<p>What makes a college an Ivy League? Why are they considered the best? Why are they so expensive? </p>
<p>What makes a college renown and better than other colleges? </p>
<p>I'm confused about this all mess.</p>
<p>I think it’s because a lot of successful people went to them.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because they’re old, and because it’s a bit of a cycle - they’re selective so more people want to go to them, which pushes their acceptance rate down, which makes them even more selective and more desirable to people. Plus they have great endowment, so they’re generally affordable, with FA, to the financially needy and the internationals. And the more selective they get, the more accomplished crop of applicants they achieve, which again makes them more desirable.</p>
<p>Didn’t Ivy League originally start out as some old sports group or something?</p>
<p>The Ivy League is still an athletic division. We formed the same way as the Big 10, a football conference. Princeton and Yale lead in football championships, though no Ivy has any championship since Princeton won in 35.</p>
<p>A student’s ability to take advantage of the opportunities offered at the college makes a college a good college. I guess you can say an “excellent” college is subjective. I know whatever college I attend, I’m going to take advantage of everything it offers.</p>
<p>The Ivy League is a sports league. The colleges involved just happen to be among the oldest and most renown colleges in the country. But there are plenty of equally or more “prestigious” universities that are not Ivies. Take Stanford or MIT, for example. </p>
<p>But I generally agree with QuasiProfound. The colleges at the top are usually there because they have the most funds. They can hire the smartest professors in the country, fund research, give scholarships to the brightest students (at least way back when, when the admission rates were still in the higher double-digits; now primarily graduate students), etc. Why are they so expensive? Because they can. And technically speaking they are still a bargain. A few years back Yale reported spending $80,000 on the education of a single undergraduate student per year, but “only” charged $40,000 for tuition, room and board.</p>
<p>colleges are also renowned for their professors being nobel prize laureates</p>
<p>Any college that begins with “University of” and ends with “Wisconsin-Madison” is obviously excellent.</p>
<p>how about university of absolutely amazingly silly, over-filled with other superlatives wisconsin-madison?</p>
<p>Univ of Virgina, UMich, UNC, and maybe a few (stress FEW) others aside,
what makes a college excellent, in my opinion, is the fact it’s private.</p>
<p>think about it. private schools tuition is usually 40k-50k total. Public may be as low as under 10k. If everyone can afford it, isn’t it less desirable? Aren’t the kids less likely to succeed (parents have less connections high up in the social ladder etc)? </p>
<p>Remember, before you criticize, I’m talking about MY personal opinion. But if you think about it (and look at the alumni of private vs public schools), it does correlate.</p>
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Affordability is just one factor. Harvard, while private, might be one of the most affordable universities in the country because their financial aid policies are so generous. On the other hand, UC Berkeley is a highly sought-after affordable public university. Or take Georgia Tech: in-state students with a 3.0 GPA attend for free!</p>
<p>Public schools have two significant disadvantages to private schools: they are not quite as old, so they have had less time to build an endowment and a strong reputation; and they are bound by state regulations, which might require them to accept a certain number of in-state students (instead of more highly qualified out-of-state applicants) or keep tuition below a certain level (over a century that makes a HUGE difference in terms of endowment income, etc). At the end of the day most public universities simply have a different goal than the Ivies. They want to provide an affordable education to the general population. Lucky for us that these places do exist.</p>
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<p>Agree 100%. Especially about the different focuses. Public colleges are basically the government doing their duty to their citizens to provide a proper education. They want to make sure that every person has a full advantage in life.</p>
<p>Its cheaper in public universities because they don’t allocate as many resources to students. Public schools are hit harder with budget cuts and don’t always hire the most experienced professors due to money and the sheer amount of people they need to deal with, but they offer the course. In the hands of a student who is willing to go above and beyond and put in enormous effort - it makes little difference between him and a private school student. But not every student wants to put in that much effort…</p>
<p>Ivies are just a term that I feel has been over exploited and just silly since many schools match them. Its a tradition I suppose… Their trademark “Ivy-league” nets them prestige and attention, which gives them a lot of funds capable of giving those generous loans and taking the best of students, no matter what the background. </p>
<p>But no matter what a regular school will make no difference from an Ivy league school if you put in the same amount of effort and are genuinely interested in the material. The only difference is that at an Ivy, you will be given the proper resources/materials and be expected to understand that. In a state school, you will have to go the extra mile to understand.</p>
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<p>Laughable. Especially since private schools are not worth the money.</p>
<p>The Ivy League is a sports league. Period.</p>
<p>i don’t know why i’m giving a heads up, because it is self-evident from his posts, but bmwdude is an idiot.</p>
<p>he’s forgetting that there are a ton of horrible private schools out there too.</p>
<p>^ lolololol it’s very true</p>
<p>lol every argument he’s made on this board has been</p>
<p>richer = better than</p>
<p>What a moronic post by bmwdude, though that’s par for the course from him.</p>
<p>^^ Definitely seconded- when you go beyond the best 100 or so colleges (irregardless of whatever rankings you use) the quality (as well as funding, that’s a big one for finaid) goes off a cliff.</p>
<p>“If everyone can afford it, isn’t it less desirable?”</p>
<p>BMW’s ideology in a nutshell.</p>
<p>I’m literally laughing out loud right now.</p>