<p>^ thats interesting, hudsonvalley. SUNY Binghampton was listed in one of the iterations of the “public ivy” lists, but never saw Geneseo, and not sure why it feels it belongs there.</p>
<p>^^Probably based on the fact that Geneseo students boast the highest average SAT scores in the SUNY system, as well as the overall quality of its undergaduate offerings.</p>
<p>Wow-- </p>
<p>Glad to hear they have done well. My memories of that area are of Genny cream ale, LOL</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, the terms “ivy college” and “ivy league” (lower-case “i,” lower-case “l”) were FIRST used to refer to the schools in the Northeast that date to the colonial period. This would include, in addition to 7 of the 8 members of the current Ivy League (upper-case “I” and “L”) athletic conference, Bowdoin and Rutgers (which was a private school until the 1940s); but it would exclude Cornell, which wasn’t founded until the Civil War era. Schools like Williams, Amherst, and Middlebury date only to the early 1800s and thus on the narrowest definition were not considered “ivy league.” </p>
<p>The term “ivy league” was also sometimes used in a slightly broader way to include the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy, although West Point wasn’t founded until 1802 and Annapolis not until 1845. These schools, however, were deemed to have a similar prestige, and in the early 20th century they competed with the other ivy league schools in athletics, especially football, so some people included them in the ivy league designation—all before there was a formal 8-member athletic conference known as the Ivy League. </p>
<p>Language evolves over time. I have no problem with people using the designation “Ivy” (or “ivy”) in a variety of ways, as long as it helps them make their meaning clear and does not lead to confusion. But to insist that the term can only be used to refer to the 8 members of the present-day Ivy League athletic conference is both historically inaccurate and linguistically straightjacketing, and to that extent unhelpful.</p>
<p>^^From what I recall from a tour I took in Schenectady Union College was once in that group that considered itself a peer institution of Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, etc. The way the Union tour guide spun it the college’s decision to remain an undergraduate-only college nixed any opportunity for Union to join the club. </p>
<p>Please note, I wouldn’t bet the farm on the veracity of this account – just reporting what we were told.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Gee, I thought that the term came from parents needing to receive an IV after seeing their first bill from one of those bastions of academic excellence. Latta’s invention of 1831 came later. Oh well!</p>
<p>I think we have it: “The I.V. League.” Good one, xiggi!</p>
<p>70 posts and no one has brought up Newsweek’s 2006 article “America’s 25 New Elite 'Ivies”?</p>
<p>They were:
Boston College
Bowdoin College
Carnegie Mellon University
The Claremont Colleges (they singled out Harvey Mudd and Pomona)
Colby University
Colgate College
Davidson College
Emory University
Kenyon College
Macalaster College
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
New York University
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
Olin College of Engineering
Reed College
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rice University
University of Rochester
Skidmore College
Tufts University
UCLA
Vanderbilt University
University of Virginia
Washington University in St. Louis</p>
<p>math see post 56</p>
<p>^Okay, but that was pretty subtle. :)</p>
<p>Back to the original post…
</p>
<p>Coming from ACC and SEC country, I can assure you that no one has ever thought “sports” when you mention these schools ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think there’s a great deal of veracity in what the Union tourguide was saying. Union, along with an array of old-line New England colleges at the turn-of-the 20th century, was holding the line against the “university movement” being led by Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Johns Hopkins and Cornell. They would have included the following colleges:</p>
<p>Amherst
Bowdoin
Dartmouth
Union
Wesleyan
Williams
[JSTOR:</a> An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie](<a href=“http://www.jstor.org/pss/363809]JSTOR:”>Review: [Untitled] on JSTOR)</p>
<p>Each in its own way would have to come to grips with the academic equivalent of the German <em>gesellschaft</em> which would ultimately surplant them, in the minds of the general public at least, as the most widely accepted delivery system for a baccalaureate degree.</p>
<p>Dartmouth’s inclusion among this group of “renegades” suggests just how fluid the concept of an “Ivy League” actually was through much of the last century.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Rutgers, William & Mary, and seven of the current Ivys were were founded in the colonial period. Bowdoin was not. It missed the colonial period by 18 years and is only 8 years older than West Point.</p>
<p>I like the popular term “climbing vines” schools. ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Au contraire. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So it appears the term “Ivy League” WAS used first in a sports context—but only as a pejorative.</p>
<p>The Ivy League NCAA athletic conference did not come into existence until 1954.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Here’s an idea: let’s reserve the term “Academic Ivies” for the ORIGINAL members of the AAU, those who joined at the founding in 1900:</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Penn
Columbia
Cornell
Johns Hopkins
Michigan
Chicago
Wisconsin-Madison
UC Berkeley
Stanford</p>
<p>I like it!</p>
<p>
that is funny, rom828. We used to go to watch the bands at the halftime show. Not to watch the game.</p>
<p>Clark University and Catholic University were also founding members of the AAU, but quit about a decade ago.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Showing quite a bit of control by not stretching it by a decade, BcK! There were nice catches to be had from 1900 to 1910.</p>