Adviser (RA) who had a leadership/supervisor role (in return for free housing).

Finally, there was one all women's dorm; the rest were coed. In the coed dorms, most of the wings were unisex, but some were coed as well.

That's my experience. I'm sure others will describe something completely different. I would suggest that once you choose a paradigm that fits your story, you should get the remaining details from the person providing it so that your story is internally consistent. Good luck.

 

[sr71plt]

Part of it depends upon the school, some are more strict about it than others, some take it as part of the college experience and some are horrified at it. This past year the University of Virginia was named the number one party school in the US and they were very upset with this.

It was the number one party school when I went there too, but as far as I know, alcohol has always been prohibited in all but the designated "event" locations for specific events (i.e., the Colonade Club and formal dinners and cocktail parties elsewhere). Parties were off grounds (which is what the campus is called at UVa). Fraternity parties were wild in my day. Less so now. But the alcholol flows there. Most everyone lives off grounds after the first year, so parties are held in apartments and houses all over the place (as I can attest, as I live three blocks from the graduate area now).

And in my day, much of the partying was done on the road, as UVa was a men's school and you had to go to one of the women's schools to really party. On home-event weekends, the motels were the place to be if not the fraternity houses.

 

[PennLady]

5. What is the typical size of dorms and how are they arranged? Sofla talked about 'floors' and 'wings', is this a typical arrangement? If so how many students would be in each, or can it really be any number?

I don't know if there's a typical.

For example, I lived in two dorms which were basically rectangles divided in half. If you entered via the center door, you went right or left for your hall. However, there were other dorms that looked a bit like castles, with wings, and others that were kind of U-shaped, or better to say three sides of a rectangle or square. Our dorms also had lounges on the ground floors that had common rooms for watching TV, and kitchenettes. The newer dorms tended to be boxier. I don't think anything was higher than five floors. My dorm was four. Also these dorms did not have elevators.

One exception was a 8 or 10-story apartment building almost off-campus, which did have an elevator and I think its own cafeteria b/c of the distance from the rest of the campus buildings. Oh, and another thing my school had was a set of apartments on campus, which I think were reserved mostly for upperclassmen -- juniors and seniors. They were just in a group and each had a ground-level entrance.

So you can see even one school can have a lot of variation.

I'm not sure if this would play into your story but you might want to consider security. The year before I started at my college, a girl was killed in one of the dorms. A few things contributed to the killer's access -- dorm doors were propped open, and the girl's room was unlocked b/c her roommate had lost her key and not replaced it. After that security became tighter. Doors were always locked, I think alarms were put in place in case a door was propped open, things like that. Security may be even tighter nowadays. I used a key to get in, but now they may have key cards like hotels. Like everything else, it would depend on the school.

 

[JagFarlane]

I've gotten to visit friends at various schools dorms over the years and as Penn Lady pointed out, they're as varied as the liquor policies.

I've seen where one school would have two students in a small room with two beds, two desks, a small fridge, and a small bathroom with shower. Another school the students had individual rooms but the bathroom was a large shared area with public showers and the kitchen area was shared as well with a bunch of ranges/stoves. Another dorm was a central living room and kitchen with four small individual rooms that led into the main room. Keys were all slowly moving from regular keys to key cards as the school can then pull times for the cards being swiped and the key cards are a lot easier to replace when a student loses one.

The trend seems to be dorms becoming co-ed. Some older buildings are still in use, some don't have central A/C and prohibit window A/C units so it can get interesting during heat waves. Some buildings are brand new and universities have taken to making them fairly lavish to attract students, though I seem to recall one out west was designed more to be very low power use with solar panels on top providing the bulk of the power in order to attract more environmentally minded students.

 

[RuzieD]

Hey...

I am actually reading a book called "Inside Greek U" that talks about the frat/Sorority culture. Very enlightening and accurate.

I went to two private schools in the US (one undergrad, then grad). One had stricter alcohol consumption policies than the other. At my undergrad, it would be r re to find alcohol in the dorms, but once you got onto the apartments it was much more common. Additionally, there was an apartment complex right next our campus (now owned by the campus) which was populated entirely by students. We had an end of the year party there. Even the security guard was drinking with us.

21 year age gap doesn't really stop anyone. There's always a friend, older sibling, upperclassmen etc who will buy the booze. The tricky part is if you go out to club or bar. My younger sister used to use a fake ID when she attended a state college.

There's also difference between west coast and east coast colleges. There is also a difference between frat culture and hipster college students. I could go on, and I will, but right now I got to go to work.

 

[SevenSquared]

Thanks for all the replies, they are all really helpful.

Just to fill you in on some of the details, the story is going to be about four guys who live in a dorm at college and their escapades to score with various girls who also live in the same dorm (co-ed dorms sound fairly normal - check). The story will be told from each of their four perspectives in turn and will mostly center around two social events, one midweek and then one larger one the following weekend.

