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What are some colleges that are non-Ivy League but close to being Ivy League? If someone has a list that would be great.

By Dadster on Thursday, August 15, 2002 - 07:16 pm: Edit

Hmmm, I guess there are a couple of ways to look at this, Malcom. If you go to USNews.com, the top 15 or 20 schools include the Ivies, as well as others that are ranked similarly.

As far as quality of education, there are certainly many schools that can do as good a job - if that's your concern, don't restrict yourself to the most prestigious schools.

By guru on Friday, August 16, 2002 - 03:36 pm: Edit

Here's an incomplete list of some of the nation's most prestigious colleges outside the Ivy League(not in any order):


Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, MIT, Caltech, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Haverford, Carleton, Tufts, WUSTL, Davidson, Wellesley, UChicago, Georgetown, Pomona, Notre Dame, Rice...

By cindy on Saturday, August 17, 2002 - 03:11 pm: Edit

where is Williams??

By BBB on Saturday, August 17, 2002 - 03:54 pm: Edit

Williamstown, Massachusetts

By Cynthia on Saturday, August 17, 2002 - 04:35 pm: Edit

Thanks BBB

By June on Saturday, August 17, 2002 - 05:14 pm: Edit

I notice that Most of the Ivy League, Prestigious or elite college. are all in the east coast. I know there is a lot of good college in Central America and West coast. If you look at the list like ivy League/elites college are in the east coast that is kind of funny don't u think??

By Kush on Sunday, August 18, 2002 - 06:56 pm: Edit

Where is Bowdoin?

By Shennie (Shennie) on Sunday, August 18, 2002 - 08:44 pm: Edit

Bowdoin is in Brunswick, ME, about 30 miles up the coast from Portland.

The east coast certainly has more prestigious schools than other areas of the country, but there are quite a few prestigious schools throughout the US. Remember that the Ivy League is an athletic conference, and the schools originally joined together for athletic competition. At the time, transportation was more of an issue so the schools needed to be reasonably close to each other; thus all the Ivy League schools are in the northeast.

By class of 2003 on Sunday, August 18, 2002 - 09:36 pm: Edit

That is very intersiting.. about this ivy league thing.. I almost graduated from college.. and I didn't know all about this stuff.

By malcolm on Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 08:03 pm: Edit

What about a few good colleges outside of the U.S. News top 25? I heard USC was good but I didn't see it in the top 25? Anyone know why?

By Dadster on Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 10:19 pm: Edit

Malcom, there are LOTS of great colleges that aren't in the top 25. With a little research, you'll discover some that might be perfect for you. For a real anti-elite approach, check out Loren Pope's Colleges that Change Lives book.

By Annie Melos on Monday, September 30, 2002 - 01:04 pm: Edit

There are great west coast schools like Pomona, Pfizer, Stanford, why not do a little research ?

By rasdev on Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 05:48 am: Edit

Can anyone give me a list of east coast colleges in top 30 and which specialise in FINANCE.

thanxs in advance

By User # 7 on Thursday, October 17, 2002 - 12:21 pm: Edit

Malcolm, you need to decide what you really want.

First you ask for "non-Ivy League but close to being Ivy League", but then you ask for schools "outside of the U.S. News top 25". Dadster's suggestion for an anti-elite approach is a good enough, but it's not responsive to a discussion captioned "Prestigious Colleges".

If you want to start yet another debate of prestige vs. quality vs. selectivity or initiate the umpteenth criticism of rankings, why don't you just say so and do it?

By Cal Fan on Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 09:37 pm: Edit

you folks are forgetting about UC Berkeley and UCLA. Berkeley costs half as much as the ivys and is just as good. Plus, you don't have to wear a sweater vest to class.

Go Bears!

By matthew on Monday, November 04, 2002 - 12:11 am: Edit

carnegie mellon
nyu
u-chicago
stanford
U-Ca:Berk
UCLA
Northwestern
Rice
Johns Hopkins
U-Virginia
U-Illinois:Champlaign
U-Washington (for Computer Science, Business, or Medical)

By Biggold77 (Biggold77) on Sunday, November 17, 2002 - 01:52 am: Edit

CORNELL (Engineering, Hotel Management, Writing.....bungee jumping!)
DUKE (Business, Geology, Law, ...Basketball)
STANFORD (Law, engineering, medicine, business, psychopaths...basketball.. football...you name it)
USC (Film-Theater, Business, Music, engineer, Law....baseball... football)
U-MICH (Business, engineer, architect, ...football)
UNC (Medicine, Biology, Art history, ...Michael Jordan)
PENN STATE (Meteorology, gen. science, archit.....football)
U TEXAS AUSTIN (Law, Engineer, .....Bush's daughters!!)
ILLINOIS(Music, Art, Law, Engineer,..cold winter)
BERKELEY(Engineering,.....riots...protests)
CAL-TECH (Engineering..math.....no chics)

By Pomona2006 (Pomona2006) on Sunday, November 17, 2002 - 04:56 pm: Edit

Pomona College is a an amazing college to look into...most people don't know about it, but it is in the top 5 liberal arts colleges in the nation!

