Sunday, October 04, 2026

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 4, 2026): Higher Education

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Oct 4, 2026): Higher Education
Q: Name two well-known colleges or universities from the same state. The last letter of one is the first letter of the other. Change each instance of this letter to the same new letter to get the names of two other well-known colleges or universities. What four schools are these?
I'm thinking of a rectangle.

Edit: The common letter in each pair are L and W (length and width) which multiply to give you the area of a rectangle.
A: DePaul/Lake Forest (in Illinois) --> DePauw/Wake Forest (in Indiana and North Carolina)

94 comments:

  1. I don't get Blaine's clue.
    But that's how it goes: each of us has to adapt ourself week to week.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice puzzle! Remove one letter from a college town name to get something connected to two of the school names.

    ReplyDelete
  3. From the first pair of colleges, take the one with the longer name. Remove a block of four letters. Rearrange. You get a food.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Check your social security number.

    ReplyDelete
  5. One of these might lead you to the Bible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or, today you could ask a Cardinal.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    3. OK, let’s try this instead: maybe the author attended one of these institutions?

      Delete
  6. For a couple of the schools, my dog sees a connection to last week’s puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can see a connection to a puzzle from a few months ago.

      Delete
    2. I think you caught my drift.

      Delete
    3. Snipper, I getting better at noticing details. ;)

      Delete
  7. My initial guess, with the "slippery" college or university, was mistaken. But now I do have the intended answer. But as for a hint...

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think I've got it. Then again, I did spend a year playing bass in the worlds largest rock band, long time ago.

    ReplyDelete
  9. In time for Halloween: a skeleton on the outside!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cole Porter comes to mind with this less-than-obvious collection of institutions

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice puzzle from Robbie Ellis! The two swapped letters suggest yet another well-known college or university.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have a friend who spent a year teaching at one of these schools. Because I kept referring to the wrong school when we spoke, the answer to today’s puzzle came to me quickly. (No hint here unless you happen to know my friend.)

    ReplyDelete
  13. I just figured out Blaine's clue. As usual, subtle and clever!

    ReplyDelete
  14. To continue with the basketball theme: Two of the schools contributed two NBA Hall of Famers, one of whom, a personal favorite, I got to see play in person in the NBA Finals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One of them is indeed all that and more. I'm so happy for you that you got to see him or her play.

      Delete
    2. On that theme, there's a bit of significant trivia that directly links two of the schools and which resulted in a contest still known in some quarters as the game that. . . . . . . . . . . .

      Delete
    3. Thanks, Ben. Seeing him or her play in the Finals was indeed a treat.

      And Cloak'n'Dagger, right you are. That game marked the end of an era.

      Delete
    4. Continuing on that theme, I posted mention of this Challenge on a sports board which I frequent. It's a discussion board for one of the four schools - if my guess is correct. We might get to see how much of a crossover there is between puzzlers and FANatics.

      Delete
  15. I got up and did this puzzle with my uncle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I woke up, like Wake Forest. I have an uncle named Paul, like DePaul.

      Delete
  16. I can't believe this week's winner would have officially won before, but she had a prior commitment and couldn't record it the next morning! I would've broken whatever else I had planned in order to do it. Good thing that didn't happen to me! I got to be on the air with the Puzzlemaster, and I'm glad to say I have won, if only just the once. Can't wait to get the call again, if lightning does strike twice for me later on, like(more than)a few other winners over the years!
    pjbSaysDon'tLetTheOpportunityToBeOnTheRadioSlipThroughYourFingersWhenYouGetTheCall...YouNeverKnowWhen(OrIf)You'llGetASecondChance!

    ReplyDelete
  17. My cousin went to one of these colleges, and a friend from grad school teaches at another. The other two are not familiar to me at all, although I recognize the name of one of them.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Something similar happened to me, too. I was called and played on the air. And then, about a year later, I was called again. I told the producer that – since I’d already played and had my lapel pin – if he wanted to I’d let him pass me by and give someone else a chance. He said he’d really appreciate that. So that’s what happened.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was on air in 2013, and again in 2017. Now whenever I send in a puzzle solution, my entry says on it that I need no further calls.

      Delete
    2. Especially not Rob-o calls! ;-)

      Delete
  19. For a couple of the schools’ team names, I’d provide a musical clue, but….(I did already)

    ReplyDelete
  20. I’m guessing that this puzzle might defeat many solvers

    ReplyDelete
  21. After a lot of searching on lists, I have the answer. It doesn't help that I've only heard of two of the four. No hint here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While searching, I came across an alternate answer. Considering that my alternate has three colleges/universities that I've heard of, I feel it is just as valid an answer.

      Delete
    2. Well don't feel down about that. You've heard twice as many as I.

      Delete
  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's an alternative answer that involves abbreviations and some cheating.

      Delete
    2. This may be the answer I first came up with that involved one college or university that I called "slippery."

