What is the ‘Ivy League’? What is the story behind it? Around the 19th century, the American Collegiate Athletic Conference was formed comprising sports teams from seven private universities in the Northeastern United States and a few years down the line, there was an eighth university joined the conference. While this was initially to promote sports, gradually, the Ivy League became synonymous with an elite group of colleges that have much more to offer than just lucrative sporting careers. Now, the Ivy League stands for academic supremacy, stringent admission process, and social exclusivity.
The elite universities that form this eight-member group are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University.
Considered the most prestigious academic institutions of excellence, Ivy League schools rank among the top universities across the globe. According to the 2019 U.S. News & World Report, Global University Rankings, there are three Ivy Leagues in the top ten and six in the top twenty Universities, worldwide. Harvard tops the list in first place while Columbia and Princeton are ranked in eighth and ninth position respectively. Apart from that, according to the 2019 U.S. News & World Report, all eight Ivy League Universities are ranked among the top fourteen US National Universities, with four Ivy Leagues occupying the top three spots (Columbia and Yale are tied for the third spot). If that is not enough, a member of the Ivy League has been ranked as the top National University consistently for the last eighteen years up to the 2018 ranking published by US News & World Report.
Such prominence and popularity bring in aspiring students in droves. The Ivy League boasts a colossal number of undergraduate enrolments much ahead of the liberal arts colleges in the United States. Undergraduate enrolments range from about 4,000 to 14,000 in these Universities. The total enrolments are also high, which encapsulates graduate students, ranging from approximately 6,400 at Dartmouth to over 20,000 at Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, and UPenn. The financial endowments range from somewhere between $3.5 billion for Brown to $34.5 billion for Harvard, which is touted as the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world.
So if you have read the above, you should have an idea of why getting an Ivy League to admit is the ultimate icing on the cake. Considering that the selection process is uncompromisingly rigorous, one should know that if you get an admit to an Ivy League university, you will automatically be cited as an academically brilliant student. So admitting itself places you among the crème de la crème of university applicants. When such is the stature of admission, one does not have to guess too hard about how one would be reckoned upon graduating from such schools. Dominating across several fields, be it Law, Engineering, Business, or Medicine, these universities have a niche carved in every discipline. Also, the kind of reach these schools have in terms of providing career options is unparalleled. So when you graduate from one of these schools, you will find every avenue open to the career of your choice where you will pick and choose for yourself instead of being the other way round.
Whatever your dreams and career aspirations, remember an Ivy League is the right and most definite path to success. If you still doubt it, just check out the alumni list of these schools. Most Presidents of the USA are famous members of Yale or Harvard or any of the Ivies. Many Fortune 500 Corporations are run by the alumni of Ivy League Schools. So if you want to run a business or run for the Presidential election, delve into top-drawer research, or find a top job in an international organization, an admission to an Ivy League school is undoubtedly your best option for getting there.
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