I kind of like “cute Ivy.”
@lostaccount – Thanks for the history. I did not know about The Yale Report.
Am not sure where I came across this article last week (most likely on another CC thread).
https://today.uconn.edu/2012/09/land-grant-status-acquired-after-yale-storrs-controversy/
I never knew that Yale was the first Land Grant college, and that Brown & Dartmouth also were at one time.
One of the silliest and most pointless threads I’ve seen on CC
skieurope is trying to degrade the Ivy League? (See post #3) I don’t think that’s the intent of pointing out it’s an athletic conference. I usually see it done when someone posts about wanting to go to “an Ivy.” All very different schools.
No @skieurope isn’t tryin to degrade schools, context is everything.
Sorry you think it is pointless. But the nice thing about the internet is you can always choose not to read something. Options are great !
Yes, each Ivy League school is different from the other Ivy League schools and yet, there are similarities. The reason they are all in the same sport league is that they were considered to be peer schools. There were other schools as close, as big, as small, which were not considered when the league was formed. It isn’t just a sport league that developed due to proximity of the schools to each other. That’s why the suggestion that their relationship to each other is only about a sport league is backwards. The reason they were grouped as a sport league (by which I mean the inclusion of certain schools and the exclusion of others) is because they were considered to be peer schools.
@CT1417, in light of the Yale Report, the fact that Yale got funding via the Morrill Act suggests false pretenses or something similar. Yale was already 150 years old and they were denouncing exactly the sort of schools that the Morrill Act was advocating. Interesting though. I didn’t know Yale was allocated funds.
LOL about this, “But it was not until the late 1880s that the criticism swelled into a movement to take the land grant status away from Yale.” I can understand the criticism!
and lol about this, “Yale had graduated only seven students in the agricultural course, at a cost of $180,000, or $25,700 per student”
The silly and pointless comment was in reference to the *thread/i and not directed at you. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. The only point I can think of was that it was trying to get under some people’s skin, and if so, it appears the mission was accomplished.
No. I’m simply shaking my head at colleges who aim to to be something other than the best it can be; trying to imitate something else rather defeats that premise. And I’m also pointing out that the 8 colleges within the Ivy League are not the “best” 8 in the US. Indeed, even if one accepts HY as amongst the best, each is far from the best in a number of academic areas, e.g. engineering.
But yes, I do have little patience for colleges that proclaim themselves a “public Ivy” or “little Ivy” or “southern Ivy” or “Harvard of the South” etc .
The only one I haven’t seen (yet) is “community college Ivy” 
I never thought the colleges designated themselves public Ivies. Rather, that it was a moniker from some of the public. I was most familiar with UVa, which certainly has that look with the brick and ivy covered walls. And always, a fine rep. (Or maybe also, in past generations, the “exclusive” rep.)
But we shouldn’t get bent out of shape.
Just for fun and to keep things light-hearted, Miami of Ohio to this day uses the term ‘Public Ivy’ in many of their marketing materials, and on their website ?
Well “cute Ivy” is starting to Grow On Me. I better move about before it takes over. And about Miami of Ohio…Well what would you do if you were it? Too confusing because we all know that Miami is warmer. Pennsylvania too has a number of schools that got stuck in the wrong location.
Botany can be hilarious in right context.
“Ivies create a dense, vigorously smothering, shade-tolerant evergreen groundcover that can spread through assertive underground rhizomes and above-ground runners quickly over large natural plant community areas and outcompete the native vegetation. The use of ivies as ornamental plants in horticulture in California and other states is now discouraged or banned in certain jurisdictions.[13]”
Cornell is very strong in botany.
Boyce-Thompson , a plant sciences research institute, relocated to Cornell’s campus in the late 70s.
I see Cornell as a private ivy.
Very difficult to get into Cornell for some majors, less difficult for other majors. I know one student who could have gotten into many higher ranked colleges but went to Cornell for Plant Science Major. I also know one student from my old high school days who decided to attend Cornell over Harvard because she liked the campus better. Only bad things about Cornell are cold and snowy weather during many months and relative isolation. I knew nothing about the school when I went there long time ago because it was basically free for me, and I discovered after one semester it was an Ivy! So I can tell you that at least then Cornell was considered a private Ivy with some agriculture departments supported by NY state giving somewhat of public feel at some departments. Also, it’s motto holding itself out as “a place where anyone could pursue any studies” gave it a slightly more egalitarian feel even though non agricultural departments were full of WASPY students from NY and New Jersey areas. The cold weather often dissuaded me from waking up to go to lectures, and eventually forced me to switch my major to English Literature which allowed me to graduate as long as I turned in papers. I can say I sat in the same class room chair as Christopher Reeves the Superman. I noticed some Cornell professors who were there, some good, some not so good, now teaching at Harvard. Carl Sagan with his big head was noticeable when he walked around campus and was revered.
The butt freezing Ithaca weather motivated me to move to Hawaii and then to CA where I call it home.
Please, Cornell is a very good school
Thanks for deep history. Perhaps two additional clarifications are required:
- Cornell has 4 statutory colleges. In the New York definition, that means private colleges where the state (NY) offers a fair amount of funding per student that does help reduce the cost of those colleges. i don’t know the differentials today.
- Though Yale, and possibly Dartmouth and Brown, saw some small amount of Morrill funds, the other major private university founded out of the Morrill act was MIT. And Cornell and MIT are in good company - the Morrill act essentially created the Great American University model of the 19th century, rising up UC Berkeley, UICU, UW Madison, Purdue, Clemson, Auburn, OSU, Penn State, Texas A&M.
Read this guest opinion column in The Tech (MIT student newspaper) from 2012 about MIT and the Morrill Land Grant Act. The columnist opines that MIT is not fulfilling the goals set forth by the Morrill act and gives Cornell as an example of a peer institution that has.
I should clarify that calling Cornell a “Public Ivy” doesn’t mean it’s not a great school. Just not as selective, as small or as exclusive as Ivies are commonly perceived. It’s still one of the best in nation and always on “top 20” list.
Even those other colleges which often get labeled as public ivy, southern ivy, little ivy etc are all great schools and don’t need these labels.
Oh good grief.