Hey! What are some high quality colleges that have outstanding programs/professors? I am trying to find a school that feels like an Ivy and has the same type of students that an Ivy would have. I would also like the option of greek life and study abroad. Thanks!! Let me know. I appreciate any insight-- just please be nice! 
University of Virginia - the campus, the student profile, the quality of faculty and focus on undergraduate programs, reminded me of the Ivy League. My personal opinion
If you can provide a bit more information, we can be more helpful.
- What is your home state?
- What are your basic stats and extra curriculars? GPA weighted and unweighted, ACT or SAT, any subject tests and EC's.
- What majors are you potentially interested in?
- What majors can you rule out? Are you prepared to rule out engineering, business, nursing, and/or education? Some schools offer these majors, and some do not.
There are many colleges and universities, depending on your criteria. Below are some that fit the bill, but I am leaving out several others.
Amherst College
Boston College
Bowdoin College
California Institute of Technology
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon University
Claremont McKenna College
Colgate University
College of William and Mary
Davidson College
Duke University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Hamilton College
Haverford College
Johns Hopkins University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Middlebury College
Northwestern University
Pomona College
Rice University
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
Tufts University
University of California-Berkeley
University of Chicago
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Notre Dame
University of Southern California
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Washington University-St Louis
Wesleyan University
Williams College
What do you mean by Ivy feel? U Penn or Harvard? Columbia or Dartmouth? Huge variety in those schools (I haven’t visited Dartmouth so going from online info). Urban vs rural? Student population? Harvard’s campus in Cambridge is adjacent to Boston but complete different feel to Penn in Philadelphia. Core curriculum or open curriculum?
These are the type questions you need to answer. The schools listed by @Alexandre vary greatly on these as well.
I think that a person could probably list 100 or more colleges and universities that at least some people would say have an “Ivy feel”. Many schools have at least a core of very dedicated hard working studious students. Any university that I have seen has many very good professors. I don’t think that I have ever visited a university that completely lacked a study abroad program. As such I think that we need more information in order to give you a realistic list.
How large a school are you looking for? What can you afford? What state are you from? Do you want to study close to home, or are you willing to travel some to get back and forth between home and school? What is your GPA and do you have test scores available yet?
Lehigh? William & Mary?
Even among the Ivy League there is significant variety in size, location (urban vs. non-urban), undergraduate vs graduate makeup and focus, age, and prestige. They are not as similar as Oxford and Cambridge, for instance. The OP seems to be interested in a quality, motivated student body and faculty. There is clearly a set of schools that have Ivy League quality and characteristics, but simply are in different athletic conferences. This set would include Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Caltech, and Duke. There is also a number of schools that are high quality but are smaller, more limited LACs like Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, etc. Alexandre captures these schools plus a very good list of quality schools. If you spent time on these campuses, you would likely find a noticeable pride of place, sense of community, and strong commitment to education.
Besides those mentioned above, Kenyon.
Rather than start a list of dozens of LACs and some universities, ehy don’t we just suggest OP get a Fiske Guide to Colleges?
Ivy League is a sports conference
What @Alexandre lists + others say here. You may want to Google “hidden Ivies” and “public Ivies” for an even bigger list, then you can start weeding out using whatever criteria is important/relevant to you and afterwards come back here to ask and add even more schools not on those lists (those lists are just someone’s opinion and NOTHING more) . That is (weeding out) the logical thing to do with individual Ivies (if interested in Ivies… Another question altogether) also which is why those in the know usually cringe when they see a kid applying to ALL Ivies. (the exception to the above would be kids that are dependent on need based aid more than fit in which case a wider net might be wise…)
^ Even worse than applying to all of the disparate Ivies are those that get admitted to all of them and then trumpet it to the media. So sick of that cultural phenomenon. Can we please stop giving these folks publicity?
@swampdraggin Oh not again, it’s not just a sports conference. You know exactly what people mean in regards to the Ivy league. Please stop parroting that silly phrase. It’s extremely disingenuous.
At the most basic level, the Ivy League is simply a group of very selective universities in the northeastern US. Note that there are three key characteristics here: (1) very selective, (2) universities, and (3) northeastern US.
There are few other schools that have all three of these characteristics. You could make a case for MIT and Johns Hopkins. Otherwise, you may have to settle for only two of these three characteristics. For example:
- Geographically distant schools like Stanford, Northwestern, or Duke have points (1) and (2). But since they are not in the northeast, they differ from the Ivies in point (3).
- Top northeastern liberal arts colleges like Williams, Amherst, or Swarthmore have points (1) and (3). But since they are not universities, they differ from the Ivies in point (2).
- Other northeastern universities like NYU, Tufts, or Boston University have (2) and (3). But while they are also very selective, they are not quite as selective as the Ivies, and so they differ in point (1).
So all of these schools resemble the Ivies in some, but not all, respects. If you want “Ivy-like” schools, you have to figure out which Ivy characteristics are important to you, and which you are willing to compromise on.
Thanks to everyone for these responses. I appreciate hearing the different opinions and options.
Good list @corbett, I’d add Georgetown, Wesleyan, Chicago
UCLA and USC. Both have a ivy type feel and Greek life is big. UCLA (18%) USC (30%) and both schools have 30k plus students so that’s a lot of people in letters.
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McGill has an Ivy feel.
I am not a cali person!