<p>What makes them so attractive to so many people? networking? world-renowned faculty? i'm curious, because a lot of schools just rely on TAs instead of professors and concentrate on grad students instead of undergrads. What makes an ivy uni so attractive then for undergrads ??</p>
<p>Well you hit some of the points. They have some of the best alumni networks around, eminent professors and researchers, and top facilities. You will join a select group of people at an Ivy Legue university. Most people find them attractive because they are glorified in our culture(movies, books,etc.). And most of our presidents attended an Ivy League university.</p>
<p>Honestly, the only Ivies that are considered the "best" are Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.</p>
<p>The other ivies are indeed solid, but there are schools that are considered superior to them (Stanford, MIT, and Caltech come to mind).</p>
<p>If you are low income/middle class, Ivy league schools pay you full fare. I-banking is another career that going to Ivy League schools help.</p>
<p>Networking.</p>
<p>Also, everyone has heard of them and knows they're good. If you graduated from an Ivy, people automatically assume you're smart (whether they should or not).</p>
<p>The Ivies are old, rich, prestigious, with great networks of loyal alumni.</p>
<p>This goes doubly so for HYP, but the other 5 are also at the top. Out of 3000 other schools in the United States, the only other schools that can make a similar claim are Stanford, MIT, Caltech, and Duke. UChicago and Berkeley as well, but they are lacking in certain respects (UChicago socially, Berkeley being better for grads than undergrads)</p>
<p>they aren't</p>
<p>^Yes, they are considered the best. Whether or not you feel as though they are...the general public considersivy league schools to be the best educational institutions offered.</p>
<p>not really</p>
<p>um, yeah pretty much...</p>
<p>Milkmagn, care to at least share your reasoning behind your views?</p>
<p>I agree with Milkmagn actually. Other than Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, most people don't think the Ivies are that special. Sure they're all good schools, but so are places like Duke, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Berkeley (though the undergrad suffers, reputation is often based on grad school), Northwestern, UChicago, WashU...the list goes on and on.</p>
<p>The people I know all are more impressed when someone attends Stanford than when someone attends Brown, or when someone goes to MIT vs when someone goes to Cornell, or when a guy gets into Duke vs a guy who gets into Dartmouth.</p>
<p>I don't think I've met a single person who considers the Ivies to be the top 8 schools in the country.</p>
<p>I didn't have time to explain my views, but it's basically what JP_Omnipotence said in the post above</p>
<p>usually when people say "the ivy league" they refer to the best colleges, not the actual 8. i stated the other day in a cornell forum i think, that most people (the everyday peeps that glorify the ivies) could not tell you all 8 ivy league colleges, and would probably say stanford or MIT in the list. now, many of us high schoolers are well aware of which 8 are ivies, but usually if you know enough about colleges to name the exact 8, then you probably ALSO know that there are better schools that aren't "ivy."</p>
<p>also... people always say how TA's teach ivy league classes, like it is soooooooo horrible. well, the TA's are wickedly smart (probably smarter / better than professors at other colleges).</p>
<p>^ how are they chosen?? are they grad students?? can they at least speak english?? (i'm not being sarcastic, my sister's classes at UCLA are taught by TAs who can barely speak english themselves, i geniunely want to know). </p>
<p>from what most people are posting, it seems to be the alumni networking/prestige factor that seperates the ivies.</p>
<p>Perhaps the Ivys are generally thought of as the best because that's how TV and movies depict them. I'm not saying this is true, but among the common person, that is the perception. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I agree with Milkmagn actually. Other than Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, most people don't think the Ivies are that special. Sure they're all good schools, but so are places like Duke, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Berkeley (though the undergrad suffers, reputation is often based on grad school), Northwestern, UChicago, WashU...the list goes on and on.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I wonder how many people actually know the LAC's? I'm sure the people on this board have, but what about the average guy on the street? I bet they know the Ivys are for smart people, but do they even know Williams is a college?</p>
<p>
[quote]
usually when people say "the ivy league" they refer to the best colleges, not the actual 8. i stated the other day in a cornell forum i think, that most people (the everyday peeps that glorify the ivies) could not tell you all 8 ivy league colleges, and would probably say stanford or MIT in the list. now, many of us high schoolers are well aware of which 8 are ivies, but usually if you know enough about colleges to name the exact 8, then you probably ALSO know that there are better schools that aren't "ivy."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm going to agree with this. Most people would know Harvard and Yale, but what about Brown and Dartmouth? They're probably forgotten frequently.</p>
<p>Perception isn't reality.</p>
<p>ivies in my experience aren't regarded as highly on the west coast (HYP aside, obviously those are regarded highly). i think it is just what you are raised with, if all you hear about is ivies then that is you idea of the best school. if any of you follow college football its like how ohio state just gets the BCS championship because why not, they always do! (yes this is biased, but coming from a very USC area we don't like ohio state much when it comes to football)</p>
<p>People should know about LACs by now. The 2 Democrat candidates came from LACs. Obama came from Occidental college and is known as a superior writer. It must be due to his experience at an LAC because LACs focus on writing. HRC from Wellesley which is another LAC.</p>
<p>Ivies aren't considered the best. They're considered to be among the best. All 8 happen to be ranked among the top 15 universities in the nation. Even though it's a sports league, the term is used to denote academic excellence, sometimes in reference to schools that aren't even in the Ivy League.</p>
<p>TA's usually don't teach classes. They hold review sessions or sections. I've found many TA's to be extremely good and often better than professors. This is because the material is still fresh in their minds and they can better relate to undergrads. No matter how seriously an Ivy League professor takes his teaching duties, teaching undergraduate courses is still beneath him. For example, at Cornell, Roald Hoffman teaches an intro gen chem course. No matter how much he likes teaching undergrads, he didn't get a phD at Harvard and a Nobel Prize in Chemistry so that he could teach us something a HS teacher w/ no advanced degree can do just as well.</p>