Ivy League

Ivy League

Data
Established	1954
Members	8
Continent	North America
Country	United States
University Type	Private
Other Names	The Ancient Eight

The Ivy League is an association of eight Northeastern American universities. The term Ivy League has connotations of academic excellence as well as a certain amount of elitism. These schools are also sometimes affectionately referred to as "The Ancient Eight."

All of the Ivy League universities share some general characteristics: They are among the most prestigious and selective universities in the U.S.; they rank within the top one percent of the world's universities in terms of financial endowment; and they attract top-tier students and faculty. The Ivies are also among the oldest universities in the United States—seven of the eight were founded during America's colonial era.

The Ivy League universities are all privately owned and controlled, although many of them receive funding from the federal or state governments to pursue research. One of the eight, Cornell University, has four state-supported academic units, termed statutory colleges, that are an integral part of the university.

Table of contents

1 Members
2 Terminology
3 History
4 Reputation
5 Endowments
6 Cooperation
7 Competition
8 See also
9 External links

Members

The members of the Ivy League are:

Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, founded 1764 as the College of Rhode Island
Columbia University, in New York City, founded 1754 as King's College
Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, founded 1865
Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire founded 1769
Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded 1636
University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania founded 1751 as the Academy of Philadelphia
Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey, founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey
Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut founded 1701 as the Collegiate School

Terminology

The term Ivy League was first coined informally to refer to these schools, who compete in both scholastics and sports, but it also refers to the formal association of these schools in NCAA Division I athletic competition. In some sports, notably baseball and tennis, the Ivy League teams also compete against Army (the United States Military Academy) and Navy (the United States Naval Academy).

The term "Ivy League" refers strictly to the original eight schools. However, the term Ivy Plus is sometimes used to refer to the eight plus Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University for purposes of alumni associations and university gatherings; however, these two schools are not part of the Ivy League.

History

As an informal football league, the Ivy League dates from 1900 when Yale took the conference championship with a 5-0 record. For many years Army and Navy were considered members, but dropped out shortly before formal organization.

Caswell Adams of the New York Herald Tribune made a passing comment about the schools in 1937, referring to the ivy growing on their walls. Stanley Woodward, a fellow sportswriter, coined the phrase in a column soon thereafter, informally dubbing the eight competitive universities the Ivy League in advance of any formal sports league involving the schools.

In 1945 the athletic directors of the schools signed the first Ivy Group Agreement, which set academic, financial, and athletic standards for the football teams.

In 1954, the date generally accepted as the birth of the Ivy League, the agreement was extended to all sports.

An apocryphal etymology attributes the name to the Roman numerals for four (IV), incorrectly asserting that there was such a sports league originally with four members. This myth may be attributed to a desire among some alumni to claim elite status among the "ancient eight."

Reputation

Most, if not all of the Ivy League schools are known for their highly selective undergraduate programs. Indeed, acceptance rates to all of the schools have dropped consistently over the past decade. In addition, many of the universities are well known for their top-rate graduate and professional programs. Some notable programs include:

Columbia's Law School, Business School, College of Physicians and Surgeons, School of Journalism, and Teacher's College.
Cornell's Cornell School of Hotel Administration and College of Engineering
Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.
Harvard's Business School, Medical School, School of Education, Kennedy School of Government, and Law School.
Penn's Wharton School of Business, School of Medicine, School of Nursing, Law School, and School of Education
Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Yale's Law School, School of Art, School of Music, and School of Medicine.

Endowments

The Ivy League schools are among the wealthiest private universities the U.S., a status commensurate with their ages and long-standing relationships with the highest echelons of American society. All of the Ivy League schools have endowments over $1 billion [1]—and Brown is the only one without a multi-billion dollar endowment.

Harvard, with $19.3 billion in the bank, is the wealthiest university in the world [1] and Yale, with an endowment size of over $11 billion, is the second richest. Harvard owns nearly 19 million ft² (1.8 km²) of property in the Boston area.[1] Columbia is notably the second largest landowner in New York City, which has some of the highest property values in the world.

Cooperation

Seven of the eight schools (excluding Harvard) participate in the BorrowDirect interlibrary-loan program, making a total of 40 million items available to participants, although the ILL program is not affiliated with the formal Ivy arrangement. (Harvard holds another 15 million items in its collection.)

Competition

Harvard and Yale are traditional rivals, who first met in a rowing race in 1852. Princeton and Penn are mainly basketball rivals. Cornell and Harvard are hockey rivals.

External links

Ivy League Sports Official Website