Yet Another Ivy League versus Non-Ivy-League Thread (Part 4, I think)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Lots of people like to talk about "Ivy League," colleges, sometimes without defining what they mean by that term. I'll post here some FAQ information about the Ivy League. </p>

<p>The Ivy League is an intercollegiate athletic league </p>

<p>Ivy</a> League - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia </p>

<p>Encyclopedia</a> Brunoniana | Ivy League </p>

<p>consisting of eight colleges, all of which were founded long before the intercollegiate athletic league existed and all of which are located in the northeast United States. They have some common policies related to admission </p>

<p>Common</a> Ivy league Admissions Statement </p>

<p>and related to athletic recruiting and financial aid. </p>

<p>[Ivy]Ivy</a> League Sports](<a href="http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/admission-statement.asp%5DIvy%5DIvy"&gt;http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/admission-statement.asp) League Sports </p>

<p>Besides the Ivy League proper, there is an "Ivy Plus" group consisting of some colleges with similar (but not always identical) policies in those areas. </p>

<p>IVY:</a> MIT-Stanford Conference 2004 - The Future of Philantropy: Tradition, Technology, Transformation </p>

<p><a href="http://www.hio.harvard.edu/about_hio/ivy_plus.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.hio.harvard.edu/about_hio/ivy_plus.pdf&lt;/a> </p>

<p>The Ivy Plus colleges enter into various mutual discussions of college admissions and other research issues. </p>

<p>The Ivy League is an athletic conference, and as such it was a grouping of colleges conveniently close to one another for scheduling sports contests back when college football teams traveled by railroad. The eight colleges that make up the Ivy League have enough collective brand name cachet that some writers refer to "little Ivies" </p>

<p>Little</a> Ivies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia </p>

<p>or "public Ivies," </p>

<p>Public</a> Ivy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia </p>

<p>but neither of those terms is an official designation of an athletic league or formal grouping of colleges. </p>

<p>What's your favorite college? What do you like about it? Is it part of the Ivy League?</p>

2

<p>Tufts, I think, is probably the best for me. Whether its my favorite- I'm not sure. Tufts is pretty much the best of both worlds- focus on the liberal arts yet still a university, small, yet somewhat large, liberal bent politically but still diverse. Plus, it's in Boston, which is pretty cool in my opinion- gotta love the New England charm. </p>

<p>According to your post, it's a "Little Ivy," but I don't think that term is applicable. Tufts is Tufts, and that's pretty good for me.</p>

3

<p>My favorite college is Cornell. </p>

<p>It is part of the Ivy League and therefore shares in all the advantages of Ivy League identity.</p>

<p>It has a beautiful campus in a beautiful area of New York, which is close to my home. A really beautiful campus during every season of the year.</p>

<p>It has outstanding academics. The Engineering school is one of the best in the USA. Faculty scholarly productivity is high and they are also very good teachers. There are many opportunities for undergraduate research involvement and for internships. The graduate students are readily accessible to help with problem sets and projects. The program is problem-centered, with many group projects. There is a strong work-ethic. Excellent facilities and resources.</p>

<p>The caliber of students is very high. The College of Arts and Sciences is nearly as selective as Dartmouth. The College of Engineering is nearly as selective as Caltech and MIT. Cornell possesses what are arguably the finest specialty schools in the country for Hotel Management, Agriculture, Architecture, Industrial and Labor Relations. The students at Cornell have a level of sophistication and maturity, both intellectual and personal, that I find most comfortable. On the other hand, Cornell students are down-to-earth. Many come from public school systems. Cornell students enrich each other's lives and serve as good role models for each other. They also know how to have fun, but not at each other's expense nor in a self-destructive way.</p>

<p>Cornell has both intellectual and demographic diversity. There is a broad range of majors at Cornell. Such diversity in intellectual pursuits enriches the Cornell experience. I prefer such diversity to a more narrow focus, such as found at the Tech schools.</p>

<p>The faculty also have a level of dedication and professional and personal maturity that serves students well. They are excellent mentors and role models. They are conscientious about helping seniors with recommendations to secure jobs and or acceptance into graduate/professional school.</p>

<p>There is a great history, tradition, and culture at Cornell. Campus Culture is an intangible quality but I clearly felt the difference at Cornell in comparison to public universities and other top private schools. It is distinctively Ivy League. A discerning taste can tell the difference.</p>

<p>I loved the amenities of the adjacent commercial district, Collegetown, and of Ithaca, NY.</p>

