Welcome back to The Rival Rundown! If you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) at rivalrundown@collegecandy.com!
We’ve covered college rivalries centered around sports, location, tradition, gender (and many other factors), but what about academics? Besides endless keggers and lack of parental supervision social stimulation, isn’t an education the reason we came to school in the first place? That’s the way students at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) look at things. The two schools boast impressive faculty rosters, tirelessly motivated students, dozens of highly decorated alumni, and a fond affinity for pranks. Which school will most likely produce the discovery of a cure for cancer? Let’s assess the variables.
1. Provocative Pranks
Caltech – Though certainly not an athletics powerhouse, Caltech once made an appearance at the Rose Bowl. In what’s known as The Great Rose Bowl Hoax, in 1961 Caltech students designed a series of cards to be held up by spectators at the Rose Bowl (contested between Washington and Minnesota) to read “CALTECH.” And in the last decade, several Caltech students appeared at MIT’s campus preview weekend to hand out t-shirts reading “MIT” on the front…that when unwrapped were found to read “Because not everyone can go to Caltech” on the back. MIT -Excuse us – at MIT, they’re called “hacks,” not “pranks.” A popular one is finding another place to hide MIT’s unofficial acronymous slogan, IHTFP (“I Hate This Fucking Place”), which has been delicately placed everywhere from class rings to assemblies of giant letter cubes in campus lobbies. The most epic Caltech hack occurred when a bunch of MIT students disguised as movers removed a 1.7 ton cannon from the Pasadena campus and drove it all the way back to Cambridge.
Three credits to:Looks like Caltech is tops in this category, for originality and humor. Read More »
Welcome back to The Rival Rundown! If you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) at rivalrundown@collegecandy.com!
This week we hit up the West Coast as we examine the two hottest schools in Los Angeles- the University of Southern California and the University of California- Los Angeles. Amidst the beautiful SoCal climate and a city rife with movie sets and superstars, private USC and public UCLA compete to find out which is most elite in the City of Angels.
1. Superior Sport
USC – The Trojans are known as “the football school” and have been awarded the NCAA national title in football eleven times, including back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004. They are perennially ranked in the Top 10 football programs in the BCS by ESPN, USA Today, and other publications. And Trojans have taken home the Heisman Trophy seven times. UCLA - Meanwhile, the Bruins are known as powerhouses in basketball–also earning eleven NCAA titles. Seven of these championships were won consecutively, from 1967-1973. UCLA is also the all-time leader in total NCAA national titles across all sports.
Meanwhile, the Lexus Gauntlet is an annual all-sports competition between the two schools sponsored by Lexus. Points are awarded for every victory (particularly in head-to-head match ups) in NCAA-sanctioned competitions, with the school with the most points declared as the winner. (There is also a separate Lexus Gauntlet awarded to the winner of the Stanford-Berkeley rivalry.) In the eight years of Lexus Gauntlet tradition, USC has walked away with five titles.
Three credits to: TIE. The two schools pulled a draw in NCAA titles in their respective predominant sport. On the one hand, the Lexus Gauntlet record gives the Trojans the edge, but UCLA also has the most NCAA titles of any school. Too close to call!! Read More »
April Fool’s Day is just days away, which means there is little time to plan some much needed pranks. We’ve all got important things like midterms, meetings, internships, and beer pong tournaments to catch up on, but that’s no excuse. Everyone needs to let loose and plan at least a few good pranks, because it’s one of the few days of the year where we can act like a complete a-hole and get away with it.
Believe me, you will regret it if you don’t at least attempt something. Can’t come up with anything clever? Try these bad boys on for size…
iPhone Application Hit your friends where it hurts: their iPhones. Anyone who has one will agree that their phone embodies all that is awesome in this world. Lucky for you, Apple has easy to access applications that will put the fear of god into iPhone lovers everywhere. If the “cracked” application or “iFart mobile” don’t suit your fancy, try making your own.
Naked Hunks Mug This is a magical mug. You see, when you put hot liquid in the “Naked Hunks Mug” his itty-bitty banana hammock disappears. Really, its a treat for everyone involved. Read More »
In second grade, my Elementary School decided it would be cute to ring the warning bells every five minutes—you’re late for class… APRIL FOOLS’!
Middle School saw surprise pop quizzes—it’s worth 90% of your grade and you didn’t study—APRIL FOOLS’!!
High School? College? More of the same…
This morning, at midnight on April 1st, my boyfriend paused on the sidewalk, looked at me significantly, and said “Suzie, I’ve decided to go to Med School”—APRIL FOOLS’! (he’s applied to grad and law school so for a minute I was like… omg!– then I saw his smirk and was like… oh right… )
When I saw the Reuters article on pranks this year, however, I had to chuckle at the new heights of advertising that this day of strange glee has allowed two Australian companies to ascend:
Google Australia announced a new feature enabling one to search the Internet for future content, including sports results…
Australian airline Virgin Blue took out ad space in newspapers offering special “Stand Up fares” complete with complimentary calf massages for flights longer than two hours. Read More »
Now that fall semester is truly underway, we know that you’re all getting your party routines down and your alcohol tolerances up. But it’s a sad college reality that everyone has those nights once in a while where they wake up in a strange place, next to a strange person…probably covered in Sharpie.
No one likes being the first to pass out…but everyone loves documenting the poor fool who couldn’t make it past 12.
Check this video out and take notes…you should never have to scrub permanent marker off your ass on a Saturday morning. It’s just pathetic.