rebellionkid comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 9 - Less Wrong
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Well, these days college intake is fairly mixed up among different personalities and backgrounds. Taking Cambridge, most people jokingly hates St John's and think Homerton are less intelligent. The rivalries probably stemmed from some historical background though.
But really, just grouping people randomly is enough for some hostility. We only don't actually hate each other because we have to work together sometimes.
A lot of the "hate" between colleges is perpetuated in the same way as most Cambridge traditions. Freshers read on wikipedia what Cambridge traditions are and then emulate them. There is belief in belief that people from St Johns are horrible but not much more.
Well, these traditions somehow propagated before the internet.
In 1993, when I matriculated at Caltech (whose House system Wikipedia claims is based on Cambridge's college system), we got a handbook (the little t) with all of the traditions in it.
That's pretty much the way Hogwarts works, right?