<p>I don’t believe in the whole “chancing” thing, but re: Ivy aspirations, I really do not think every Ivy should be placed under one blanket term. Every Ivy League school is incredibly different and attracts unique applicants. One glaring example of this is the difference between Columbia and Brown: while Columbia has an extremely strict and rigorous core, Brown allows each student to design his or her own curriculum and (to my limited knowledge) does not have any school-wide mandatory core classes. And then, of course, there’s the geography factor: there’s a huge, fundamental difference between a rural environment (Dartmouth, Cornell) and a big-city environment (Columbia, UPenn), and generally applicants prefer one or the other. </p>
<p>I’m also not going to lie to you: from what I’ve heard, some Ivy League schools will reject applicants over less-than-perfect scores, regardless of what else the applicant has to offer. I recall a friend of mine saying she attended a Q&A at Princeton and when one student asked if it would be better to get an A in an honors class or a B in an AP class, the answer was, in all seriousness, “you’d better take the AP and you’d better get that A or you’re not getting into Princeton.” She also visited Cornell and recalled a satirical article in a campus magazine that put admissions decisions like this: “Are you an URM? Are you an athlete? Do you have legacy? If you are none of these, you are not getting in.” I was never really interested in any Ivies, but hearing that deterred me completely.</p>
<p>I recommend you look at each Ivy individually, see which one attracts you, and base your decisions on academics rather than prestige. Interested in Brown’s curricular freedom? Try looking at small liberal arts colleges with minimal requirements that allow you to take nearly any class that interests you, such as Wesleyan, Oberlin, Amherst, and Swarthmore, which generally do have broad base requirements but allow you to choose out of a wide array of classes. I see no indication of your gender, but if you are female then check out the sisters, all of which are liberal arts colleges that offer cross-registration at top colleges and universities (if you need that Ivy, Barnard offers cross-registration at Columbia, but they are two very different schools). More attracted to the Columbia-esque rigid core? Perhaps a school like St. John’s College would be preferred, a highly intellectual school in which every student takes the exact same curriculum that is completely based around classical literature. </p>
<p>It’s also apparent that you’re looking for a school with a strong writing program. If you’re female, Barnard College has one of the top English programs in the country, and because of its location in New York City there are so many opportunities available. A great coed choice is the University of Iowa, which is widely known for its incredible English program.</p>
<p>So in a nutshell, it’s foolish of you to base your college decisions and aspirations entirely on a label that really has no meaning anymore. Many of the most renowned and selective universities in the country, such as Stanford, CalTech, UChicago, MIT, Georgetown, Tufts, etc., are not in the Ivy League. Prestige should not be the dominant factor in your college decisions - it’s about the fit (and of course, the finances) rather than the name. Of course there is something appealing about having that ever-sought Ivy name under your belt, but an English degree from University of Iowa is nothing to sneeze at either. </p>
<p>If it seems like every famous and successful person went to an Ivy, that’s because Ivies were approx. 100,000 times easier to get into 20-30 years ago than they are today. My dad partied his way through high school with mostly Bs and Cs and was still accepted at UPenn due to his extensive legacy. My uncle, who I’m certain had no higher than a C average, was rejected from Wharton, so he camped out at the admissions office until they let him in - it worked back in the day, but I’m willing to bet nowadays he’d get arrested. So many schools that were seen as average a few decades back have become top universities and we need to abandon the archaic ideology that Ivies are “the best.”</p>