<p>After Cornell, I like Princeton, Brown, and Dartmouth. These four Ivies are focused on undergraduate education but provide the advantages for undergraduates that are associated with the presence of strong graduate programs.</p>

<p>Among the non-Ivies, I like MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Rice, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Georgetown (a pretty diverse group).</p>

<p>Among the next tier of schools, I like U Rochester and Syracuse. </p>

<p>Among publics, I like U Maryland College Park. I respect Berkeley, Michigan, Virginia, Georgia Tech, William and Mary, Wisconsin, Illinois.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the mention of colleges. My oldest son is very interested in mathematics, and also in computer science, so over the last several years I've been trying to develop a sense of what colleges currently have strong programs in those fields (but not limited to those fields). It appears to us that our in-state flagship university, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, is sufficiently strong and affordable to be a worthwhile choice as a "safety" college for him. Other colleges I heard about early, as I saw my son's interests developing, include (in no particular order) MIT (non-Ivy), Stanford (non-Ivy), Chicago (non-Ivy), Berkeley (non-Ivy, and public), Harvard (Ivy), Princeton (Ivy), Carnegie Mellon (non-Ivy), Caltech (non-Ivy, and my "dream" college from childhood when I aspired to study physics, although I ended up never applying there), and a few other similar "reach" colleges. What we're trying to figure out now is what colleges in the mid-range between the most selective of those just mentioned and the in-state flagship would be most worth applying to, and on what grounds. We have attended regional information sessions in our town for (in appoximate chronological order, beginning four years ago) </p>

<p>Harvard,
MIT,
Princeton,
Caltech,
Stanford,
Yale,
Brown,
Cornell,
Dartmouth,
U VA,
Carnegie Mellon,
Duke,
Georgetown,
Penn,
Chicago,
Columbia,
Rice,
and the Colleges That Change Lives consortium.
(I may be forgetting a few regional information meetings even at that.)
There seem to be a lot of good choices in colleges these days. I can not think of any reason to entirely exclude Ivy League colleges from consideration, nor can I think of any reason to consider only exactly the eight colleges that are in the Ivy League.</p>

5

<p>My fav. is Brown. The liberal arts education, open curric., politically and socially liberal atmosphere, moderate size, Northeast location, and close proximity to Boston can't be beat. No other school comes close. </p>

<p>Fav. Private Uni (Non Ivy): Tufts</p>

<p>Fav. lower tier: Northeastern</p>

<p>Fav. Lib Arts: Macalester</p>

<p>Fav. Public: Berkeley</p>

6

<p>I've heard St Olaf is very good for math among LACs.</p>

<p>LACs for math from Rugg's:
Bates
Bowdoin
Bucknell
Carleton
Colgate
Dartmouth
Davidson
Dickinson
Harvey Mudd
Holy Cross
Kenyon
Mount Holyoke
Occidental
Pomona
Rice
St Mary's (MD)
St Olaf
Trinity (CT)
Union
Wabash
Wellesley
Wheaton
Whitman
Willamette</p>

7

<p>Gourman Report ranking for undergrad math:
Princeton
UC Berkeley
Harvard
MIT
U Chicago
Stanford
NYU
Yale
Wisconsin Madison
Columbia
Michigan Ann Arbor
Brown
Cornell
UCLA
Illinois Urbana Champaign
Caltech
Minnesota
U Penn
Notre Dame
Georgia Tech
U washington
Purdue WL
Rutgers NB
Indiana U Bloomington
U Maryland College Park
Rice
UC San Diego
Northwestern
Texas Austin
carnegie Mellon
Johns Hopkins
Washington U St Louis
Ohio State
SUNY Stony Brook
Penn State
UVA
RPI
Illinois Chicago
U Colorado Boulder
U Kentucky
UNC Chapel Hill
Dartmouth
U Rochester
U Utah
SUNY Buffalo
Tulane
USC
UC Santa Barbara
U Massachusetts AMherst
U Oregon
Duke
Louisiana State Baton Rouge
U Arizona
case Western
Michigan State
U Pittsburgh
Brandeis
US Air Force Academy</p>

8

<p>Chicago, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Notre Dame, Purdue, Northwestern are all rated highly for math and are in between Minnesota and the top twelve.</p>

<p>But, Minnesota was rated pretty high in the Gourman Report for math.</p>

<p>How about an LAC like Carleton or St Olaf?</p>

9

<p>I like Carnegie Mellon (Non-ivy) and MIT (non-ivy) even though they are not Ivies because of their strong computer science and business programs. Quantitative abilities and business are very marketable and these two schools are among the nation's best in both programs.</p>

10

<p>Penn, for a bajillion reasons</p>