<p>Everyone already knows about the Ivy League and often just mention the word "Ivy" when speaking of a good school in general.</p>
<p>However, I think it's time that the Ivy League was met with some fresher opponents who can use their combined prestige to create a new elite category.</p>
<p>If YOU could, what would you name such a category and who would be the members? REMEMBER, these must be Elite/Prestigious Private Research Universities that are NOT part of the Ivy League currently. Also, they must share certain qualities.</p>
<p>For me: </p>
<p>The Bullion Association</p>
<p>Consisting of:
M.I.T.
Johns Hopkins
University of Chicago
Washington University in St. Louis
Carnegie Mellon
Emory
(Tufts)
(NYU)
()=possibly/likely</p>
<p>Reasons for grouping:
All generally within the east to midwest region of the country. All of these schools boast great to superb academics and have a certain level of prestige as it stands. All of these schools don't really have an emphasis on sports (Division III sports for just about every one of them right?)</p>
<p>Obvious Ommissions: Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern, U of Notre Dame--> Simply because sports at these four schools do not match up well with the sports (and/or lack of) at the above institutions.</p>
<p>feel free to make your own lists, and remember, this is your own opinion.</p>
<p>Actually, there IS a second “Elite League of Research Schools.” As an athletic conference it’s called the Big Ten (though it includes 11 members). On the academic side, it’s called the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, in which guise it includes the University of Chicago which dropped out of Big Ten athletic competition a good half-century ago. The CIC includes many of the nation’s premier research and educational powerhouses, including Chicago, Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, and UIUC. The rest of its members don’t quite match the intellectual firepower of these five, but all rank among the nation’s leading research institutions, and every one of them is ranked among the nation’s best public universities. Collectively the research capacity and intellectual resources of these schools far outshine the motley crew assembled by the OP. Oh, and the athletic competition is pretty good, too.</p>
<p>These schools are too far apart to create any sort of tangible association. For the ivies, athletics serves as the grease that squeaks the wheel - sports allow these schools to maintain ties to each other, at least initially. This allows for some rivalries to develop and connections to form.</p>
<p>The schools you mention would not really ever be able to compete against one another in this fashion. An athletic conference of major research schools - called the University Athletic Association exists (it contains emory, wash u, chicago, etc.), but the wide geographic range prevents any real rivalries or associations to develop from this. One of the benefits of the ivy league is it’s easy for Yale kids to get to Cambridge to go to The Game, or for Princeton kids to go to Penn for a basketball game. No one from U of C is traveling 600 miles to new york to watch a division III softball game.</p>
<p>Sorry; I find this stupid. More than half of the schools in your list couldn’t even compete with UC Berkeley and to some extent, UMich, UCLA and UVa in terms of research quality and standards. California must also be included. It is a bona fide, legitimate part of the United States of America. It is also one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful state in the US. Though it’s economy is crumbling right now, it still is richer than all the states in the US. The size of its economy alone is larger than most countries of the world, including those many rich countries in Europe. </p>
<p>If there must be such elite group of research-led universities in the US, this group would have to be, or should definitely include Berkeley and Michigan. </p>
<p>Here’s the ideal top 10 for research:</p>
<p>MIT
Stanford
UC Berkeley
Caltech
Chicago
Northwestern
Johns Hopkins
Duke
Michigan
CMU</p>
<p>Rice and NYU would probably round off the top 12.</p>
<p>As Cue pointed out, this has been tried with the UAA–but it doesn’t really work because: (1) the schools are D3 and so athletics are de-emphasized;(2) they are too far apart from each other, making travel very expensive. Johns Hopkins was a founding member of UAA but dropped out after a few years because it made no sense to travel to St. Louis, Atlanta, Chicago or Boston for a D3 basketball game attended by a few hundred students. Hopkins is D1 for lacrosse, so it emphasizes that, and plays its D3 sports in the Centennial Conference (Mid Atlantic small colleges like Swarthmore and Haverford).</p>
<p>I’m sure you could lump something together from Duke, Emory, WUSTL, and UVA.</p>
<p>If I recall a few years ago some Emory kids went to WashU and spraypainted “WASHU SUCKS” everywhere, then declared a state of war and marched into a student government to dissolve it during the Emergency.</p>
<p>It was basically the best thing I’ve ever seen any college students do, ever…</p>
<p>I heard there was one talk of forming a “Magnolia League” for the elite schools of the south, planned to include Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, Rice, Southern Methodist, Tulane, and some others, but too many of the schools didn’t want to leave the leagues they were already in. Duke was too unwilling to give up it’s basketball rivalry with UNC, Rice/SMU wanted to continue participating in the cotton bowl etc.</p>
<p>Technology is the way around this problem. The schools would compete in internet chess or Tetris time trials. Imagine the high school recruiting efforts this would spawn.</p>
<p>"I heard there was one talk of forming a “Magnolia League” for the elite schools of the south.</p>
<p>Somehow even the Rose Bowl sounds more butch than the name of that league. I suppose they would have to bring back the Bluebonnet Bowl for the champion.</p>
<p>RJK, Magnolia trees are slow growing but can get huge…much more butch than a Rose bush. Now, if it were Gardenia or Azalea League, you may have a case. </p>
<p>
Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl…</p>
<p>
Mildcat cheerleader…how bout that Big Game, huh? :D</p>
<p>Well, I guess you could call it the Rottweiler League if you want to go for maximum “butch.” But “Ivy League” is not exactly the most macho name around, and it seems to have worked out okay for those schools.</p>
<p>Wisconsin is the #2 State university for research in the US. It also ranks very highly for patents and research impact. Any list of top research schools has to have UW near the top.</p>
<p>This is one of a serious of threads in which people try to deal with the fact that there are universities that are as good as or better than Ivy League schools, but there is no really good way to describe what they are. (I think the term “research” is being used because that’s what some people use to describe true universities–“research universities”–as opposed to LACs).
How about the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Ivy” League?</p>