Most Surprising Facts About Colleges You Have Never Known
A college is a place where each person gets much more than just an education. And it is obvious as the word “college” is translated as “society”. Here people get a lot of opportunities, meet friends, soulmates, learn to coexist together and compromise. College helps many students find a life path.
Thanks to the movies, colleges are often associated with parties, and this is really true. According to statistics, almost every student visits about 60 parties every year. Sounds great, doesn’t it? You may wonder how they find time to have fun if nowadays students are overloaded with different writing assignments. However, most of them prefer to save time and energy and buy a term paper from 10pagepapers.
US Colleges Still Control the Gender Balance
Many of us are convinced that the quality of the education system depends largely on its funding. Therefore, people are elevating the US educational system to a pedestal, believing that a large number of investments make it the best. But this is not so. The American education system does not fall into the top ten on our planet on the quality of knowledge of students. However, this does not prevent it from remaining sufficiently interesting and cognitive.
In particular, not everyone knows that much attention in the US is paid to gender balance in universities and colleges. The US Civil Rights Commission annually monitors educational institutions to examine the number of male and female students enrolled in them. As soon as the number of one of the sexes exceeds 60% of the total number of students, the enrollment in colleges and universities of representatives of this sex is reduced.
Also, it is worth noting the fact that in the USA today there are more than 4 thousand colleges and universities, in which more than 15 million students study.
There are still many colleges, where girls and boys get education separately. If to compare the number of such colleges, then it should be admitted that there are more female colleges.
The US Educational System is the Most Expensive One
The cost of the education system in this country is 3% of the gross national product. By the way, this was not always so. During the crisis of the past centuries, American colleges and universities accepted food, cotton, tin and even sheep as education fees, which helped them to avoid complete bankruptcy.
And one more interesting fact is connected with the budget of Harvard University – one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Officially, the annual budget of this educational institution is 9 billion dollars, but this is not a cause for shock. As in 2010, the target capital of Harvard University, i.e. the fund, formed due to donations, amounted to 27.4 billion dollars. This exceeds the annual income of such countries as Latvia, Malta, and Cyprus taken all together!
Strange and Funny Facts About the Famous Colleges
- In the University of Oxford, it is allowed to cover the walls of colleges with graffiti but only if they are made in honor of the victory over teams from rival colleges in rowing competitions such as Torpedis or Summer G8. It is known that sometimes it was even necessary to build forests to create such wall drawings. The first regatta, won by the Oxford team, was held June 10, 1829, in Henley-on-Thames. Actor Hugh Laurie took part in a similar race in 1980, speaking for Cambridge, who at that time lost.
- One of the colleges of Lancaster University is called “Pendle” in honor of the infamous place of witch gatherings from medieval folklore. The college has a rather unusual emblem – the silhouette of a witch on the background of a yellow moon. The fantastic atmosphere is complemented by magical mushrooms, growing in abundance on the hill on which the campus is located.
- The famous jurist Jeremiah Bentham, in 1832, bequeathed his entire estate to University College London, provided that his body was preserved, dressed in the best clothes and put on a chair so that he could continue to participate in the annual meetings of the academic council. Although he died 181 years ago, according to legend, his mummy is still being carried out at meetings, and the record states that Bentham “is present, but does not vote”. The rest of the time the great thinker spends in a locker in one of the college corridors.