      Delete
  23. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am with the large world globe on a stand in my living room. You would think they could get it right when they depict the countries and continents and islands on a sphere, but no! Such is not the case—at least not on my globe. With all the recent news re: Greenland, I thought I would take a look at my globe. Guess what I discovered. The idiots who made it show Greenland only a tiny fraction of the size of the country of Africa! I am shocked! I will go back to using the reliable Mercator projection rectangular world map created by Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. And they didn't even have AI back then.

    Why It Was Made
    flat wall map.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just think how big the penguins must be there! 😂

      Delete
    2. Penguins roam and reside from the Aunt Arctic all the weigh north to the Equator. Polar bears rarely cross below the Equator. I am unsure if that is because they are not bipolar, or do not want to suffer the humiliation of crossing below the Equator for their first time. I think even the largest penguins are a bit smaller than a typical polar bear. Anyway I believe it is a black and white issue.

      Delete
    3. Thank you for your Immaculate prays as I am not in the habit of receiving such. I should be sow pope-yule-are.

      Delete
    4. Sorry, but I meant to also thank you for allowing me some latitude.

      Delete
    5. You deserve it after carrying the world on your shoulders, which no doubt makes the earthritis more painful.

      Delete


  24. De Paul & Lake Forest & DePauw & Wake Forest

    ReplyDelete
  25. DEPAUL, LAKE FOREST, DEPAUW, WAKE FOREST

    > Will included a hint.

    He said the puzzle comes from Robbie Ellis, of Chicago. DEPAUL is in Chicago, and LAKE FOREST is nearby.

    > I can see a connection to a puzzle from a few months ago.

    I can see the FORESTs (for the trees).

    > In time for Halloween: a skeleton on the outside!

    Take the two pairs of schools: DEPAUL / LAKE FOREST and DEPAUW / WAKE FOREST. Remove the "insides". In each case, you're left with "DeForest". As in Kelley. "Bones" on the outside!

    > There's an alternative answer that involves abbreviations and some cheating.

    USC, CSU, USF, FSU: University of Southern California, California State University, University of South Florida, Florida State University. CSU is the state university system, not a single school.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The alternative answer was my first guess, but I thought that CSU was "slippery" because it was a system and not one college or university.

      Delete
  26. DePAUL, LAKE FOREST, DePAUW, WAKE FOREST

    “Some Final Fours in there…”
    In basketball, DePaul has made the NCAA Men’s Final Four twice, and Wake Forest has made it once. DePauw has made the NCAA Division III Women’s Final Four three times and won the national championship twice.

    “Two of the schools contributed two NBA Hall of Famers, one of whom, a personal favorite, I got to see play in person in the NBA Finals.”
    —> George Mikan (DePaul ’46) and Tim Duncan (Wake Forest ’97)
    I saw Duncan play against the Knicks in Game 1 of the 1999 NBA Finals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The significant trivia linking two of the schools referred to in the earlier exchange was the Game That Retired (Ray) Meyer when Wake Forest beat DePaul in overtime in the 1984 Midwest Regional Finals of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

      Delete
  27. I wrote, “From the first pair of colleges, take the one with the longer name. Remove a block of four letters. Rearrange. You get a food.” That’s LAKE FOREST – FORE = LATKES.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or, you could rearrange another block of four letters and get "kale."

      Delete
  28. DePaul, Lake Forest, DePauw, Wake Forest

    ReplyDelete
  29. The swapped letters (W and L) form the nickname of another college/university, Washington and Lee. I believe the two letters are also related to Blaine's hint.

    ReplyDelete
  30. DePaul, Lake Forest, DePauw, Wake Forest

    My only gripe with the puzzle is that I wouldn't call those four schools 'well known.'

    And I'm very jealous of Dr. K that he got to see Tim Duncan play!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Probably well known to the submitter, who is from Chicago...

      Delete
    2. That’s my gripe as well. I didn’t spend much time on this, and I didn’t come close to solving it, but I can’t say that I’ve heard of any of these schools.

      Delete
    3. Come on, these may not be on anyone's top ten list, but U.S. News and World Report says:
      DePaul is #169 among National Universities,
      Lake Forest is #62 among National Liberal Arts Colleges,
      DePauw is #49 (tie) among National Liberal Arts Colleges, and
      Wake Forest is #34 among National Universities.

      Delete
  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  32. My compliments to those of you who solved. I found DePaul/Depauw but got hung up on Loyola, totally missing Lake/Wake Forest. Well done!

    See you Sunday.

    ReplyDelete
  33. DePaul --> Lake Forest
    DePauw --> Wake Forest

    Last Sunday I said, “One of these might lead you to the Bible.” DePaul --> Paul”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My "Or, today you could ask a Cardinal." reply referred to the Wake Forest Demon Deacon 57-3 football win over the Stanford Cardinal last Saturday.

