kelseyg

You know, I'm having a hard time telling the serious post from the parody these days.

CayugaRed2005

Welcome to our postmodern society.

Pizzagirl

Thank you, Hawkette. Exactly.

Pizzagirl

"Finally, if you actually attend an Ivy League school, you won't have to spend the rest of your life wishing you had and trying to rationalize your choice to do otherwise."

I turned down Penn to go to NU. I loved NU and I'm equally sure I would have had a fine time at Penn; it was a tough decision. Why would I spend the rest of my life wishing I'd gone to Penn or rationalizing my choice to go to NU? How supremely odd, collegehelp. Do you think the OP, or any poster on this board, needs to have the Ivies portrayed as The Ultimate Destination So Incredibly Superior to Anything Else? Isn't there enough madness among high school seniors on this board without acting as though the daily experience of being at an Ivy is appreciably different from the daily experience of being at *any top-level college?

oldfort

Ivies may have started as a "football division", but over time it has become a "top tier college division." People want to go there because they are first tier schools, not because they are top tier football schools. That being said, each Ivy school is different. You wouldn't get the same experience at each school. You should find a school that's the right fit, whether it's an ivy or not.

K9Leader

So I take it that you weren't one of those Cornell students who were friendly, down-to-earth, respectful of others, and not an elitist?

I know that I will spend the rest of my life being thankful that I chose otherwise -- yes, I had the choice and chose otherwise. I loved where I went to school and I didn't run the risk that I would ever have to suffer you and your distorted version of "down-to-earth friendliness and respectful non-elitism."

--K9Leader

K9Leader

PizzaGirl:
Mine was William & Mary instead of Penn. And I don't want this to be taken as a slight on Penn -- I still think it is a great school. My son even considered it before deciding to go to . . . William & Mary.
--K9Leader

patlees88

The reality is that there are going to be some snobby people at the ivies, and there will be some very down to earth people at the ivies as well. In fact, i guess this trait is not exclusive to only ivies, but this applies to any other top schools, such as Duke, Stanford, Northwestern, U of Chicago, Georgetown, MIT, etc. But, I guess what collegehelp was saying, although I wouldn't necessarily agree, is that the ivies might have an aura for sophistication, tradition, and other unique atmospheres due to these schools' ages, buildings, locations, lack of focus on sports, tradition, etc.

collegehelp

The Ivies really are the best. They offer a wonderful environment for learning. There is a different feeling at the Ivies. If you visit, you will probably sense it. So, I would encourage the OP to visit.

And, yes, if you decide to attend an Ivy you won't second-guess yourself. There is something to be said for that.

Speaking out truthfully about the desireability of an Ivy education is labeled elitist by those who can't discern the difference. It isn't elitist, it is a matter of appreciating the nuances of a superior education.

Yes, I's say the aura stems from history, tradition, excellence, culture, attitude...a host of things. But, it stems from things that are substantial as well as intangible. And, the aura at a school has an effect on its students over time. Students absorb the "personality" of a school.

You shouldn't underestimate the importance of intangibles.

tokenadult

Is this a statement that someone admitted to (for example) Stanford and Dartmouth should in all cases prefer Dartmouth? Or that some admitted to MIT and Cornell should in all cases prefer Cornell?

I try to avoid ambiguity (or incredible statement) by saying that the exact list of eight colleges that constitute the sports conference known as the Ivy League are all indisputably fine colleges, and that there are other colleges (which mostly are in the formal "Ivy plus" group) that can truly be called "Ivy peer" colleges. For some applicants seeking some learning opportunities, some colleges not in the Ivy League are plainly better than some colleges not in the Ivy League. MIT would be an example of one such college, and Caltech is another, and Stanford is a third.

lOngbOWmeN

^ colleges like Stanford, MIT, Duke do not need to qualify themselves, their repute and quality are indisputable....strapping on terms like "ivy plus" or "ivy peer" or insisting that ppl mention them when they talk about ivies only serve to reinforce the idea that they are NOT ivies and that academic excellence is exclusive to the ivies

i find it strange that ppl construe statements like "Finally, if you actually attend an Ivy League school, you won't have to spend the rest of your life wishing you had and trying to rationalize your choice to do otherwise." and "ivies are the best" negatively and brand posters the elitist....these are merely views of posters who take pride in their colleges, just like Mr Hawkette, and as long as its not at the expense of denigrating other colleges (i.e. making stupid statements like other colleges suck, or ivies own everything else big time), i see no reason y such posts shud be construed in a negative light....it seems that many CCers have a serious allergy to ivy

Pizzagirl

The Ivies really are the best. They offer a wonderful environment for learning. There is a different feeling at the Ivies. If you visit, you will probably sense it. So, I would encourage the OP to visit. >>

How is the feeling at the Ivies (and again I think it's really weird to group, say, Dartmouth and Columbia together when their only shared experiences are excellent academics and an athletic conference) appreciably different from the other elite schools?

Pizzagirl

"The Ivies really are the best. They offer a wonderful environment for learning. There is a different feeling at the Ivies. If you visit, you will probably sense it. So, I would encourage the OP to visit."

For absolutely everything? So, if I'm interested in journalism, I should go to an Ivy over Northwestern? If I'm interested in engineering, I should go to any old Ivy over MIT or Caltech? If I don't want to be in the northeast for whatever reason, I should just get over it?

theoneo

The Ivy League is not a division by itself; it is a mostly random subset of the top tier.

jazzymom

I don't take this viewpoint as negative as much as simply outdated. A nostalgic look into the past, perhaps, to a time when this was true. It simply no longer is. MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Chicago, NW are equal to some if not all of "The Ivies" and depending on the program, Duke, WashU, Rice, Vandy, Georgetown, Emory are peer institutions as well. Not to mention the research university powerhouses Berkeley, Michigan, UCLA --- historic excellence and pride oozes from these institutions as well every bit as much as it does from some of the Ivies.

There has been a trickle down of student and faculty talent for years now that has nonIvy colleges on equal footing with Ivies, particularly the non-HYP universities. The concentration of high-level talent is simply not unique to the Ivies any longer and hasn't been for some time. The euphoric feeling of having the privilege to learn amongst the best and brightest is available at many other institutions, not only at the Ivies.