Several weeks ago, my teacher told me that UofR was invited to join the Ivy League but didn’t accept. I didn’t think much of it because it didn’t really seem true until recently my friend and I were talking about colleges. She said that her guidance counselor said the same thing. Is this true? Are there reasons for UofR to decline?
The story doesn’t make sense. The Ivy League started as an athletic conference in the 1950’s, with membership extended to schools that valued academics first and athletics second. Among other things, that means no athletic scholarships or football bowl games, and back in the day, Ivy League schools won national titles in football (!). The Ivy League as an athletics conference competes at the Division I level, while Rochester competes at the Division III level, so I’m pretty sure they would not have been invited on that basis alone. The point that your teacher was probably making is that Rochester has an excellent academic reputation, and you don’t have to go Ivy League to get a great education.
About 10 yrs ago US News and World Report, I believe, picked 25 “new ivies”, schools that academically were on par with the 8 ivies. There were state flagships, small LAC’s, etc—all types of schools. UR made the list.
And while URoch’s athletic conference may not be as well known as the venerable Ivy League, the UAA (University Athletic Association) does live up to its nickname, “The Egghead Eight”—URoch, UChicago, WashU, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Emory, Brandeis, and Case. (There were nine, but Johns Hopkins, a founding member, dropped out some years ago.) It may not be “Ivy League,” but that’s still good company to be in.
We recently went to an accepted students event at UR and indeed, the dean of admissions did say that they had been offered Ivy status many years ago and declined. Not sure why.