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I myself normally use at in a sentence such as "I want to study at the Stanford University."

But when I saw someone wrote "I want to go to study in the Stanford University," though sounded a little odd, I didn't feel that it's absolutely wrong. Then again, I'm not very sure.

Can we use either, or should we always use "at", or always use "in"?

PS. A closely related phrase, but I expected that the answer would be the same, is "continue my study/education at" or "continue my study/education in"?

Damkerng T.
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    "to study **at** a University" is *idiomatic* English. Prepositions are tricky in all languages (or their alternatives such as post positions and cases). While "study in" makes just as much literal/logical sense, in cases such as this you should always choose an idiomatically correct preposition over a merely literally/logically correct one. – hippietrail Nov 27 '13 at 09:28
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    I would be wary of saying "always" when it comes to those little imps we call prepositions. Consider: _I want to study in the Oxford library_ – I realize that's completely different, but it's an example of why I'd prefer to say something more like "the standard way to say it is _at_," instead of "you should always use _at_". – J.R. Nov 27 '13 at 10:16
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    Side note: We do not use "the" with proper nouns like "Stanford University". You "study at Stanford University", not "at THE Stanford University". – Jay Nov 27 '13 at 16:37
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    Thank you. I sometimes confuse myself with the usage of "the University of X" and "Y University" indeed. – Damkerng T. Nov 27 '13 at 16:42
  • https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=study+at+school%2C+study+at+school%2Cstudy+in+school%2Cstudy+at+college%2Cstudy+in+college%2Cstudy+at+university%2Cstudy+in+university&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cstudy%20at%20school%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cstudy%20at%20school%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cstudy%20in%20school%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cstudy%20at%20college%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cstudy%20in%20college%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cstudy%20at%20university%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cstudy%20in%20university%3B%2Cc0 – Khan Feb 06 '17 at 06:43

2 Answers2

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In Standard English we use at with study when stating the University name:

I studied psychology at Cambridge University

I want to study at Imperial College University, London.

Use of in is not Standard English, even to the point where the ngram of studied at MIT versus studied in MIT does not even show in because it is so non-standard.

My guess is that whoever wrote that quote was not a native speaker of English.

Community
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Matt
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Ditto Matt. Let me add:

In general, we use "in" for cities, states/provinces, and countries. "I live IN Michigan." "Michigan is IN the United States." We also use "in" for buildings. "I left the book IN the library." We use "at" for organizations. "I eat AT Sally's Diner." "Scientists AT Muppet Labs are working on this problem."

Vehicles are curiously tricky. You ride IN a car, but ON a bus or airplane. (I heard a comedy act once where the guy made jokes about how he wants to get IN the plane -- let a daredevil ride ON the plane.) You get IN a canoe or rowboat but ON a cruise ship. (Which I always thought was rather backwards, as a rowboat doesn't really have an "inside" but a cruise ship definitely does.)

Jay
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    Just a quick recap on airplane. I normally use *I got on the plane*, and *I'm on board*, but *I sit in the plane*, and *I am in the plane*. Do I use them correctly? – Damkerng T. Nov 27 '13 at 16:55
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    We normally say "I am on the plane" or "I am sitting on the plane". I don't think anyway would have trouble understanding you or make fun of you for saying "I am in the plane", but it's not the common phrasing. – Jay Nov 27 '13 at 18:15
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    As far as on/in for vehicles go, we tend to be _on_ vehicles when there is a boarding process (hence: _on the ship, on the train, on the bus, on the plane_) but _in_ when there is not (_in the canoe, in the taxi, in the liferaft_). That said, it goes back to _on_ when we sit or stand atop the vehicle (_on the bicycle, on the surfboard_). – J.R. Nov 27 '13 at 21:12