Monday Trivia, No. 83

Florida, Idaho State, Kansas State, MIT, Maryland, Missouri, Missouri S&T, New Mexico, North Carolina State, The Ohio State University, Oregon State, Penn State, Purdue, Reed College, Rensselaer, Rhode Island, Texas, Texas A&M, UC Davis, UC Irvine, Utah, UMass-Lowell, Wisconsin, and Washington State are distinguished from other colleges and universities in the United States of America by what?

So far as I can tell, this list is comprehensive within the larger category of accredited institutions of higher education with principal campuses located within the United States offering four-year undergraduate degrees. However, Arizona, Illinois, Iowa State, Michigan, and Worcester Poly are “near misses.”


Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering litigator. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Recovering Former Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.

24 Comments

    • That might be it. I know someone who has a Nuc E degree from Illinois, but it doesn’t seem to be an option anymore. (and it looks like they decom’d their research rx sometime in the 00’s)

      • This.. Although I did find it by googling the 4 more obscure colleges. Is that cheating? If Tod got it off the top of his head, I’m so in awe, dude.

        • Yes, the judges here were looking for the actual nuclear reactors, not the academic programs supporting them. This looks like a TVD goal with a substantial assist from Tod.

          “Near miss” schools at one time had reactors but no longer do.

          • I was looking at Idaho State on this list and thinking that it was something I should have known. Of course they would be involved with INL and the nuke research going on there.

          • More ruining 🙂 Berkeley should have been on the list as a near misses; its reactor closed in 1988.

          • Was the reactors operated by Berkeley or by Lawrence Livermore? If the latter that would explain why Berkeley didn’t show up on my list. Also I believe UC Santa Barbara had a 5MW research reactor at one time which was relocated.

            Still. Why does Cal have to ruin everything?

          • As far as I know, it was run by the UCB nuclear engineering department. It was in Etcheverry Hall, on the north edge of campus, across the street from the all-night donut shop. (Back in the days when computer science students spent long hours punching and repunching cards to finish their assignments, 24-hour food places were a critical resource.)

            Why does Cal have to ruin everything?

            Everybody has to do their own thing, man.

  1. My next challenge will be figuring out why this appeared a day early. As yet a mystery to me.

  2. Obviously I’m late to the game, but seeing Tod’s answer (and then the exact correct one) led me to scan the list again for the school in my hometown (where my father has been on faculty forever) and lo, there it was.

    If I’d read the list more carefully and checked in sooner, I might even have had a shot at this one. DAMMIT!

  3. I might note that because of the computer timing snafu, this is the first Monday Triva I ever remember that was over before Monday.

    • I’m as narcissicistic as the next blogger but it’ll be a while until I have self-referential questions (Monday Metatrivia?).

    • Actually, and I’ll look this up when I get home, but I think this is the second consecutive time a Sunday-posted Monday Trivia was answered before Monday…

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