<p>Expense aside, which schools would you chose/give a second glance over the Ivy League and why?</p>
<p>Schools with a strong intellectual vibe for those who are really into a subject for the sake of the subject: eg, U of Chicago, Swarthmore.</p>
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The Ivies are not carbon copies of one another, and it is silly to treat them as such. Applicants do not apply to “the Ivies.” Rather, they apply to specific schools that may or may not be part of the Ivy League. </p>
<p>For example, a student who enjoys nature may avoid Columbia like the plague but apply to Cornell and other schools like Middlebury and CU Boulder. A student who wants an open curriculum may avoid Penn but apply to Brown and other schools like Amherst and U Rochester. </p>
<p>There are only a few reasons that I can think of for students to reject the Ivies en masse:
[ul][<em>]High profile athletes may prefer a more competitive athletic environment.
[</em>]Some students see themselves most at home at LACs and prefer to avoid universities.
[<em>]Some students need to stay within a certain geographic region for various reasons (e.g. an ailing parent) and are unable/unwilling to attend school in the Northeast.
[</em>]Some students intend to pursue professional fields that are not offered at most Ivies (e.g. architecture and wildlife management).[/ul]</p>
<p>My own school, for a start, followed by UChicago a bunch of LACs. You seem to assume that the Ivy League is the be-all and end-all of higher education, but personally, I have never been interested in getting my BA from any of those eight schools, save perhaps Columbia.</p>
<p>A better question would be, why are you so fixated on the Ivy League? What do Dartmouth and Cornell have in common that makes them more desirable than any school not in the Ivy League?</p>
<p>Well, if you think about it, its mainly the Ivy allure…like there’s IVYplus, IvyAppHelp, IvyHelp, IvyHallAcademy, Ivysuccess, Ivy this, Ivy that.</p>
<p>Mainly the allure, the prestige is what interests me. I feel I’ll get the same education in another college that isn’t Ivy. But an Ivy League gets me both that same education AND the prestige associated with it (which I feel will socially help me).</p>
<p>Obviously if I want a rural setting, I can apply to Dartmouth. Or an urban feel, then UPenn. But then again, I could also apply to some other rural college that isn’t Ivy or another urban non-Ivy such as Emory.
My question is would you pick Penn over Emory if they both equally served your needs in every way? Why or why not?
Would you pick Dartmouth over, say, <em>insert well known non-Ivy in a rural setting</em>? Why or why not?</p>
<p>If I’m wrong then please correct me.</p>
<p>This article nicely summarizes Ghostt’s viewpoint: [#98</a> The Ivy League Stuff White People Like](<a href=“http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/06/98-the-ivy-league/?cp=46]#98”>http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/06/98-the-ivy-league/?cp=46)</p>
<p>My D wanted a small school with great all around academics. Williams suits her perfectly.</p>
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</p>
<p>Indeed it does, thank you. Or it would have, if I hadn’t withdrawn from the ‘dog and pony show’ in question at the very beginning of my high-school career, when I realized I was perfectly happy with getting Bs and Cs in school and not studying for the SAT, thus preemptively repudiating any tortured delusions/rationalizations about attending/not attending Harvard I might have developed otherwise, or if I weren’t a staunch supporter of affirmative action, or if I didn’t have better reasons to prefer liberal arts colleges to research universities. If, in fact, I hadn’t attended a school in a country where few people have even heard of the Ivy League, let alone see it as a source of hidden trauma and self-esteem issues.</p>
<p>Other than that, spot-on. I do like old buildings.</p>
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<p>Well, did your D consider Dartmouth?</p>
<p>Any school with a better program for the desired major than the Ivy League school it is competing with. (Plenty of examples in engineering and computer science, as well as any major not offered at the specific Ivy League school.)</p>
<p>I chose the University of Michigan over several Ivies for three reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>I was drawn to the strong sense of pride and school spirit at Michigan.</li>
<li>I found the students were more welcoming and pleasant.</li>
<li>I loved the college town atmosphere at Ann Arbor far more than the surounding areas at the Ivy League schools I was considering.</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
Well, did your D consider Dartmouth?
[quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, she visited and if came off the list. It was the only Ivy she was willing to consider. Being 1/500 in her class and a 2370 SAT with outstanding ECs, I’m sure she would have been accepted to most anywhere she wanted to attend. She chose to apply to only small LACs with our flagship as a safety. She felt there was no advantage that an Ivy could provide that our state flagship couldn’t.</p>