Not necessarily ones that admissions officers look at but something that characterizes the majority of each student body (e.g. extroverted, introverted, curious, competitive, etc.)
There have been lots of threads on this:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/758030-the-cult-of-ivy-league-personalities-p1.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1359801-ivy-league-stereotypes-p1.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/108356-ivy-league-stereotypes-p1.html
In the book Excellent Sheep, the author, a former Yale professor, writes somewhat cuttingly about a few of them:
“My examples come from Yale [whose students the author has already characterized as having aspects of “excellent sheep”], since that is mainly where I taught. If anything, it probably deserves its reputation as being the best among elite universities (as distinct from liberal arts colleges) at nurturing creativity and intellectual independence. Notoriously preprofessional places like Penn, Duke, or Washington University, or notoriously anti-intellectual ones like Princeton or Dartmouth, are clearly far worse.”
(Excellent Sheep [2014], Deresiewicz, p. 15.)
The Ivies have between 4300 and 14,300 undergrads and are some of the most diverse colleges in the country. The admissions officers work very hard to avoid having a class of students who are too alike. There’s a popular saying on CC that colleges are looking for well-rounded classes, not necessarily well-rounded people.
You can come up with approximate stereotyped personalities for each Ivy, and people have been doing that on CC for over a decade now (see the links above), but it is a serious mistake to assume that all or even the majority of students at each Ivy share the same characteristics. The problem with generalizations like “artsy Ivy,” “hippie Ivy,” and “party Ivy” is that it can take minor differences between universities and blow them greatly out of proportion.
Be aware that a college that seems perfect on paper may feel very different in person, so visit the colleges of interest if you can. Brown in particular seems to trigger different responses in people, based on a thread a couple of years ago that discussed (dis)liking a college before vs. after a college visit.
Deresiewicz is a “former” professor because he was denied tenure at Yale and didn’t get job offers at any other colleges, not by choice. Now he makes a living taking potshots at the system he was working hard to get into.
You can also read some college guide books such as Fiske, Insiders Guide, Princeton Review that try give a sense of each school.
Re #3: The question of whether this author delivered his opinions without bias at all times is a valid one. However, his pointed suggestions – that some colleges can be dispiritedly preprofessional or have prevalent anti-intellectual elements, or more generally that students at some are too narrowly conditioned to produce original thought – are worth considering regardless of their origin.
I wouldn’t say the students at each ivy have certain types of personalities but the universities will certainly have different orientations. To put it simply, the Ivies are some of the most diverse schools in the world socioeconomically, politically, intellectually, ethnically, racially, etc. etc. etc. Some people (many of whom have never even seen an Ivy campus, much less graduated from one) like to criticize them for their homogeny but the lived experiences of Ivy League Students are soooooo widely different that to lump them into one group or to separate them into groups by school would be preposterous.
That being said, there is no doubt that each campus has a different vibe based on it location and history. For example, the students at Columbia have VERY different social experiences from those at Dartmouth or Cornell by virtue of the fact that Columbia is in Harlem and Dartmouth is in Hanover. Columbia has the Core Curriculum and Brown has no required classes outside of the majors. Yale’s undergraduate population is comparatively small and has a narrower range of academic options than a place like Cornell with 14,000 undergraduates and schools like the Hotel School, CALS, and Human Ecology offering courses taught nowhere else in the ivy league. Penn was founded by Benjamin Franklin who believed students should learn both everything ‘practical’ and 'ornamental." As a consequence the mixture between professional and the liberal arts and the emphasis on interdisciplinary opportunities is much more highly valued at Penn than at other universities where the focus has been more limited. Penn and Yale both have beautiful, contiguous campuses in urban environments but Penn is in America’s fifth largest city while Yale is in a much smaller town. Harvard and Yale both have 4 year college house systems while Penn and Princeton have 2-4 year college house systems, Dartmouth/Cornell/Columbia have traditional college dorms, and off campus housing is very common at Penn and Cornell. Penn, Dartmouth, Cornell (and somewhat Yale) have vibrant greek scenes but Greek Life is MUCH more popular at Dartmouth and Cornell than it is at Penn and it’s much more popular at Penn than it is at Yale. Meanwhile, Princeton’s eating clubs often act as co-ed fraternities/sororities, throwing parties and getting in trouble and Princeton’s off-campus frat scene is growing. All the while Harvard has all male final clubs. All of this is to say that your experience at each school would be VERY different in some extremely meaningful ways and those differences might attract students with somewhat disparate interests, preferences, and ideas of what constitutes fun. But at the end of the day, it would be impossible to say “the kids at Harvard are all obsessed with wall street while the kids at princeton are all OCD nerds.” Each environment may differ but they each attract the most diverse array of students imaginable. Sure you will find more student’s interested in hiking at Dartmouth than you will at Columbia but you’ll probably find an equal number of valedictorians, high SAT-scores, and ambitious, sharp young minds.