It's important that the dorm is large enough to contain a reasonable 'pool' of people, but not so large that the characters wouldn't know nearly everyone in the dorm (at least by sight if not by name). I was hoping something like 80 people (roughly evenly split male/female) might be realistic? Anything from 60 to 120 might work though.

The larger social event definitely needs alcohol to be present (it's integral to the plot) and it would also be a decent minor plot device for the smaller event too, although I could easily write around that. For both events it needs to be at least credible that a large number of the dorm would be there. The larger event would need to have either a DJ, or a host, or someone else who would have the ability to quieten down the whole room at some point.

I was thinking for the smaller event maybe a dorm party, although this might stretch credibility as I assume these wouldn't be popular midweek. The larger event would need to be in a bigger venue I think. YDB95 mentioned that his college had a rec center where parties were often held. Is this a common thing? If so it could be perfect.

 

[JagFarlane]

Thirsty Thursday, most college courses I've had were Monday through Thursday so Thursday night was and at least with the universities I've been around still is a huge party night.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

This will be my personal college experience, as a current sophomore living in a dorm.

1. A lot of partying goes on, but while I cannot speak for the frat houses, I know that a lot of it happens in the dorms. If you are lucky, you have a friend that lives in one of the nearby apartments or townhouses. Most of my 'parties' are just a small group of friends drinking in a dorm room, watching movies. The only two 'legitimate' parties I've been at, were one at a lakehouse (to celebrate a friend of a friend's birthday) and the other at a friend's house. Her grandparents go to Arizona in the winter, so we went in, turned on the heat, and smoked a bong in the living room.

2. My school gets tax breaks for being alcohol and tobacco free. There really isn't anything they can do if you are getting drunk in the dorms, because security only shows up for noise complaints or fights. So if you are quiet, and you don't flaunt it, you can get away with a lot. Smoking pot is a lot harder because campus security makes frequent sweeps of all of the areas near the woods. If you get caught drunk or stoned, you get a campus citation (which does not go on your record) and you go on campus parole. A certain number of citations makes you eligible for suspension. You CAN get a permanent citation for having weed or paraphernalia on you.

3. Almost 65% (or near enough) of the students at my school live off-campus. Freshman will generally stay in dorms the first year, with a large amount going to live off campus the second year. There are a few upperclassmen, I've met a guy who went here for ten years and is still in his dorm room. The 'super-seniors' tend to get roomed together, but otherwise, a junior can end up with a freshman.

4. I honestly do not know.

Hope this helped, remember, this is my personal experience at my school.

 

[PennLady]

Thanks for all the replies, they are all really helpful.

Just to fill you in on some of the details, the story is going to be about four guys who live in a dorm at college and their escapades to score with various girls who also live in the same dorm (co-ed dorms sound fairly normal - check). The story will be told from each of their four perspectives in turn and will mostly center around two social events, one midweek and then one larger one the following weekend.

I think you could easily customize your college, so to speak. Co-ed dorms are the norm, I think, and some are even co-ed on the same floor; I think at least one dorm was like that at my school. There was also what we called "special interest group" housing -- small houses just off the main campus that were co-ed. I remember one was the "Umoja" house, primarily for black students, but there were others. I can't remember the groups, though.

I knew very few people in my dorm, but again, that's a personal experience. And as C2BK said, if you don't flaunt breaking rules, you can get away with breaking quite a few, I'd imagine. I remember one year, one girl across the hall from me had a rabbit in a hutch. Another girl on the hall used to lock herself in during fire drills b/c she had two or three pets. Yet another had a ferret, and I think another a bird. Pets were against the rules, of course. I think the RA just let it slide.

I don't recall much if any drinking in my dorm, but I'm sure it went on. I think most of the drinking took place at the frat parties, though.

 

[SevenSquared]

I think you could easily customize your college, so to speak. Co-ed dorms are the norm, I think, and some are even co-ed on the same floor;

That's another difference form the UK, here nearly every floor is co-ed in all the universities I have been to. The only exceptions at my uni were the ground floor rooms on certain parts of campus were all male for security reasons and there was one dorm complex that was segregated for people that specifically requested a single-sex dorm (we nicknamed it 'Muslim House').

 

[PennLady]

That's another difference form the UK, here nearly every floor is co-ed in all the universities I have been to. The only exceptions at my uni were the ground floor rooms on certain parts of campus were all male for security reasons and there was one dorm complex that was segregated for people that specifically requested a single-sex dorm (we nicknamed it 'Muslim House').

At the time I attended, my college also did not have women on the first floor of a dorm. Although since my school was on the side of a mountain, and some doors had entrances on different floors, that must have been interesting planning.

Will your main characters be American? Or British attending an American school? I ask b/c there are phrases that would be different. For example, Americans "go to college," no matter whether the school is a college or a university (and there is a difference, slight though it is). We wouldn't say, "when I was at university..."

Just a thought.

 

[sr71plt]

We wouldn't say, "when I was at university..."

I think this must vary. We did/do say "when I was at the University," where I went--and we even cap "University," Because Thomas Jefferson did, and it's his school. (And, yes, we often did it tongue in cheek.)

