I find it interesting that so many people who poo poo the Ivy League and say they don’t want to go to an Ivy but prefer places like Williams, Duke, or Stanford that other than setting (location) and size it’s basically the same thing as an Ivy. It’s not a way to avoid elitism or hyper-competitiveness or a toxic culture. They attract the same students. But I hear this all the time.
I just found it interesting that these 3 schools are the largest feeders to top Ivy League graduate schools according to “Ivy League Feeders” (a site I found that seems sort of legit imo but idk)…meaning that they may have not have chosen an Ivy for college but their alumni definitely are heading to the Ivies as their choice for professional schools (JD, MBA, MD) or PhD programs in droves LOL.
Ivy is simply an athletic league so not sure what you are trying to prove.
People apply to and choose schools for myriad reasons and similarly do so for graduate school.
Hopefully students choose the best schools for themselves, Ivy or otherwise, at the time of attendance.
I was waited on by a Northwestern admit in Knoxville. She was at UTK. She chose UTK because it was best for her due to affordability and strength in her major. There’s the famous Auburn admit who turned down Yale. Yale loved her Papa Johns essay so much the AO wrote back to her after reading it. Forget the three schools you mentioned - there’s likely students at most every flagship that had the ‘gall’ to turn down an Ivy. Some even likely attend an Ivy because they got turned down to a ‘sub’ Ivy public or private but got into the Ivy.
It happens. No doubt the Ivies are wonderful. But if people choose other schools instead, those considered elite or otherwise, that’s wonderful too.