There are about 5,300 universities and colleges in the United States, but less than ten of them form the prestigious Ivy League. Its eight members are consistently voted among the top educational institutions in the US.
SPORTS
First used in 1933, the term ‘Ivy League’ initially referred to an athletic conference comprising sports teams from eight private universities in Northeastern United States. The word ‘ivy’ was used as most of these universities were founded in the 18th century and had ivy on their walls.
ACADEMIA
Soon, however, the term was used to refer to the eight universities as institutions, and it centred on their academic excellence, social prestige and selectivity in admissions. These eight have some of the lowestacceptance rates in the US; of every one hundred students that apply to an Ivy League school, between four and ten are accepted.
STUDENTS
Ivy League students come from all over the world, though a large proportion of them are from the Northeastern US. Dartmouth College has just 6,400 students in total while larger universities, such as Cornell and Harvard, have over twenty thousand. Students benefit from the billions of dollars in financial endowments that Ivy League schools receive. This supports excellent academic standards and research programmes, as well as providing financial aid for low-income students.
ELITE
Thanks to the education they receive and contacts they make, Ivy League graduates go on to become the world’s elite. Alumni have included numerous Nobel Prize, Academy Award, Pulitzer Prize and Olympic medal winners, as well as US presidents and billionaires.
Cornell University
Founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1865, Cornell was the first Ivy League school to accept female students and is the only one to receive state funding today.
Columbia University
Established on pricey Manhattan grounds, this institution boasts 96 Nobel laureates (Harvard produced 160). The laser and the FM radio are among its many inventions.
Penn University
Founded in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin, the famous polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the US, its school of medicine is considered the best in the country. Donald Trump studied Economics here.
Dartmouth University
Founded as a school to educate Native Americans in Christianity and the English way of life, this is the smallest school in the Ivy League, with just over six thousand students. It is renowned for its school of medicine.
Harvard University
Founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the US. It has the world’s largest academic library and the largest financial endowment of any academic institution, at $40 billion.
Brown University
Founded in 1764, Brown University is in Province, Rhode Island. Its first chancellor, Stephen Hopkins was one of the original signatories of the Declaration of Independence, and it was the first university in the US to accept students of all religions.
Yale University
Known for its rivalry with Harvard, Yale was founded in 1701 to educate Congregational ministers and is situated in New Haven, Connecticut. Its student newspaper, The Yale Daily News, has been published since 1878, making it the oldest college daily newspaper in the US.
Princeton University
Founded in 1746, this Princeton, New Jersey, school has been voted the top US university by the US News & World Report almost every year since 2000. Its beautiful campus has been used in many movies, including A Beautiful Mind and Transformers.