How do you choose an Ivy?

<p>So i heard that harvard is about business and law, and yale is about english....etc. etc. etc.
How do i choose an ivy?
or in other words, what is the separating factor between the schools?</p>

<p>most of the time it's just personal preference. Cornell and Columbia are both among the top few in the nation when it comes to something like economics, but both have vastly different environments. Choose based on this. </p>

<p>Though, the difference would be in availability in programs. For instance, when it comes to something like human development, nursing, or even business, only a few select ivy's have these programs. Then, chose on which school has the program you want. Otherwise, pick based on the school and environment that you prefer because I'll be damned if Dartmouth history is actually better than Brown history.</p>

<p>-size of school
-location (both geographical and urban/rural)
-'feel' of campus and individual preferences (i.e. brown has a very liberal rep while princeton has a preppy rep; penn has bigger sports culture than columbia; etc)</p>

<p>same thing as picking any school</p>

<p>Yale has a very good history program, Cornell and Princeton have very good engineering. You definately need to know what major you are interested in. Basically what ^^ said.</p>

<p>The first separating factor is between those that offer you admission and those that do not. The percentage of applicants who are offered admission purely on the basis of academic merit is much smaller than the published acceptance rate, particularly at HYP. (The real acceptance rate for someone who is not an athlete, nationally-known actor or musician, legacy, URM, child of a Senator, ambassador, or benefactor is about 5%). You will not need to decide how to spend the money until after you have won the lottery.</p>

<p>It comes down to a couple of big factors (location, specific schools) and other smaller details. I think when it comes to the Ivy League, you know that the academic quality is outstanding so it is about selecting an environment which is best for you.</p>

<p>I chose Columbia for many reasons, including access to grad schools, strength in particular of several programs, the Core Curriculum, interesting 5 and 6 year options, location (!!!), internships (no school on Friday), lack of fraternities, social culture, international feel, etc etc. Although I loved other schools it came down to particular details that I felt would be right for me. </p>

<p>It is hard to explain any other way than using myself as a personal example, but I hope I illustrated my point. Find out what is unique about each school in terms of attitude, academics, and social life, and try to figure out what will help you blossom the best.</p>

<p>I have attended two Ivies. In my experience, they all will offer an ambitious student significant resources and access to top job offers, grad school, etc. Thus I would choose for fit, if you think Columbia has an advantage over Brown, or Brown has any advantage over Dartmouth you're significantly mistaken. All are going to give you a leg up, but its four years of your life so choose wisely based on fit. I didn;t the first time (I choose Columbia and didn;t realize how segmented the social scene would be). </p>

<p>The only exception is when you're looking for very specific programs with placement into very specific jobs, example Cornell Hotel or Penn Nursing. Then some schools are better than others. But for the most part choosing based on grad school ranks for a major that falls under liberal arts (like bio or history) in my opinion is a mistake.</p>

<p>Also, prestige wise clearly HYP have a slight advantage over the other Ivies. In my experience Cornell lags slightly behind the next four "BCDP" generally (although it excels in some of the specific type of programs I mention above). But I'd rather avoid that arguement again.</p>

<p>Last year a guy on CC got into all eight Ivy League schools. He posted a thread in each Ivy League school forum asking for advice. That's one way to choose an Ivy. :p</p>

<p>I personally cannot imagine applying to all eight Ivies. Each is so distinct with it's own unique personality. I believe most people have preferences as to what kind of school they'd like to go to and then apply to those that fit the criteria. For example, I was not interested in to going to a college in the city but wanted the college to focus on undergraduate education. So I compiled my list to include only five Ivies (Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Brown.) Harvard and Yale are both in urban environments but I made exceptions for them. Ultimately, however, I decided to apply early to the Ivy that seemed to fit all my preferences exactly: Princeton. Unless someone is "brand" conscious, I think that is how people go about choosing their Ivy.</p>

<p>"But I'd rather avoid that arguement again."</p>

<p>good idea, aim for argument you can win.</p>

<p>I guess one way to ask that question would be: If it weren't an Ivy, would you still apply?</p>

<p>That is, if you removed the Ivy League cachet, would you still want to go?</p>

<p>In my case, for Yale, the answer was no -- so I didn't apply.
For Princeton, it was absolutely -- so I'm left biting my nails until April, but the fact that it's an Ivy has nothing to do with it.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I personally cannot imagine applying to all eight Ivies. Each is so distinct with it's own unique personality.

[/quote]
How very true this is; however, sadly, I beleive it is equally true that those who are "looking for an Ivy" lack such distinction as this, perhaps lacking enough personality to know where they fit: the personality of the school is most often quite obvious; the personality of the student is often hidded...even to themselves.</p>

<p>Thus the fundamental problem of all those "looking for an Ivy."</p>

<p>I didn't really look for an Ivy. I just sort of fell in love with one. In fact, I wish it wasn't an Ivy so I could get in. :)</p>

<p>It was pretty easy for me to decide that Princeton was the best choice for my undergraduate education. The school has a good amount of small departments where you can really get to know your professors well, and opportunities for extra ambitions abound on campus and abroad, all within the umbrella of a research university's resources. As a prospective Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major only two schools really fit the bill, Princeton and Brown, and I chose Princeton because the school was recommended to me by two alumni teachers of mine who honestly thought I was a good fit. Although other Ivy League schools have my desired major, Columbia, Cornell, Univ. of Pennsylvania and Yale were either too big or too metropolitan. </p>

<p>Also, be sure to be open to other top schools if your achievements actually do warrant your application, because they can be just as good, or even better for your purposes, whatever they may be. I also researched Stanford, University of Chicago, and Carleton intensely.</p>

<p>Personally the draw of going to a top school was the access to top undergrad resources, studying with the best and brightest students, and great placement (recruiting and grad placement) among other factors like reputation, size of school, and a great campus feel. In my opinion all these factors were also a significant part of "fit," so I applied to multiple Ivies. IMO these similarities between most of the Ivies outweighed the differences.</p>

<p>Abiste, I've also been attacked for wondering why on earth people would apply to all the Ivys. You would think that they are each distinct enough so that one single person could not conceive going to every single one. I think more than genuine interest in the schools it turns out to be an interest in prestige. When I did my overnight visit at Columbia, the prospective students asked one another what schools they were interested in. One of them said "basically I'm looking for Ivy League". I wanted to punch him in the face and tell him to get out. Thankfully, the rest of the group was much more genuine.</p>

<p>Camelia, it was the same thing for me and Yale. It's a gorgeous school but I just could not see myself there. I think it's very difficult to actually look at all 8 Ivy schools and say yeah, I could totally see myself here.</p>

<p>I agree viva that every Ivy is not a great fit. But I honestly LOVED Brown, Dartmouth, and Princeton. So I agree choosing just because a school is Ivy is ridiculous, but liking a majority of them is not.</p>

<p>I agree with you about that :) I really liked Brown, Columbia, and Princeton myself.</p>

<p>Liking a majority of the Ivy schools (say 5/8) is much different than obsequiously following all of them with no specific conviction because they are the Ivy schools. However, I personally can't understand how someone could apply to both Dartmouth and Columbia. I would think what is appealing about one would a negative for the other and vice versa.</p>