Admit it. At 11 years old, you were probably secretly waiting for an owl to drop a letter off at your door, allowing you to be whisked away to the one boarding school we all wanted to attend: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although that dream never came true (I’m still convinced my letter never came because of a particularly unreliable owl), college is pretty much the next best thing. Here are seven ways that UF’s campus resembles our favorite fictional school:
1. The Quidditch Pitch is like: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Like at Hogwarts, the stadium is where students assemble for some good-natured rivalry and competition. However, while Hogwarts remains stiffly divided on its house loyalties at its Quidditch matches, the Gators come together at sporting events under the common colors of orange and blue.
2. The Potions classroom is like: Chemistry Lab Like the students at Hogwarts in potion class, we, too, must nervously sweat over flames and strangely labeled containers of substances that we should know the properties of but really don’t. Similar to the potion class at our favorite fictional school, incorrectly combining the wrong ingredients could pose a potentially explosive predicament. If only chemistry came as easy to us as potions did to the Half-Blood Prince…
3. The Hospital Wing is like: the Student Health Care Center Like Madam Pomfrey helps the students at Hogwarts, the Student Health Care Center in the Infirmary building has your back. While injuries at UF may be just as serious as the ones suffered by Hogwarts students — I’m sure bike accidents are comparable to a Quidditch practice injury — we thankfully don’t have to down a whole bottle of Skele-Gro to recover.
4. The Great Hall is like: the Reitz Union Like the gorgeously decorated Great Hall, used for meals, studying, student assemblies, and recreational events like the Yule Ball, the Reitz Union is similarly the hub of student activity at UF. While UF students chow down on Panda Express bowls instead of Treacle Tart, the Reitz is still the one place that pretty much all UF students visit regularly, like the Great Hall for Hogwarts students.
5. Hogsmeade is like: Midtown Like Hogwarts students looking for a break from their campus, Midtown is favored by UF students looking for a chance to escape the grind of schoolwork. While UF students don’t need to wait for specified weekends or need a parent’s signature to leave campus, we still have a lot in common with our Hogwarts counterparts. UF students’ favorite drink is Butterbeer, too — sans the butter.
6. The Black Lake and Forbidden Forest are like: Lake Alice and the Conservation Area Just like the Black Lake and Forbidden Forest, UF also has its share of wild animals. Instead of unicorns, centaurs, and giant spiders, our wildlife constitutes of mostly alligators and bats. Similar to the Forbidden Forest, Lake Alice may also have a hint of the supernatural, too… There’s a 1,000-year-old burial mound constructed by the Alachua Native Americans in the near vicinity. Keep that in mind next time you decide to venture out to the lake.
7. The Room of Requirement is like: any class in Turlington This is only because it’s always nearly impossible to find the darned thing. Turlington notoriously lives up to its reputation of being one of the most difficult buildings on campus to figure out. I’m also convinced that, like Hogwarts, the staircases in this building shift when we’re not looking. What else explains why I need to discover a new route to my class every single week?
So, collegiettes™, and fellow Harry Potter fans, maybe it’s finally time to let go of the disappointment of a misplaced Hogwarts acceptance letter. College pretty much covers all of the bases as Hogwarts — other than flying brooms, lucky potions, Honeydukes candy, and spellbinding acts of magic and wonder, that is.
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