By lorice austin on Friday, November 29, 2002 - 01:46 pm: Edit

can you tell me which graduate college that has a major in speech pathologists and communication that do not use GRE scores as part of their admission process.

By kita on Monday, December 09, 2002 - 03:09 pm: Edit

i'm from england and i was just wondering if anyone could tell me what is actually the difference between ivy league universities and all the other ones - is it just that they are more expensive?

By native on Tuesday, December 10, 2002 - 06:24 am: Edit

The ivy league is a group of 8 schools in a football conference that have a reputation for high quality education which has made them popular and hard to get into. (Ivies now play non-ivies in football, etc.) All ivies are considered elite but not all elites are ivies. They are private, not state sponsored schools which make them more expensive than public schools but about as expensive as other private colleges.

By kita on Wednesday, December 11, 2002 - 06:32 am: Edit

thank you!

By Budget on Friday, December 27, 2002 - 12:19 pm: Edit

Berkeley is a wonderful school for California residents.

For none Califonia residents and during freshman year, Berkeley will cost $29,000+ and an Ivy school is at $36,000 +/-a year.

However, it will cost more to attend Berkeley for the the remaining years for a none California resident. Berkeley dorm can only accomodate freshman year. The annual rents for an off-campus appartment can easily cost more than $10,000 a year.

By Art (Art) on Sunday, December 29, 2002 - 10:50 am: Edit

Denison. Ohio Wesleyan, College of Wooster

all top of the line LAC but often due to being in OHIO do not get there due respect imo.

By Dubs (Dubs) on Tuesday, December 31, 2002 - 07:59 pm: Edit

Pomona College is a great choice!!!

By LAC Fan on Tuesday, December 31, 2002 - 09:02 pm: Edit

Art--I'm surprised that you would list those three and not mention Oberlin and Kenyon, which are probably Ohio's two most prestigious liberal arts colleges!

By Dubs (Dubs) on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 04:02 pm: Edit

Pomona2006.......are u a student at Pomona College.....or someone who just got accepted?

By anonymous on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 05:40 pm: Edit

LAC Fan, I doubt people think in terms of state when listing prestigious colleges. I think it is commonly meant as national prestige. And with no offense intended, probably not all states would be represented.

A Colorado location hasn't kept the Air Force Academy from rightfully being considered prestigious.

Are any of Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, & College of Wooster even ranked in USNews' 1st tier? Even if so they haven't been for long.

From your name it sounds like you're a fan of ALL LACs, no matter their quality, how they are ranked.

By schultz on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 11:18 pm: Edit

Williams is a great school!
Apply to Williams!

By Nicole on Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 08:48 am: Edit

What are the top 10 ivy league colleges?

By john on Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 04:57 pm: Edit

schools don't have to have official "FINANCE" programs to be good in the field. The top companies tend to take students from IVY's or MIT

By logansmith on Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 05:56 pm: Edit

are you guys retarded??? WHAT ABOUT NYU!! NYU IS AN AMAZING SCHOOl..especially for theater, but its almost immposible to get in.

By CNY on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 04:54 pm: Edit

I'm having a tough time deciding where to go to grad school for a one-year master's in CS: Oxford, Harvard, or Princeton? They all have good CS programs (Princeton is ranked highest of the 3 in US News), but does that ranking really mean a lot if I want to work in tech consulting afterward? Oxford would be exciting because it's in another country, but then wouldn't it be harder for me to interview/find jobs in America? Harvard allows you to take some classes at MIT too, so that's appealing. Does the Oxford name carry as much weight as the Harvard name in corporate America?

By Jake on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 05:04 pm: Edit

Many people seem to have questions about what the Ivy League colleges are...so hopefully this will clear things up.

