Near-to Ivies, who and where..

<p>Not so long ago some news organization published a list of near Ivy type schools. It may have been MSN. Does anyone recall which schools were mentioned? I think Rensselaer may have been one of them.. but I don't know the others.</p>

<p>Newsweek published "25 New Ivies" last August.
<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14325172/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14325172/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Howard Greene and Matthew Greene published the book Hidden Ivies in 2000.</p>

<p>hidden ivies is a gimmick name-
its good for people who like lists-
People forget that Ivy is a sports league ;)
That there are many other schools, in other parts of the country- where you can get a great education.</p>

<p>I don't mean to be harsh- its just that there is a subsection of my family who was heavily invested in the "prestige" of Ivies and "near" Ivies, and its left a bad taste in my mouth.</p>

<p>As the Ivy league is big on sports- its kinda funny to include schools like Reed, which also make unathletic lists, and is like teh "opposite" of prep
;)</p>

<p>Still if you forget the headline- it looks like a helpful article</p>

<p>Ivy may be a sports league, but not all the schools are known for being big on sports. The Newsweek article has some good school suggestions, my son applied to three of them. :)</p>

<p>Well thanks for supplying me that list. I don't associate the Ivies with sports as much as I do academics for obvious reason. As so many kids are rejected by Ivies I was curious what thier further options might be.</p>

<p>...........and any of the 25 schools on this list, would be well worth exploring for your son or daughter.</p>

<p>U of Chicago is know throughout the academic world for the overall quality of education it's undergraduates receive- better in many cases a than at some Ivy's, in part because of the "core" and the low professor to student ratio there [1-4]. Many students applying to Ivy's also apply there.</p>

<p>From the northeast, (where I live) Colgate, Bowdoin, and Rensselaer seem to be the colleges mentioned in this group of 25. With the exception of Rensselaer merit aid at these places is scant. University of Virginia is a great school, but from what I hear, real tough for an out of state type to gain admittance to. Maybe someone should come up with a list titled "affordable" new Ivies in the northeast. For those who don't mind moving west or south there are some good choices and good merit available though. I'll tell you the northeast is an expensive area to raise and educate your children. Maybe I'll start looking at some "Canadian Ivies"....</p>

<p>While they serve only 50 percent of the population, the top womens colleges--Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Mount Holyoke--fit with that group. And in fact are relative "admissions bargains." Still clustered in the Northeast.</p>

<p>Very true as regards those womens colleges. I only with I could convince my D to attend one.</p>

<p>N, they convince themselves. But it takes exposure. Meeting 20 or so current students at a prospect party piqued my D's curiosity. Visiting the campus the first time should one women's college into the top two and made her apply to another sight unseen. Visiting the campus a second time a year later sealed the deal.</p>

<p>If someone had just said, "Check out the womens colleges," I doubt anything would have happened.</p>

<p>I do think you have to have an open mind and at least visit a women's college or two--provided it matches your general criteria, of course. It certainly took me awhile to warm up to the idea of it--and I almost took Wellesley off the list last fall because of it--but I don't think it is actually as much of a stretch as most girls my age think it is, if they were to really consider it and not just have a knee-jerk "no" reaction.</p>

<p>An open mind is helpful in many dimensions. Some schools that I think would benefit from a more open-minded applicant pool: Macalester, Carleton, Grinnell, Rice, Tulane, Emory, Vassar, Whitman, Bates, Bowdoin, Goucher, St. Johns.</p>

<p>Just as the womens colleges can give very good aid, both merit and need based- ( I know several at both Smith & Holyoke with great offers)
Colgate also considers info other schools may not.
For example in 2005 they gave aid to 30 students whose family incomes were $160,000+, 55 students whose family incomes were $140,000 to $159,000, & 77 students in the $120,000 to $139,999 category.</p>

<p><a href="http://www4.colgate.edu/scene/nov2005/endowing.html#charts%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www4.colgate.edu/scene/nov2005/endowing.html#charts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
Colgate also considers info other schools may not.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Colgate was by far the most generous school with need based aid for D. It wasn't close. The Alumni Memorial Scholarship she received would have been very helpful had she decided to matriculate.</p>

<p>Curmudgeon, this is why financing college is such a maddening task to research. I went to the Colgate website & all the financial aid is stressed as need-based, need-based, need-based. Nothing popped up about the Alumni Memorial, so I entered it into their search function and voila: There is a possibility of merit based $5000 grant for research. Plus tons of great benefits. Top 200 kids get this, but it's rather secretive if you're just exploring the school's website. If you hadn't stated it by name, I'd have never known about it. Just your general comment about Colgate being generous with the need-based aid is helpful, as well.</p>

<p>SS, their are nooks and crannies everywhere with baubles in them. I'm glad you found that one. It is maddening , isn't it? Look up Vagelos at Penn. Brown has one, so does Cornell.</p>

<p>Oh, it's not just the research grant, it's the change in FA itself. No loans, no work study- those are turned to cash but the loans and WS are still available. :) Big difference. Plus a travel scholarship to get to and from.</p>

<p>And remember that's not top 200 enrollees , but top 200 applicants.</p>

<p>I'd like to echo TheDad's posts about women's colleges, and add one to his list -- Scripps College in California. Like the women's colleges in the Northeast, Scripps tends to sell itself once students visit and see what it has to offer. Scripps also has the tremendous advantage of being part of the Claremont Consortium of colleges -- the 5C's as they call them, including Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona, and Claremont-McKenna -- that are physically contiguous and share lots of resources.</p>

<p>Good call on Scripps, which was designed to be the Smith of the West Coast. It often slips from my forebrain just because it was so close that it was in the "forbidden zone" when D was applying to college.</p>