What attracts people to the Ivy Leagues ?

[BurnThis]

<p>IBClass,
Grade inflation? I just meant that all law schools have heard of Yale, but not all might be as impressed with a lesser ranked school. (As a lawyer, married to a lawyer, I know that where you go to law school matters forever, not just for your first job.) I’m not sure I understand your point.</p>

[xAAAx]

<p>Don’t forget their campuses.
I personally wouldn’t go to a college with a campus or curriculum I despise. The Ivies that I like have +'s in both</p>

[OHKID]

<p>To respond to the OP, I would say job security. Also allows you to study a field you love instead of being pigeon-holed into a pre-professional field that you may or may not have an interest in.</p>

[noimagination]

<p>

To respond to the OP, I would say job security. Also allows you to study a field you love instead of being pigeon-holed into a pre-professional field that you may or may not have an interest in.

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/794669-unemployed-underemployed-recent-top-20-college-grads-why.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/794669-unemployed-underemployed-recent-top-20-college-grads-why.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[eatsalot]

<p>

@interestingguy

</p>

<p>^ Stanford and MIT are as good as any Ivies. The others…not so much.

</p>

<p>you alwaysss ■■■■■. </p>

<p>you are such a prick get a life.</p>

[gadad]

<p>

offering the kind of environment where you can invite the Dalai Lama in for lunch at school expense

</p>

<p>Funny you should mention - Harvard has a written policy for student organizations that wish to invite a foreign head of state to campus. I laughed when I saw it and asked a campus administrator what the odds were that a king or a president would accept a student invitation. She looked at me in all seriousness and said “Well you know we wouldn’t have had to write a policy if it didn’t periodically happen!”</p>

[Topolover]

<p>

@tk21769

^ For geology? Maybe so. The Boulder/Rocky Mt environment is another big draw for some people.

University of Southern Illinois is perfect for sedimentology/coal geology. </p>

<p>

@tk21769

I like Midwestern schools (ACM colleges, Chicago) as alternatives to the Ivies and NESCAC colleges, primarily for three reasons. First, as IBClass mentions, the Ivies (and NESCACs) generally don’t give scholarships; the top Midwestern schools do. Second, I don’t like the crap-shoot aspect of the Ivy/NESCAC admissions policies. Not just that they’re so selective (which is a reflection of their appeal), but also the use of mysterious “hooks” and practice of “crafting a class”. Other schools do this too, but the Ivies/NESCACs set the standard. Third, for as selective as these schools are, I think there are others that are at least as good in intellectual atmosphere.

Actually, I found that <em>I</em> am in error. Just out of curiosity I hit Wikipedia (as a quickie ed. source) and found my understanding of "Ivy League is way off. I was with the understanding it was based on the first four colleges in the US after the Revolutionary War (thus “IV”).</p>

<p>

@tk21769

All that aside, I don’t think it’s true that you’re paying for the name and prestige alone. By quite a few objective standards and measures, these are top schools. Compared to most other schools, their students are higher scoring going in, higher paid going out. The libraries have more books. The average classes are smaller. The professors are better paid, better published, and better recognized with significant awards. They are better endowed and spend more on research. Etc.

True.</p>

<p>

@monydad

…of course there’s the secret handshake…

Goat. You forgot the goat.</p>

[fauve]

<p>History: students can walk the same paths as Washington (who marched, not attended P & H land), Roosevelt, and JFK.</p>

<p>Unsurpassed architecture: from authentic colonial to gargoyle-bedecked neo-Gothic to Le Courbusier modern.</p>

<p>Amazing resources: biggest libraries, most powerful world leaders as visiting fellows, well-funded study abroad programs and summer internships, art museums filled with Picassos, Monets, Cezannes.</p>

<p>Great community: live, learn, party, date, connect with other amazingly talented, high-energy youth from all over the globe.</p>

<p>Athletics: compete in an environment of Div. I excellence which still values academics.</p>

[budda]

<p>Ambition and the ability to get in, mostly.</p>

[IBclass06]

<p>

@fauve

biggest libraries

Eh?</p>

<p>1. Harvard University 15,181,349
2. Yale University 11,114,308
3. University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign 10,015,321
4. University of California–Berkeley 9,572,462
5. University of Texas–Austin 8,322,944
6. Stanford University 8,000,000
7. University of Michigan 7,800,389
8. Columbia University 7,697,488
9. University of California–Los Angeles 7,576,790
10. University of Wisconsin–Madison 7,232,850
11. Cornell University 7,120,301
12. University of Chicago 6,977,186
13. Indiana University 6,647,355
14. University of Washington 6,436,960
15. Princeton University 6,224,270
16. University of Minnesota 6,200,669
17. Ohio State University 5,674,784
18. University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill 5,492,451
19. Duke University 5,360,303
20. University of Pennsylvania 5,273,887
21. University of Arizona 5,040,584
22. University of Virginia 4,921,442
23. Pennsylvania State University Libraries 4,779,165
24. Michigan State University 4,582,004
25. University of Oklahoma 4,427,670
26. University of Pittsburgh 4,420,970
27. University of Iowa 4,380,734
28. Northwestern University Library 4,315,314
29. New York University 4,176,065
30. Rutgers University 4,050,009
31. University of Florida 4,021,629
32. University of Kansas 3,980,589
33. University of Georgia 3,955,004
34. Arizona State University Libraries 3,856,561
35. University of Southern California 3,800,702
36. Washington University in St. Louis 3,608,538
37. Johns Hopkins University 3,572,375
38. University of South Carolina 3,374,496
39. Brigham Young University 3,373,793
40. University of California–Davis 3,365,689
41. State University of New York–Buffalo 3,330,476
42. Wayne State University 3,323,580
43. University of Colorado 3,314,432
44. University of Hawaii 3,294,184
45. Brown University 3,257,242</p>