 

[Cruel2BKind]

That's another difference form the UK, here nearly every floor is co-ed in all the universities I have been to. The only exceptions at my uni were the ground floor rooms on certain parts of campus were all male for security reasons and there was one dorm complex that was segregated for people that specifically requested a single-sex dorm (we nicknamed it 'Muslim House').

There are a few all-male and all-female colleges, but mine is sort of a hodge-podge.

Most of the halls (we have four dorm buildings, McElroy, Preska, Crawford, and Julia Sears, each of them have four or five halls each) have two male floors and two female floors. Julia sears is the 'fancy' dorm with all of the suites, and the suite floors are coed. I live in the only hall at McElroy that is Coed. And there is one hall in Preska that is Coed. So it really just varies.

I know you didn't ask about bathroom layout, but if you are talking about four guys who know each other, one way you could do it is how my school does it at Julia sears. The dorms are twice as large as the other dorms, and instead of having to share a bathroom with the entire floor, each two dorms has a bathroom and shower in a little connecting hallway between. So every four people share a bathroom and a hall between their rooms.

Cool way to have your characters meet.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

At the time I attended, my college also did not have women on the first floor of a dorm. Although since my school was on the side of a mountain, and some doors had entrances on different floors, that must have been interesting planning.

Will your main characters be American? Or British attending an American school? I ask b/c there are phrases that would be different. For example, Americans "go to college," no matter whether the school is a college or a university (and there is a difference, slight though it is). We wouldn't say, "when I was at university..."

Just a thought.

We just use the name of the school. So they could say 'Back at St. Thomas' Or 'Back at the U'

Oh yeah, SS, if you have them going to 'University of ____' They will always refer to it as 'the U' and expect you to know which college it is depending on which state they're in.

 

[PennLady]

We just use the name of the school. So they could say 'Back at St. Thomas' Or 'Back at the U'

Oh yeah, SS, if you have them going to 'University of ____' They will always refer to it as 'the U' and expect you to know which college it is depending on which state they're in.

Well, sure, you can always use the names. But you don't always, and not everyone would recognize the name. If you go to some of the big schools that go by initials or whatever, that's fine. Most people wouldn't recognize mine, I don't think, although it's well known in its own region. It would depend on who you're talking to.

I mean, if I'm talking to my SIL, I might say, oh, when I was in college I had this teacher blah blah blah. I think she knows by this time where I went for undergrad but I'd probably keep it general most times. I would use the undergrad school's name if I wanted to distinguish it from where I went to grad school or something like that.

My larger point was that if his characters are Americans at an American school, they won't say things like "uni," or "I went to university," or (probably) "I live in a flat off-campus."

And I'd have to disagree about "the U." I went to Lehigh University, and now and at the time, we referred to it as Lehigh. My brother went to University of Maryland, and to my knowledge, people say they went to UMD or to Maryland. I've had relatives to went to Rutgers University, and they refer to it as Rutgers. James Madison University is referred to as JMU, again to my knowledge. It could be a regional thing, but I wouldn't apply it in general.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

Well, sure, you can always use the names. But you don't always, and not everyone would recognize the name. If you go to some of the big schools that go by initials or whatever, that's fine. Most people wouldn't recognize mine, I don't think, although it's well known in its own region. It would depend on who you're talking to.

I mean, if I'm talking to my SIL, I might say, oh, when I was in college I had this teacher blah blah blah. I think she knows by this time where I went for undergrad but I'd probably keep it general most times. I would use the undergrad school's name if I wanted to distinguish it from where I went to grad school or something like that.

My larger point was that if his characters are Americans at an American school, they won't say things like "uni," or "I went to university," or (probably) "I live in a flat off-campus."

And I'd have to disagree about "the U." I went to Lehigh University, and now and at the time, we referred to it as Lehigh. My brother went to University of Maryland, and to my knowledge, people say they went to UMD or to Maryland. I've had relatives to went to Rutgers University, and they refer to it as Rutgers. James Madison University is referred to as JMU, again to my knowledge. It could be a regional thing, but I wouldn't apply it in general.

Again, personal experience. My friend goes to University of Minnesota, and she calls it 'the U'. My dad went to University of Duluth, and he called it 'U of D' My cousin goes to University of Colorado, she does the same thing.

 

[PennLady]

Again, personal experience. My friend goes to University of Minnesota, and she calls it 'the U'. My dad went to University of Duluth, and he called it 'U of D' My cousin goes to University of Colorado, she does the same thing.

Your cousin calls University of Colorado "U of D?"

Kidding. My point more was that you made a somewhat blanket statement about referring to a college or university as "the U." This wouldn't work for a lot of schools, especially (obviously) those that are not universities. It's a regional thing, obviously, and that's fine. It's the kind of thing you'd need to set up in your story, and it wouldn't be hard, especially if your school is fictional.

I imagine it could also be because some places -- like PA, where I am -- have too many universities for any one to be called "the U."