What does HYP mean?

[mdhopeful]

i've wondered

[newt]

It stands for Harvard, Yale, Princeton.

Sometimes you will see other letters up there like "HYPSMC", which would stand for harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, mit, caltech (i think, could be cornell though).

hope that helps.

[mdhopeful]

merci beaucoup

[towerpumpkin]

Rearrange that and you get a word....kind of....CHYMPS

[Roger_Dooley]

Hmmm, if the University of Pennsylvania replaced Yale, I guess you'd have CHUMPS...

It seems like HYPS is the most common extension, giving a nod to non-Ivy Stanford. The HYP grouping is mostly about difficulty of admission, i.e., HYP are a bit tougher to get into than the rest of the Ivies (which aren't exactly easy).