I would not expect non-east coast schools to show up in a “little Ivy” list. Setting aside my general misgivings about the phrase at the moment, the Ivy League is a northeast league. It would make little sense for west coast or south to be included in “little Ivy” when they aren’t part of the actual Ivy. My casual understanding was that the term actually referred to the NESCAC schools, as they were a similarly organized athletic conference who valued academics balance with athletics similarly, but in a small school context. Calling Pomona or Carlton or whatever a “little Ivy” would just add another layer to the inherent weirdness and non-descript nature of the term than already exists. If untethered to NESCAC, “little Ivy” seems to become a shorthand for some vague unagreed upon notion of eliteness or something that seems likely to mean different things to different people.
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