College Traditions

As most seniors are beginning to narrow down their choices for college, the traditions at these colleges factor in to their decisions. For example, at the University of Pennsylvania, toast is thrown onto the field by fans at the end of every third quarter during football games. That adds up to around 25,000 pieces of toast being thrown by all the fans within reach of the field. Penn State also holds an interesting tradition that some call the “Danceathon”. At this event, students cannot sit down or sleep for forty-six hours straight. All this time is spent in the same gym or area depending on how many people participate for a certain amount of time. Perhaps the coolest of college traditions, North Carolina State offers a Krispy Kreme Challenge to its students. In this challenge, participants run two and a half miles to Krispy Kreme Donut shop, eat twelve donuts, and run two and a half miles back. All of this has to be done in under an hour to pass the challenge. As you can imagine, it’s a lot harder making it back due to the 12 giant donuts in your stomach on top of the two and a half miles already ran. Most people know MIT for attracting some of the best students in the nation, but it also has another hidden secret. This secret is called the pumpkin drop and takes place at a two hundred ninety-five feet tall building on campus. People pay to bring pumpkins up and drop them almost 300 ft onto the pavement in front of the building. You can also gather at the base of the building outside the drop zone and watch the pumpkins break open at the bottom. There are many other unique traditions taking place at colleges throughout the nation, but these few are some of the best and biggest traditions that help students understand the atmospheres surrounding their favorite colleges.