Look Beyond Ivy League!

Author-Ruchika Agarwal

Indian Parents who aspire to send their children to US for higher education often only think and talk about handful of super popular and highly regarded colleges like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, MIT, Stanford etc. called IVY League schools. The usual perception is these are the only prestigious and coveted colleges of US worth spending a hefty steep fee on for a good return on investment. However, these colleges are highly selective with a very low acceptance rate for international students. So, when a child is unable to make a cut in these schools, both parents and children feel they have hit the end of road, they are not good enough for US education, it’s not worthwhile to expend hard earned money on a non-Ivy league college and the dream to study in an Ivy league kind of a school is over. This leads us to the following question:

Does Ivy League have monopoly over US Higher Education?

We all know about highly prestigious Ivy League Schools the “The Elite Eight”: Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Dartmouth University, and Cornell University. These days a new phrase “Ivy plus “is used commonly to refer to all 8 Ivies plus handful of equally coveted colleges mainly Stanford, MIT, the University of Chicago and Duke. Some lists also include Northwestern University, John Hopkins University and Caltech.

Ivy League connotes prestige, power, large endowments, vibrant tradition, and highly selective admission. These colleges seem to dominate US Higher education landscape and carry a very expensive price tag.

Does it mean there are no other impressive colleges for an international student to look out for in US other than Ivy League? Really? Are there no Ivy League equivalents?

Relax. Look no further. Good News is that there are plenty of colleges in US with an outstanding reputation and are as exceptional as Ivy league but do not possess the Ivy league label. These similarly prestigious Universities which are almost at par with Ivy league colleges deserve to borrow the little “Ivy” label to add to their own name because these colleges are also known for their academical excellence, rigor, lively culture and selective admission process. We call them Nearly-Ives.

Ivy League Vs Nearly-Ives

So, let’s take a look at The BEST Non-IVY Colleges in US. (Officially Non IVYs but as good as IVYs)

Little Ivies

It refers to a small group of highly prestigious liberal arts colleges. The Little Ivies include all the schools of the New England Small College Athletic Conference and several schools outside of New England. The New England Small College Athletic Conference, or simply NESCAC, is a group of 11 extremely selective liberal arts colleges and universities with similar beliefs regarding college athletics. So, in a nut Shell

Little Ivies = 11 NESCAC colleges in New England + 7 other highly competitive liberal arts schools in the Northeast corner of USA, but outside of New England region.

A 2016 article by Bloomberg Businessweek lists the members of the Little Ivies as

1. Amherst College

2. Bates College

3. Bowdoin College

4. Colby College

5. Connecticut College

6. Hamilton College

7. Middlebury College

8. Trinity College

9. Tufts University

10. Wesleyan University

11. Williams College

12. Bucknell University

13. Colgate University

14. Haverford College

15. Lafayette College

16. Swarthmore College

17. Union College

18. Vassar College

Little Ivies are as sought after as Ivy Leagues. Some of the common characteristics between the two are: Old, Exclusive, academically competitive, social prestige and highly selective admission. Among the Little Ivies are the "Little Three", a term used by Amherst College, Wesleyan University and Williams College, and "Main Big Three", a term used by Colby College, Bates College and Bowdoin College. The term is inspired by the "Big Three" Universities in Ivy League Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. In the Forbes listing of America’s Top Colleges, the Little Ivies represent nine schools in the top 50 with Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore ranking in the top 25. According to U.S. News, five Little Ivies are in the top 15 on their list of schools.

As the name suggests, these little Ivies have smaller campuses enrolling fewer students than Ivy league colleges, and hence provide a very close-knit environment which helps in establishing an up close and personal student-professor connection. International students especially feel quite safe, protected and are not intimidated by the surroundings. Little Ives also boasts of larger acceptance rates than what is found at Ivy league schools. Additionally, Little Ivies also focus more on undergraduate education.

New Ivies

This term came into existence later to include both public and private colleges which match the stature of the Ivy leagues such as

1. Carnegie Mellon University,

2. UNC-Chapel Hill,

3. Emory University, and

4. Notre Dame

5. Boston College

6. Rice University

7. Olin college of Engineering

8. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

9. University of Rochester

10. Reed College

Public Ivies

The Public Ivies offer an Ivy League education at a public university price according to Richard Moll, who coined the term in his 1985 book "The Public Ivys." The academic credibility of these institutions is as good as Ivy’s. Though some of the key differences are: First, Public Ivies have much larger campuses and therefore enrol far greater undergrad students. Second, endowment size is lesser than actual ivy leagues which gets further spread across the larger student bodies. Hence, the financial aid for students is not very promising in public Ivies. Though on the flip side, it offers a low tuition fee.

The 2001 book "Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning" expanded the Public Ivy schools list to 30 public universities, divided by region (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, South, Midwest, and West).

1. Binghamton University

2. Michigan State University

3. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

4. University of California, Davis

5. University of California, San Diego

6. University of Connecticut

7. University of Georgia

8. University of Maryland, College Park

9. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

10. University of Washington

11. Indiana University Bloomington

12. Ohio State University

13. University of Arizona

14. University of California, Irvine

15. University of California, Santa Barbara

16. University of Delaware

17. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

18. University of Michigan

19. University of Texas at Austin

20. University of Wisconsin-Madison

21. Miami University

22. Pennsylvania State University

23. University of California, Berkeley

24. University of California, Los Angeles

25. University of Colorado Boulder

26. University of Florida

27. University of Iowa

28. University of Minnesota Twin Cities

29. University of Virginia

30. William & Mary

Hidden Ivies

This term was christened by Matthew Greens in his book “The Hidden Ivies.” He is the same person who expanded Moll’s list of public Ivies. The book is a college educational guide for students and parents all across the globe aspiring for US education for their children. He observed, analyzed and concluded that huge number of brilliant and bright students worldwide were getting rejected by Ivy Leagues consequently leading to shattering of their dreams to study from a prestigious institution. This book was written primarily to create greater awareness about these small distinctive cluster of colleges which are absolutely at par with Ivy league colleges but unfortunately are not so well known and so not given the credibility that they deserve.

The Hidden Ivies are colleges that are not considered an Ivy League college but do rival or emulate them. Hidden Ivies can be used as an umbrella term for both little Ivies and New Ivies. These are 63 highly selective colleges evaluated on the basis of academics, admissions process, financial aid, and student experiences and are found to be as good as any Ivy League college. You can explore the link below to view the complete list of Hidden Ivies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Ivies

Can You Find Ivy League Quality at Non-Ivy-League Schools? The answer is a BIG “YES.”

Ivy Leagues do not have a Monopoly over US Higher Education. There is plethora of excellent colleges in US offering IVY league standard of education. We just need to deep dive to discover the right fit for our child. Instead of going by the name, college rank or the social status, we need to understand a child’s aptitude, interest, personality and their strength and weaknesses to choose a college that is best fit for them. After all, this is where they will be spending the next four years of their life. So, it ought to be an Informed Choice. We hope through this article we have been able to bust some myths and dispel doubts of our readers around good quality education in US beyond IVY League. After all, Education is one thing no one can take away from you. It is ultimately what you make of it.