<p>Just an informational question here that relates to dozens of threads I see on CC. I read posts by parents who say, “I attended an Ivy,” or “My child was admitted to an Ivy,” and to me the natural interpretation of such a statement is that the person is talking about one of the eight colleges in the Ivy League. </p>
<p>But then I read on in the post, and statements are made about the college that fit none of the eight Ivy League colleges (namely, Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University). Then I wonder what college the writer of the post might be talking about. </p>
<p>There is a broader and much less exactly defined group of colleges besides the exact eight that are in the Ivy League. They are sometimes called “Ivy plus” colleges, and there several listings, none completely official, of which colleges belong in that group. </p>
<p>the term Ivy plus encompasses quite a few colleges. I suppose they are all fine colleges. But other than fineness, they have so few common characteristics that descriptive value is lost to refer to any one college on that imprecisely defined list as an “Ivy,” because not all have common policies on any issue of interest to parents of college-seeking children. What colleges have you seen referred to as “Ivy” colleges? What colleges in your state or your region are considered “Ivy” even if they don’t play Ivy League sports?</p>
<p>When I say “Ivy,” I really mean “Ivy League.” I don’t mean Stanford, MIT, Duke, Swarthmore, Oberlin, or any of the other excellent colleges/universities in this great nation.</p>
<p>However, I rarely have occasion to say “Ivy.” What I usually say is “really good school,” and that covers much more than the Ivies. In fact, it might cover any school mentioned to me by a student saying, “I’m going to [whatever U]!!,” because the right school for any student is, by definition, a “really good school.” :-)</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. There are a lot of group descriptive terms that parents can use if they don’t desire to use the name of a specific college or two, such as </p>
<p>“research universities” </p>
<p>“highly selective colleges” </p>
<p>“LACs” </p>
<p>“reach colleges” </p>
<p>“state universities” </p>
<p>“privately operated colleges” </p>
<p>“colleges with large endowments per student” </p>
<p>“colleges that claim to meet full demonstrated financial need” </p>
<p>“colleges that provide full financial aid to international students” </p>
<p>“colleges with more than 10 percent of students reported as ‘race/ethnicity unknown’” </p>
<p>“colleges with business majors” </p>
<p>“colleges with strong engineering programs” </p>
<p>or whatever. Some of these general terms would include most of the eight Ivy League colleges, and some would not. All would be more informative to readers of posts in College Confidential threads, while still preserving the choice of not naming a particular college.</p>
<p>Only the Ancient Eight (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Cornell) are Ivy League. </p>
<p>Although it is interesting to read on this site how many students thought Stanford was an Ivy before learning otherwise. I’ve never noticed people mislabelling other schools as Ivy.</p>
<p>Yep. I was at a meeting and a mother who adores her offspring chatted cheerfully about her kid’s happy time at Colgate – “an Ivy League school”. I like the mom and have heard great things about Colgate, so I just stood on my tongue. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do because I’m sure those sorts of comments make others wince or eyeroll around her.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt very many, if any, seniors at my High School could even name all the IVY league schools. They are on the radar of only a very few and a good number of those who are interested moved out here from back east.</p>
<p>The “Ivy League” is in reality an athletic conference founded in the 1950’s. There have been other terms coined, such as “little ivies”, “public ivies”, etc. Newsweek, a couple of years ago, picked 25 “new ivies”.</p>
<p>I’ve always assumed Ivy meant the actual eight schools in the ivy league. I do see a lot of the one-letter acronyms to refer to the top schools, though… like HYPS, HYPSM, very rarely HYPSMC :P</p>
<p>mathson’s GC referred to MIT as an Ivy, I winced, but didn’t correct her. I sort of think of Stanford as an honorary Ivy. I tend to do the HYPSM thing, or call them the super elites. (And I do think Caltech belongs with the letters.)</p>
<p>I mean the eight schools when I say ivies. For ivies plus, my definition has long been the schools that prep schools in New England and NYC call ivies plus in reporting matriculation. The ivies ‘plus’ Stanford and MIT.</p>
<p>I like it when people arrange the letters into the pronounceable term CHYMPS. I think all six of those colleges are much in the same echelon, at least when it comes to pure mathematics.</p>
<p>Well, as a Barnard parent that has always been rather tricky for me. </p>
<p>Obviously, Barnard is not the 9th school in the Ivy League.</p>
<p>But if Ivy League = the athletic conference, then Barnard IS part of the Ivy League- and Columbia doesn’t stand on its own as a full Ivy, but rather they are both share their status as part of the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium.</p>
<p>If the focus is on campus life… well, Columbia & Barnard are adjacent campuses that occupy a few city blocks in a huge city; they share clubs and student organizations; Barnard students have Columbia University ID’s and full access to all Columbia facilities; etc. – so whatever amenities Columbia offers that are commensurate with “Ivy” status is shared fully with Barnard.</p>
<p>For academics, Barnard has its own program & departments separate & distinct from Columbia, but not always; course registration is both the same and different all at once (different computer entry point, slightly different process in terms of course enrollment, but access to almost all of the same course offerings). Plus, it doesn’t take long to figure out that the academic standards are equivalent at both schools. Plus, of course, at the end of the line my daughter will have a degree that says “Columbia University” at the top.</p>
<p>But of course… Barnard is not Columbia and many at Columbia bristle at the suggestion that it is. Barnard students have their own sense of pride and loyalty in their own school, faculty and administration – so they are happy to be separate as well. </p>
<p>Historically, of course, Barnard is a Seven Sister – and that meant something particular back in the days when Harvard women attended Radcliffe … but it just doesn’t mean the same thing any more. </p>
<p>So I tend on these boards to refer to my daughter’s college as “Ivy-caliber” or “Ivy-equivalent” (if I mention the Ivy-word at all)… but it is confusing. Especially on Facebook …</p>
<p>If I used the term “ivy” it would mean the 8 ‘ivy league’ schools.</p>
<p>I really do not see any reason to accord them any special status, or to lump them together in one group. They are all very different from each other. It is really quite unbelievable that any one student would actually like all 8 of them enough to apply to them all.</p>