This question has limited value as every college is unique but when it comes to Top 20 colleges, there are commonalities as well. Are there any clear differences between Ivies and non-Ivies?
There are differences even among 8 Ivy Leagues schoolsâŠ
I agree with @TiggerDad. I might add that there are big differences between say Stanford versus MIT, or either of the above versus Chicago.
To me the biggest difference would be in computer science and engineering, where most of the strongest schools are not in the Ivy League. However, if I were not majoring in computer science or engineering I would not care about this.
In fact I majored in math, where the difference between âall Ivy League schoolsâ versus âtop 8 non-Ivy schoolsâ is meaningless, but the difference between individual schools is significant. Of the top 6 schools for math in the last ranking that I looked at, 2 are in the Ivy League, two are in the US but not in the Ivy League, and 2 are in the UK. Of course the next ranking might show things differently.
I think that if you want to apply to a top 20 school, then you need to look at each school individually, and figure out which schools make sense for you.
I never get why it isnât enough to value each school for the unique and outstanding academic institution it is.
A major commonality among Ivy League schools is that are in the same sports league and their teams consistently play against one other.
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The IVYs are all in the north east coast, all private (Cornell might be the odd one out here), and imho, some of the IVYs have benefited tremendously from a historic coincidence (an athletic league) for a long time.
The Ivy League is an NCAA Division I FCS conference.
Are any of the other USNWR top 20 schools in NCAA Division I FCS conferences? Seems like there are 6 in NCAA Division I FBS conferences (or independent) and 6 in NCAA Division III conferences.
We have consensus on the IVYs, do we have the consensus on the other top 12? @ucbalumnus ?
It looks like for the other twelve, none is in the same NCAA conference as any other.
Which 12 are you talking about? Which ranking do you use? @ucbalumnus
In all (not-so) seriousness, the Ivy League has its own coffee table book:
Stanford, UCLA (Pac 12), Duke (ACC) and while not in a conference for football, ND (ACC).
Large endowments for the most part. Long histories. Large alumni base with deep pockets. Excellent resources and academics. Smart undergrads. Pretty campuses.
Add another 100 schools and the traits donât change a whole bunch.
âStanford, UCLA (Pac 12) and while not in a conference for football, ND.â
And Cal.^
Duke, Virginia, UNC play in the same conference
JHU and Michigan are both in the big 10 for lacrosse(and Northwestern for womeâs lax)âŠ
I donât know what the other 12 schools are for the top 20âŠ
Do they have âthingsâ in common? Sure. Some are very good in medicine and health care, several are the same size for undergrad and have large grad schools, some are in the same states or regions, but all are unique in waht they offer.
What ranking are we using? Iâm using USNWR T20.
Cal is not in the USNWR Top 20. Theyâre currently sitting at #22. Neither is UVa, and UMich. And no one cares about LAX. :lol:
I mentioned Duke above.
Pretty broad question, since you could sort schools by size, geography, urban/suburban/rural location, weather and a ton of other factors.
And some T20 schools are pretty different and distinctive. MIT and Caltech are pretty unique in the T20. So is Dartmouth, which is more comparable to LACs like Willams or Middlebury.
But you could lump Stanford, Duke, NW, Vandy, ND together if you wanted. All mid-size privates, high academics, urban/suburban location, Power 5 FBS sports.
Crud, I forgot about Northwestern and Vandy. 
U.S. News doesnât publish an inclusive top-20 ranking, of course. Based on the point of reference of Ivy League colleges established by the OP, however, this threadâs intended T-20 schools appear to be limited to USNâs National Universities category.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities
Except Yale. And Duke. And JHU.
We could add some strong womenâs programs: Northwestern, Princeton, Notre Dame, Penn, Dartmouth . . .
Those are all in NCAA Division I FBS (not FCS like the Ivy League).