      Delete
  34. My fellow Blainsvillians;
    We shall upload Puzzleria! very soon this very afternoon, chock-full-of-a-spankin’-new-slew-of-imposing-posers... including:
    ~ our Leaning-Tower-of-Puzzleria! “Synonym of the Idiom!” Appetizer titled “The art and the heart of a puzzle...”
    ~ a Schpuzzle of the Week titled “Surnames! first names! mispellings! (sic)”
    ~ a Cities Marked By Stars Hors d’Oeuvre titled “Spilling-Over Urban-Sprawl!”
    ~ an American Capital Welsh River Slice titled “Certifiably Sanctioned Cliché!”
    ~ a Sitcommy Dessert titled “TV Dinnertime!,” and
    ~ eight Riffing Off Shortz And Ellis Slices titled “PauwPaul, LakeWake!” (including seven composed by Nodd, riffmaster-extraordinaire!)
    Join us (why don'tcha?) for some rollicking frolicking à la king!
    Chicken-A-La-Lego

    ReplyDelete
  35. It took me a while to find the answer, mostly because I was not familiar with DePauw or Lake Forest. What helped the most was searching for colleges with similar names, and that got me to DePaul/DePauw.

    Alternatively, I came up with UT (Uni of TX), TCU, changing to UC (Uni of CA) and CCU (Coastal Carolina Uni). I had heard of all but CCU.

    ReplyDelete
  36. DEPAUL, LAKE FOREST(Illinois), DEPAUW(Indiana), WAKE FOREST(North Carolina)
    It works! My keyboard works! Hallelujah, thank you Jesus!
    pjbHopesEveryoneHereWillBeSafeDuringTheBadWeatherComingUpLateTomorrowNight/Saturday!

    ReplyDelete
  37. My clue was:
    "But that's how it goes: each of us has to adapt ourself week to week."

    ADAPT OURSELF WEEK anagrams to LAKE FOREST DEPAUW or WAKE FOREST DEPAUL.

    ReplyDelete
  38. My posts:

    - “For a couple of the schools, my dog sees a connection to last week’s puzzle” …..referred to Depauw and DePaul which sound like “the paw” (sorta like da Nile)

    - “For a couple of the schools’ team names, I’d provide a musical clue, but….(I did already)”……referred to the Blue Demons (DePaul) and Demon Deacons (wake forest) which both have Demon in their names, and Demons is a hit song by Imagine Dragons, which gets abbreviated as ID (like in “I’d” or “I did”).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I did catch your drift with "defeat". Also with "detail".

      Delete
  39. Yews guise are prose: I had never heard of any of those colleges ... nor had my computer!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, my friend Danny from high school went to either Wake Forest or Lake Forest, I can't remember which one. That's why I recalled the pairing with one letter change. Danny's now a professor of German Studies at Penn State.

      Delete
    2. Easy enough to discover: Wake Forest.

      Delete
  40. This is John Bell Hood. He was a U.S. Army officer who took up arms against his fellow U.S. Army soldiers, and became a Confederate general. The U.S. Army named Fort Hood after him. That's where, 17 years ago, Major Nidal Hassan, another U.S. Army officer, took up arms against his fellow U.S. Army soldiers. On December 3, he will be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood. Pete Hegseth says the execution will be streamed live (except, of course, for Major Hasan). I wonder if the U.S. Army will name a fort after him?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (Hasan also sported a full beard, but after the shooting the Army made him shave it off, so people wouldn't see the resemblance.)

      Delete
  41. Possible alternative: UM / MIT / UF / FIT (University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Florida, Fashion Institute of Technology)

    ReplyDelete
  42. “Well known” is quite a stretch. Maybe if you’re from Chicago…. I have literally never heard of 3 of these colleges.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Wake Forest makes me think of "Good Morning, Vietnam!"; and this puzzle makes me think of Elmer Fudd.

    ReplyDelete
  44. This week's online challenge also comes from Nancy Taubenslag, of Scarsdale, N.Y. Name a company that's known for transportation. Move the first two letters to the end. Reverse everything. Insert the name of an international tourist destination. And you'll get the name of a game that involves transportation. What things are these?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cute! Easy! My first guess didn't pan out, but I love to solve before it airs.

      Delete
    2. I disagree. This puzzle is wide open. There are a lot of companies that are known for transportation, whether for moving goods, people, or building the machines that transport them. It can be argued that anywhere in the world could be an international tourist destination. There are thousands of board and video games that “involve transportation.”

      Unless you get lucky and happen to think of the right company, destination, or game, this is too wide open.

      Delete
    3. Easy... for me. Don't harsh my mellow! :)

      Delete
    4. I'm usually spending hours with a spreadsheet and lists, so this was refreshing for me. I will say that I wonder if the submitter developed it by working it backwards from the game?

      Delete
    5. Yeah, it’s the same for me usually. With this one, I’m not sure where to start!

      Delete
    6. Jaws – I completely agree. When I first saw SDB’s post stating the puzzle, I thought it was a parody. After learning that it was indeed this week’s challenge, I was annoyed by the inelegance of the instructions. Essentially: “Do the following random things to get a random answer.” Not my cup of tea! I’ll pass.
      But, congratulations to Splainit for solving it so quickly!

      Delete
  45. Starting with the transportation is the way to go. Once it's manipulated and reversed, the game sort of presents itself.

    ReplyDelete
  46. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

For NPR puzzle posts, don't post the answer or any hints that could lead to the answer before the deadline (usually Thursday at 3pm ET). If you know the answer, submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't assist with solving. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the deadline. Thank you.