Also LOL @ Deresiewicz. He’s just capitalizing on the Ivy League brand to sell books by bashing it. It’s a genre of writing that only grows in popularity as the Ivy League brand grows ever more powerful in the mind of young high schoolers and their parents. I literally can’t imagine meeting a person who thinks that Princeton students are anti-intellectual. And sure, Penn has a pre-professional vibe but it’s also has some of the most well funded and well regarded programs in the humanities in the WORLD. There isn’t a scholar on the planet who is plugged in to academia that wouldn’t be aware of the strength of Penn’s English department or the incredible minds that populate Princeton’s programs as well. In essence, I’m saying there is nothing of value to be gained from his book besides a good laugh.
Don’t get hung up on stereotypes. Instead, consider where you feel you might fit in best, comfortable in the knowledge that if you are accepted, you are the type of student that goes there and there will be other students very similar to you who will be there as well.
“Columbia is in Harlem” (#6)
Columbia is in Morningside Heights.
Morningside Heights is part of greater harlem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morningside_Heights,_Manhattan
The distinction between Morningside Heights and Harlem is a linguistic fiction and largely in name only. It’s mostly used as a tool to separate Barnard/Columbia from the low income community that surrounds it. It has historically been part of both the UWS and Harlem’s congressional districts. Saying Columbia is in Morningside Heights and saying it is in Harlem are pretty much the same thing. The only difference is that most people have heard of Harlem so it is more effective in describing it’s location to people who aren’t as familiar with NYC’s very specific neighborhoods.
Columbia is also deeply entrenched in the Harlem community as much of its community outreach centers on harlem and the community groups with which the University must most closely work during expansion are Harlem groups. And students are MORE than happy to socialize in harlem given the awesome restaurants, bars, parks and more.
But yes, Columbia is technically in Morningside heights. Though anyone that’s ever been to Columbia knows you could describe it as both being on the (very) Upper West Side and in Harlem. It’s overly nit-picky to say otherwise.
And Morningside Heights is considered part of “Greater Harlem.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morningside_Heights,_Manhattan
@PennCAS2014 as someone who was born and raised and currently lives in New York, and has spent time in both neighborhoods, I can tell you that Morningside Heights and Harlem are radically different. I don’t think it would be correct to say that Columbia is in Harlem. Yes, the boundaries are nit-picky, but so are all neighborhood boundaries in Manhattan.
It’s true. I own a place right off of Manhattan Avenue. Depending who you speak to, it is interchangeable to say Morninside Heights or Harlem. Realtor types may say “central Harlem”, but that is a hybrid. Actually, imo, one of the best areas of the city, tons of train access and to the 95, and where else do you have two incredible parks within a block of your house…
While this is not a thread about NYC neighborhoods… As someone with equal NYC cred to lalemma (even having lived in harlem with my friends who went to Columbia) I can assure you that they are not unimaginably different. They also share a border so the culture of each heavily influences the other since it’s not like there is a big wall between Harlem proper and Morningside Heights with a sign that says “Harlem stops here, guys; just turn around and go back. No more harlem #sadfaceemojoi” It’s not East and West Berlin… it’s the upper west side. I’m not saying that EVERY part of Harlem is like EVERY part of Morningside heights. It’s not like Midtown East is identical to Midtown West. Or like Chinatown and LES are identical. Or like the east village and LES are twinsies. Yet mornigingside heights, harlem and Columbia have a shared location, history, and identity… it’s factually inaccurate to argue otherwise.
http://www.harlemonestop.com/organization/81/columbia-university-in-the-city-of-new-york
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/expansion-benefits-w-harlem-columbia-article-1.1476565
http://columbiaspectator.com/2009/02/23/columbia-harlem-and-question-expansion
“In my first column, I discussed Morningside Heights as a kind of border area that fits between Harlem and the Upper West Side. Without the presence of Columbia, it seems entirely possible that Morningside Heights would not stand out as a separate neighborhood but rather would have been absorbed by Harlem. But because the neighborhood is an area that has risen up around the University, it acts as a kind of bridge between Harlem and the Upper West Side.”
