<p>Many ppl mention "lower ivys" in their posts, which schools exactly are lower ivys?</p>
<p>These are people who obsess with relative “rankings” of the eight Ivy schools. They claim authority to say that categorically X is better than Y is better than Z. </p>
<p>They are inane “Mine is bigger than yours” arguments – as if they had some ability to sample the eight colleges.</p>
<p>Your best route of action: Ignore the whole bloody lot of them.</p>
<p>It would be best to ignore the designation “lower ivies” as they are all great schools. What’s considered a “lower ivy” is inconsistent - some may think it refers to any non-HYP ivy. Others may give the designation to schools like Cornell and Brown which rank the lowest amongst the ivies. Either way, don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>What the above two said. People who use this term are snobs. But they are:</p>
<p>Penn CAS, Cornell, Brown, and Dartmouth, generally speaking.</p>
<p>Agree with the above. Its seems to be a term that annoys people, but typically refers to (ducking here) Dartmouth, Cornell and Brown…, with maybe Penn/Columbia sandwiched between those and Harvard/Yale/Princeton at the top.</p>
<p>^
Columbia is seen as a “Mid-Ivy” because of its extremely low acceptance rate, which is on par with HYP. On these boards, selectivity is king. </p>
<p>Penn is seen as a “Mid-Ivy” because it has Wharton, the world’s most prestigious undergraduate business school. However, unless you are actually IN Wharton, then that point is kind of irrelevant. If you’re in CAS, then you can consider yourself to be in a “lower Ivy.”</p>
<p>What T26E4 said. Everything else is, ultimately, twaddle. All eight are great schools and anyone who gets into ANY one of them is lucky and should feel great pride of accomplishment.</p>
<p>
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<p>I thought it was because they’ve been associated with the most nobel laureates and because they hand out the Pulitzer prize.</p>
<p>I do agree that Penn generally seems thrown into the mix because of Wharton though.</p>
<p>^
Both of which are probably ramifications of its location. And neither of those things affects the quality of the school, especially the latter.</p>
<p>
And by “mix,” you presumably mean the “top” or HYP Ivies? Most would agree that for what it does, Wharton is at that level.</p>
<p>By any objective measure, however, Penn CAS is clearly a strong peer of all of the non-HYP Ivies. Its students are comparable in terms of admissions standards (test scores, GPAs, ECs, etc.), and its liberal arts departments are generally ranked at levels as high as or higher than its Ivy peers including, in some cases, HYP (and it’s similar in that regard to Columbia and Cornell).</p>
<p>In my son’s High School, Harvard, Princeton and Yale are considered the core of the ivy schools. There rest are considered the “low ivy” schools.</p>
<p>IMHO, it think it’s because everyone has heard about these particular schools from TV, movies, etc… their whole lives. It is totally subjective and has nothing to do with the merits of each school.</p>
<p>That being said, after doing a lot of research into schools for my son, it has become clear to me the ranking system is screwed up. I’m surprised that few of my fellow parents have spent any time at all understanding the Carnegie Classifications.</p>
<p>Worse, even fewer have looked at any metrics on post-graduation performance and success.</p>
<p>It is as if the college itself was the goal, not the child’s success in life (financial and emotional).</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/1348451-ivy-league-hustle.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/1348451-ivy-league-hustle.html</a></p>
<p>silly silly …</p>
<p>Hahahaha I love that rap</p>
<p>Each ivy has its strengths. Only because a school is ranked higher than another does not necessarily mean it is better in all areas. </p>
<p>As for the ivies, HYP are considered the core of the league because they are most heard of. Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, and UPenn do not recieve as much public recognition. For example, I mentioned Columbia to my friend and she was oblivious about its selectivity, and then I mentioned Harvard and she was literally like “THAT SCHOOL IS FOR SMART PEOPLE.” Lol. </p>
<p>Overall, ALL IVIES ARE GREAT! If you are planning to apply to one, apply to the ones that are your best fit, not ones that are ranked better.</p>
<p>Clearly, if you don’t make it into H, Y, or P1, and have to settle for B, C1, C2, D, or P2, it will place your life on an inexorable, irreversible downward spiral and you’ll be fortunate to ever make it to assistant manager at the local McDonald’s.</p>
<p>Gee, AD posted elsewhere the potential success of McDonalds employees working up the ranks. Sounds like great potential, even for assistant managers <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1348865-went-non-top-20-school-wound-up-working-mcdonalds.html?[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1348865-went-non-top-20-school-wound-up-working-mcdonalds.html?</a></p>
<p>Now back to topic. Its amusing when people rank order the top schools. They are all superb in their own right.This is my personal favorite ranking system. Keep refreshing it to get the idea 
[College</a> Ranking Service, A Peerless Evaluation of Colleges, rankyourcollege.com](<a href=“http://www.rankyourcollege.com/ddmethod.html]College”>College Ranking Service, A Peerless Evaluation of Colleges, rankyourcollege.com)</p>
<p>Rankings should not mean ish… fact is all top schools are very selective! To rank schools as “lower ivys” is ridiculous considering most people cannot get into to those “lower ivys”, I would love to call myself a Quaker even if by CC standards I attend a “lower ivy” ■■■■ Not to the OP, but to those with this view.</p>
<p>Haha the thread title. Glad to see rational, sane entries. </p>
<p>As some have said, getting into any one of these schools is a great achievment. And most of the students are interchangeable.</p>
<p>“Lower Ivys” is about as pretentious and indicative of not being elite as one could imagine.m of course, elevating the Ivys to mythical status is also lame.</p>
<p>I like the term. It helps distinguish those people who say “I go/graduated from an ivy league school” who went to Cornell or Brown rather than Harvard or Princeton. Of course, i’d feel the same way if someone said i attend the ‘University of California.’ Granted the latter is a system (as opposed to an athletic conference) which is highly variable. But i still think it echos my point.</p>
<p>Another point is that H, Y, and P’s peers are generally considered to be MIT and Stanford (and sometimes Caltech.) Not Cornell or Brown. </p>
<p>Yes, they’re all fine institutions and i’m sure you could get a fine education at any of them. That doesn’t mean they can’t be (or aren’t) categorized in terms of rank.</p>
<p>I also don’t think most people can even name the ivys outside of HYP. Many would probably mistake Stanford for being an Ivy League school as opposed to Cornell. Some people (not me) would even go as far to say most people don’t know the Ivy League schools outside of HY (i’ve heard at least two people who don’t know each other say this)</p>
<p>At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter. But saying that getting into Cornell is just as much of an accomplishment as getting into Yale isn’t convincing to me.</p>