<p>I recently learned (having only started college planning pretty recently) that is considered to be a bad idea to apply to all of the Ivy League universities? Why?</p>
<p>I plan to apply to all of them, minus Dartmouth, as it is a Liberal Arts College.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that I genuinely like these different schools, not because of the brand name, and my goal is not to just get into an Ivy, and am applying to top colleges outside of the Ivy League too.</p>
<p>Also, college admissions work strangely. Sometimes, Cornell rejects you and HYP accept you.</p>
<p>So I was just wondering why it is discouraged to apply to all of the Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>Astro, I think applying to all the Ivy League schools MAY be indicative of a student who is not an independent and creative thinker. Traits these schools tend to value. Of course, each school would not know where else that student applied, but I think the shortfall probably shows up elsewhere in the application; perhaps in the student’s course and EC selection, testing history, essays and/or teacher recs. </p>
<p>Just so you know, all these schools offer - for the most part - a liberal arts education. Not just Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Applying to that hodgepodge of schools shows that you have not seriously thought about the application process and what your best “fits” are based on a dozen criteria. It says that, yes, you are chasing brand names and it is probably a tell that your essays, recs, and interviews will reveal a striver more than a dynamic student.</p>
<p>@Astrotech: your shunting of Dartmouth because it’s a “liberal arts college” bespeaks of your shallow research as well. I agree w/Snarl. You, like many others, are doing the search game backwards. You pick a school and see how many of your criteria it fits. Rather, you should list some criteria, and then objectively choose schools that fit. I guarantee you that an honest list will veer broadly beyond 7 schools that share a sports conference.</p>
<p>So when I ask a student, “Where are you applying to college?” and they answer “definitely the Ivies,” I shake my head “no, no, no.” That’s the totally backwards way to go about building a college list, and suggests you have not done any serious research—about yourself or about colleges.</p>
<p>Had I not gotten into a school early, I might have applied to 6/8. I could realistically have seen myself at each of them. Moreover, I had done enough research to realize that they each had specific characteristics that I loved. Just start your essays really early so as to not sacrifice quality.</p>
<p>Each Ivy has its own flavor, self image and goals for the sorts of students they want. How can you be all things to all of them? Did you consider the differences? Or just their prestige as Ivies? Can you really intelligently answer the "Why Us? question for each, without stumbling over, uh, because you are the best and, um, you will prepare me to be a great success in life. ? Remember, they don’t review you to see how much “you” want them. They review to see it you match what they need. So, do you know what they need- each as an individual institution? The million dollar question.</p>
<p>@Astrotech: It’s obvious that you haven’t done your due-diligence on the ivy league. If you had, you would have seen the flavor that lookingforward described. For example, lets’s take Harvard, Columbia and Brown. </p>
<p>Columbia prides itself on their “Core Curriculum” where every student regardless of major or interest MUST take the same basic set of core (liberal arts) courses during their freshman and sophomore years: Contemporary Civilization, Literature Humanities, University Writing, Art Humanities, Music Humanities, and Frontiers of Science. It’s kind of like high school – you cannot graduate without taking those specific courses. Columbia’s educational philosophy is that the core provides every student with a commonality – alumni from the 1920’s through last year’s graduating class have taken the same basic set of courses. See: <a href=“The Core Curriculum”>http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/</a>. </p>
<p>Harvard, on the other hand, has general education requirements (again – liberal arts courses, something you thought only Dartmouth had) that need to be completed in order to graduate. Students choose courses from a broad range of categories, including Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding, Culture and Belief, Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning, Ethical Reasoning, Science of Living Systems, Science of the Physical Universe, Societies of the World, United States in the World. Harvard students need to take one course in each of those categories, and an expository writing course to fulfill their requirements. See: <a href=“http://www.generaleducation.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do”>http://www.generaleducation.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do</a>. </p>
<p>Students that love Brown tend to dislike Harvard and Columbia because they are deemed too rigid. Students that love Columbia tend not to like Brown and Harvard because it offers them too many choices. Other than competing in the same sports league, every ivy offers something unique – and one school may be a better fit for you than another. Applying to them all shows that you haven’t done your homework and have no idea what you want from a college!</p>