Columbia, Morningside Heights and Harlem are so close geographically and have so much shared history that to insinuate that there is this chasm between them is preposterous.
And harlem’s awesome… so not sure what the resistance here is about
“And Harlem’s awesome . . . not sure what the resistance here is about.” (#12)
If a poster said Hanover is in “Greater Vermont,” there’d be a similar debate. However, a credible case has definitely been made on this thread for a Columbia-encompassing boundary for Greater Harlem. Personally, Ive thought of Morningside Park as partly defining the two neighborhoods’ boundaries, as parks often do for other neighborhoods as well in NYC.
@PennCAS2014 I agree that Morningside Heights probably wouldn’t be its own neighborhood if Columbia wasn’t there. But the fact that Columbia, Barnard, and the Manhattan School of Music are there does make it feel very different. Everyone I know who lives in Morningside Heights is affiliated with one of those schools in some way. To me the area has always felt very much like a college town. I agree that Harlem is awesome, but it’s different. Unlike Morningside Heights, it’s not defined by the universities - it has its own unique history and culture that have nothing to do with them. Another difference that is probably more readily apparent is that Morningside Heights is largely a white and upper-middle-class neighborhood, whereas Harlem is much more diverse. They are both interesting areas (though I would argue that Harlem is probably more interesting), but they have many differences and are distinct neighborhoods.
Btw, I don’t accept Wikipedia (#9) as a source anymore since I started writing some of its content.
A bit of an observation, as I live in said hood: if you are talking to someone from NYC, “the Fairway in Morningside Heights”, however, to folks not from the area, I hear frequently “Columbia is right next to Harlem.”
Okay let’s put this to rest. I get that you do not feeeeel like Columbia is in Harlem, and yet it is still certainly not misleading to say that Columbia is in Harlem because they do indeed have a shared history, culture, identity and geographic region. When Columbia makes a decision about it’s campus, it must interface with Morningside Heights and Harlem. When students go to bars they either go downtown, stick close to campus, or go to Harlem. Yes, Columbia is in a wealthier part of the Harlem area. But in terms of describing where it is in the city, saying it’s in Harlem is an extremely effective way to describe it. They share architectural styles, schools, community centers, parks, subway stops, etc. The boundaries on a map are distinct and yet the boundaries in real life are quite porous. Is Yorkville technically part of the Upper East Side? No. And yet, if I were to go to yorkville, I would tell my friends I was going to the upper east side. Why? Because they share so much in terms of history, culture, and identity. And because I’d be taking the 6, god help me.
Columbia, morningside heights and harlem are so deeply intertwined in every single way. For those reading, some people clearly don’t recognize that. Yet, search “Morningside heights” on google maps and you will notice that it basically encompasses exclusively Columbia’s campus and land owned by the school, right next to good ole Harlem. So yes, as has already been conceded, Morningside heights is technically distinct form harlem as every university with a campus is distinct from the surrounding community… and yet it’s right up there in harlem.
Some might even call it the gem of west harlem 
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/opinions/columbia-gem-west-harlem-article-1.583922
(i’m aware this is the ny daily news)
Some people might write articles about Columbia and Harlem being “neighbors.” I like the term neighbor because while it makes it clear you share a neighborhood, it emphasizes that you aren’t living in the same house. Just like Columbia and Harlem share a neighborhood and can still be in two technically disparate places on a map:
http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs20031009-01.2.3
Part of the north side of morningside heights is actually included in District 5 of the NYC School districting zone and a school affiliated with Teachers College of Columbia University sits squarely inside of it:
http://insideschools.org/districts/manhattan/district-5?filter_borough=1&filter_district_neighborhood=district_5
You could easily post article after article that reaffirms the idea that while technically in morningside heights, Columbia is in the Greater Harlem area and the connections between the two are very real and undeniable.
But we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this…
And as an aside, Hanover/Vermont comparison isn’t great for a multitude of reasons that aren’t worth going into. And yet, Hanover NH and parts of vermont manage to share a school district as well (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_School_District) … oh the horror
I grew up in Morningside heights (the upper end, technically Manhattanville!) and called it that to nyers but when I speak to people who don’t know NYC I say Harlem. The border to me was always 125th, on the west side. Then again, many kids who I knew from downtown weren’t allowed to come to my house because it was above 96th. Things have changed a lot since then.
I went to school in district 5. Who knew it was so terrible? I did well there though I left street 6th grade.