The Most Spirited Colleges

Which colleges show the most school spirit?

Do you plan on painting your school colors on your entire body for football games? How about cheering on your Division I basketball team? School spirit can be a great way to make friends at college and form lasting bonds with your peers.

While measuring college spirit can be subjective, there is some data out there to make informed choices about the schools with the most college pride.

Most schools with the biggest college spirit are schools with a lot of students, strong athletics programs, extensive alumni networks and big rivalries.

While every school has its own brand of spirit, here’s a quick glance at some of the most spirited colleges in the country:

Ohio State University

OSU is one of the most populous college campuses in the United States with claim to the largest alumni network around. The Buckeyes have great academic programs and are one of only four universities to have won NCAA championships in football, basketball and baseball. The college’s sports fans are known as some of the craziest.

University of Michigan

You can’t mention Ohio State without Michigan. The key element in college pride is having someone to root against, and many consider the OSU-Michigan Rivalry as the greatest rivalry in the history of sports. You can’t go anywhere near Michigan without seeing maize and blue. Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize and Fields Medal winners have all graduated from the school, not to mention the world’s most successful swimmer Michael Phelps.

University of Southern California

One of the oldest private colleges in California and surely the most famous, USC is a haven for students with incredible school spirit. And what’s not to love? An incredible quality of education, 92 NCAA team championships, and a super-concentrated amount of movie stars, directors, producers and cinematographers from the USC film school all make up some of the reasons why USC students are proud to be Trojans.

University of California- Los Angeles

Another popular college rivalry – UCLA and USC are known for their fierce competition in every aspect of college life, and for the amazing and outlandish pranks that they play on each other. Tommy Trojan, the statue on USC campus has been painted blue and gold and even had manure dropped on it by helicopter (though USC fans will relish that most of the dung got swept back into the offending UCLA students’ faces). Students airlifting cow dung onto a rival team’s mascot is pretty spirited, by our standards.

Ivy League Schools

If you want to know about a group of students who love their schools, look no further than the Ivies. With tuition and acceptance rates being what they are nowadays, it’s a good thing they are dedicated to their schools. With a built-in rivalry amongst the league, and a list of academic honors second to no other group of colleges, Ivy League students are Ivy Leaguers for life.

Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winners, more U.S. presidents than you can probably name, CEOs, and even many foreign heads of state have studied and graduated from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Brown and Cornell.

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