Fun Facts about Colleges in America!

By Maria Andreina FernandezLast updated on August 28, 2024

When it comes to conversations about college, we usually focus on admission and acceptance rates, cost of attendance, majors, student loans and other serious topics. We thought it’s time to switch things up a little and explore some fun facts about colleges in America.

Reading those these facts can be more than just a way to pass time. You never know when you may be able to impress a classmate or professor with an interesting college fact that they had never heard of before!

31 Fun Facts About US Colleges

Here are some fun facts about colleges, college terminology, colleges histories, and college graduates in America.

  1. Clemson stadium with thousands of people cheering for a football game.

    Flickr user Sagar Puro

    What better way to get started than with the origin of the term ‘college’. College is derived from the Latin word ‘collegium’, which can be literally translated to ‘society’. It was first used to refer to any association that acted as a legal body in ancient Rome.

  2. ‘University’ is the shortened version of the Latin term ‘universitas magistrorum et scholarium’, which can be roughly translated to ‘community of teachers and scholars’. It refers to any institution of higher learning and typically offers undergraduate as well as postgraduate degrees.
  3. The name “Alumni” comes from the Latin “Alumnus” which is literally translated to “foster son” but is adapted to mean a pupil or student.
  4. “Alma mater” is derived from the Latin meaning “nurturing mother.”
  5. The 5 oldest universities in the US are Harvard (1636), William and Mary 1693, St. John’s College, Annapolis/Santa Fe (1696), Yale (1701), University of Pennsylvania (1740).
  6. Football is among the most popular college team sport but do you know where and when the first game was played and between which two colleges? The very first football game between two different colleges took place in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in November of 1869. Princeton played Rutgers and Rutgers won the game 6-4. Even the rules of the game were different from today.
  7. Phi Beta Kappa is the first academic honor society to bear a Greek letter name. Founded by 5 students at the College of William and Mary in 1776, it is now the largest college society with 293 chapters at U.S. colleges and institutions and 50 active alumni associations around the country.
  8. The first Greek sorority, now known as Alpha Delta Pi, is the oldest secret society for women. It was founded on May 15, 1851 at Wesleyan Female College and is a member of the National Panhellenic Conference, an umbrella organization that provides resources and guidelines for women’s sororities throughout the nation.
  9. Harvard holds the record for having the largest academic library in the world with more than 7 million volumes in its collection. Opened in 1915, Widener Library is an impressive structure with two main floors in addition to study spaces and an incredible 5 stories of underground book stacks. The library has a total shelf space measuring 57 miles capable of holding more than 3 million volumes. The other volumes are stored in the underground book stacks.
  10. Widener Library was founded in 1915 as The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library. Harry Elkins, who graduated from Harvard in 1907, started collecting books with the aim of donating his entire collection to Harvard. When he passed away on that fateful Titanic voyage, his mother built the library as a gift to her son Harry. And yes, Widener Library still has Harry’s book collection on display till today.
  11. As the oldest college in America, Harvard has notched up several firsts. Among them is Harvard Stadium. Completed in 1904, Harvard is the first college football stadium constructed in the distinctive style of a U-shaped Colosseum. It is also documented as the first structure that used reinforced cost-in-place concrete on a scale such as this. In 1987, Harvard Stadium earned its much-deserved status as a National Historic Landmark.
  12. The Skull and Bones is among the most famous secret societies in the U.S. Founded by 5 Yale students, it is also Yale’s most prestigious senior society. Its members include former presidents George H.W. Bush, his son George W. Bush, and William Howard Taft.
  13. As of 2021, there were a total of 5,916 postsecondary Title IV institutions in the country. Interestingly, this is less than the total of 7,021 in 2011.
  14. Columbia University used to be known as the King’s College.
  15. And Brown University was initially founded as Rhode Island College in the Spring of 1764. When it was established, it was only the 3rd college in New England and only the 7th in the United States.
  16. Here’s another interesting fact about Brown University. When it opened and for its entire first year, the University had only one student, William Rogers. Just 14 years old when he enrolled, William graduated from then Rhode Island College in 1769 and later served as the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
  17. The five American colleges with the lowest acceptance rates are Harvard University(3.0%), California Institute of Technology(3.3%), Stanford University(4.0%), Minerva University (4.0%), and Columbia University (4.3%).
  18. Before its drop to 3rd place, Minerva University topped the list of low-acceptance colleges with an acceptance rate of 1%.
  19. The five American colleges with the highest acceptance rates are Arkansas Tech University (96.5%), University of North Alabama (96.3%), University of Nevada Las Vegas (96.3%), Nicholls State University (96.2%), and Alabama State University (96%). They are all public schools.
  20. The Ivy League is made up of eight prestigious private universities: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University.
  21. In the fall of 2014, 55% of undergraduate students enrolled at 4-year colleges in America were female. By contrast, in the fall of 2021 58% of undergraduate students were female.
  22. Harvard University has the highest number of Division I intercollegiate varsity teams with a total of 42. This is in addition to several other club and intramural sports and recreational activities. Over 80% of Harvard students participate in some athletics event.
  23. 14 of the 25 largest sports stadiums in the world belong to American college football teams. Michigan Stadium, the stadium for the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, has a capacity of 107,601, making it the largest in America, and the 3rd largest in the world. Not surprisingly, it has earned the nickname ‘The Big House.’
  24. Beaver Stadium of State College Pennsylvania, is the second-largest stadium in the United States, with a capacity of 106,572.
  25. The Kalamazoo Promise is a foundation of anonymous donors that pay for the college education of students who graduate high school in Kalamazoo, MI. This foundation was established in 2005 to cover the cost of college tuition and help children pursue their ambitions and reach their goals.
  26. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor has an interesting organization known as The Squirrel Club. It has over 400 members made up of students, alumni, and members of the community. So what exactly does this club do? They get together every Sunday during fall and winter semesters to, guess what – feed squirrels. They raise funds to buy peanuts through selling T-shirts. Non club members are also welcome to join them on these squirrel-feeding expeditions.
  27. As of 2024, there are 30 women’s colleges in the country that are active, down from about 281 all-female colleges around the 1960s.
  28. There are 62 all-male colleges in the country. Wabash College, Morehouse College, and Hampden Sydney College, and Saint John’s University are just a few of the 4-year all-male institutions.
  29. Oberlin College is on record as being the first college to graduate women. Mary Caroline Rudd, Mary Hosford, and Elizabeth Prall were the first three women to graduate from this school with AB degrees in 1841.
  30. Oberlin College was also the first college in America to graduate an African-American woman. Mary Jane Patterson graduated from Oberlin College in 1862, going down in history as the first African-American woman to earn an undergraduate degree from an American college.
  31. There have been many celebrity commencement speakers over the years. One of the most interesting, however, was Kermit the Frog who spoke at Southampton College in 1996.

Find “Fun” Colleges that Fit Your Needs

While you may not use these fun facts to choose a college, they are, well, fun to know!

If you are looking for colleges, the best resource to use is College Raptor’s College Match Tool. This FREE tool makes it easy discover individualized college matches, personalized net price estimates, acceptance odds, and potential financial aid at schools around the country.

By Maria Andreina Fernandez
Maria Andreina is a Corporate Communication student at the University of Houston in Texas. She first started writing in her sophomore year for her high school’s newspaper.

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