<p>I first recognize that each Ivy has a different flavor; some are rural others are city; some are more structured then others, etc.</p>
<p>I then recognize that a 17 year old has the right to see himself/herself in all types of colleges; that your idea of a major may change; your type of desired atmosphere may (or may not) evolve. I know this from my own who is now finishing at an Ivy. He flat out rejected city Ivyies; two years into his college time, he wished he had considered the city based colleges.</p>
<p>I also note that no one here has observed that the Ivies - all of them - have the best financial aid when compared to other schools. So, why not take financial aid into consideration and go for the schools that offer the best FA?</p>
<p>I believe that the student makes the school, not the school makes the student. I believe that all these schools (and hundreds of others) offer enough opportunities to fully absorb the student who is willing to try all sorts of new things and explore all sorts of new opportunities.</p>
<p>I do agree with everyone above who observe that there are big big differences between each Ivy school. So long as you recognize the differences, it may be too early for you to pigeon hole yourself into a city person, a structured person, or anything else. If you apply simply to go to an Ivy, that may be a poor reason. If you apply to every Ivy because you can actually see yourself taking advantages of the unique qualities of each school and you are willing to take advantage of those unique opportunities, then go for it.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, to get finaid, you need to be admitted. To be admitted to a single digit school, you need to have some clearer notions than, “this school is really good.” In fact, the right mindset, exploratory skills, judgment, (and ability to articulate,) in the first place. </p>
<p>I didn’t pick them because they are Ivy League, but rather, I just like them. With Dartmouth, I didn’t just remove it for that one reason, bit rather, because a sole LAC education doesn’t suit me. However, alongside with STEM classes, I want a broad, liberal arts TYPE education. Whether there are requirements or not, I will endeavour to take a broad range of subjects and classes.</p>
<p>I believe that I won’t apply to Dartmouth, perhaps not Brown, and I am still considering Columbia.</p>
<p>I find Harvard offers a strong education, and is well-suited for my interests. Same with Princeton.
Yale offers a strong education, and Penn does too, and Penn is great for my majors.
Cornell is a great experience, and is very good for my majors.</p>
<p>@arwarw, thanks for the cool article link which I will be passing onto several students I know who are beginning the process. OP is either naive or pulling a parody on us (“Yale offers a strong education” “Cornell is a great experience”) The same could be said of 100+ other schools in different athletic conferences. But I shouldn’t shoot fish in a barrel. </p>
<p>Yeah; I have years to go before application time, and gave come to the realization that I do come across as a little bit naive; I should put more thought into this! (I was going to anyways, and I had many in-depth reasons for my liking of these different schools, but this feedback helped.)</p>
<p>Thanks for that article, and thanks to everyone!</p>
<p>I’m applying to all of the Ivy League schools; it’s not necessarily because of “name” or “prestige.” I just don’t want to pass up any potentially beneficial opportunity, and I’ll give my spot at a great university to someone else should I decide that I seriously dislike the school. I realize that you can get an ivy-tier education at colleges other than from the renowned ivy-tier schools, but I might as well ensure that I’m not relinquishing an opportunity to go to a brilliant institution by being remiss to applying. I know I personally haven’t had enough time to become fully acquainted with all of the ivy-tier schools, so I don’t know exactly what school is a complete “fit” for me yet. I do know that I’m definitely not going to base my opinion of these schools off of stereotypes posted on college forums online. </p>
Good Grief (quoting Charlie brown) Have you read through this thread? I get annoyed by old people who complain about “kids these days” but I’m getting to that point!</p>
<p>College is a means to an end: a great job, a great grad school and great alumni connections.
Considering the cost, it makes sense to apply to the most prominent schools that you can get into.</p>
<p>When I was applying to law schools, I just looked at the US News rankings and applied to all of the top 10 that were in my part of the country, plus some of the Ivies (and got into all of the Ivies that I applied to), and I went to the best-ranked school I got into (#2). That was a very good decision for me. I’d recommend the same approach for college.</p>
<p>Falling in love with a school before you attend it, if it’s not the best one you can get into, and attending based on falling in love with it, will lead to a lot of angst when the challenges of a college experience (stress, rejections by peers, grad school admissions, etc.) come–and they will.</p>