Eight (and only 8) colleges form the Ivy League and have the distinction of being called Ivy League colleges. Some people tend to apply the term "Ivy League" to other top schools that are not in this group, and doing so is an incorrect use of the term. In any case, here are the 8 Ivy League colleges:

- Harvard University
- Princeton University
- Cornell University
- Dartmouth College
- Yale University
- Columbia University
- University of Pennsylvania (NOT Penn State)
- Brown University

Each of these schools is private and highly selective. They are all located in the northeastern United States. For more information, check out the following website:

http://www.ivyleaguesports.com

By dude on Saturday, January 18, 2003 - 10:09 pm: Edit

OK I'm gonna add a school that no one has mentioned thus far, Cooper Union, itz in the east village, NYC and as faras ranks go itz the 3rd hardest school in the country to get into. It just happens to be small and hence many people over look it, however if you get in u get a full scolarship like everyone else it is the only free private college in the country, itz quite the deal

By tracy on Saturday, January 18, 2003 - 11:28 pm: Edit

any suggestions on colleges for international business on the east coast?

By Jumbo Pride on Sunday, January 19, 2003 - 02:53 pm: Edit

Tufts.

By DUKE on Sunday, January 19, 2003 - 03:29 pm: Edit

HEY...DUKE IS IVY LEAGUE TOO U DOPE

By um...no on Sunday, January 19, 2003 - 04:23 pm: Edit

no its not. There are only 8 ivies.

By Greg on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 07:06 pm: Edit

- Harvard University
- Princeton University
- Cornell University
- Dartmouth College
- Yale University
- Columbia University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Brown University

The only other school that was invited to be an Ivy was Johns Hopkins, but they turned it down, twice actually, so they wouldn't risk their championship lacrosse team. If they joined they wouldn't be allowed to give lax scholarships anymore.

By ivy leaguer on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 07:33 pm: Edit

I don't think Johns Hopkins was invited. When were they invited, if this is true? And if it is true, that was a stupid move on their part. Their joining the ivy league would have automatically bruoght up their applications by at least 30%, I can guarantee it.

By cjh54 on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 08:15 pm: Edit

Johns Hopkins was NEVER invited to join the Ivy League...this is a hoax. NO colleges ever get "invited" to join the Ivy League. The eight schools (listed above) have formed the Ivy League since its inception and will always remain the "Ancient Eight". Adding more schools to the Ivy League would only DILUTE the prestige that is associated with this name. ...Johns Hopkins could only wish that they were extended such an invitation...

By MY2CNTS on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 10:11 pm: Edit

I've been to Wooster, Denison, Kenyon, Oberlin and Ohio Weslyan, and I don't care what USNEWS says, you absolutely cannot go wrong with any of those schools. Also, while I do think Oberlin is most prestigious as far as a name that'll travel, the actual 4 year experience is no greater than any of the others --- Wooster is actually my favorite, only Princeton is ranked higher for the value of its capstone independent study program.

By Paul Coleman on Sunday, January 26, 2003 - 12:11 pm: Edit

Does anyone know the best person to use to get a high score in the SATS in South Jersey? I'd like to get a jump start. Please provide name and possibly telephone number of where they are located. Thanks in advance.

By Lonewolf (Lonewolf) on Monday, January 27, 2003 - 06:10 pm: Edit

Can anyone suggest a top-notch Law School to aplly to? It does NOT have to be Ivy League, although I am seriously considering on applying in 3 years, when it will be that time. I feel my credentials are so far strong enough for admission to an Ivy League Law School, so dont count that out yet. Thanks!

By Ancient Scholar on Wednesday, January 29, 2003 - 11:00 am: Edit

Johns Hopkins and MIT were *never* invited to the Ivy League. However, MIT is at least as prestigious as the Ivies.

When people refer to the "10" schools in the Ivy League, they are including MIT and Stanford with the actual 8 members: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, Penn, Columbia.

Duke is the closest thing the South has to the Ivy League, and there are a few public Ivies in the uppermost Southern states: Virginia, UNC, William & Mary.

By kate on Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 01:46 pm: Edit

Um I have a constant 97 average.. I am a sophomore in high school who every year has been in 13 clubs plus the dance team ...my clubs are elite (such as speech and debate...) I make the science fair every year and already have 870 community service hours and plan to reach 1,500 by the year I graduate... I either want to be a pyschiatrist, pyschologist, pediatrician, or journalist... can anybody recommend which ivy would be best for me and if not an ivy then a similat ranked college of prestige??? I have dreamed so much about going to an ivy league school...

By Blue Shift on Monday, February 03, 2003 - 12:49 am: Edit

how much do community service hours seem to tip the scales nowadays in admissions into selective schools. i'm a junior in HS. i have the grades, extracurriculars, and test scores. that's one hole i have to fill. how much importance should i place on this?

~HS dude ivy eyed

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Monday, February 03, 2003 - 08:10 am: Edit

The student has not yet been born who matches up best with ALL the elite schools!

Schools have distinct personalities.

Even if you have the greatest stats in the world, the chances are that you only match up with one or possibly two elites, a few great schools, and a safety.

Get to work at finding which schools are the best match for your personality and objectives. Trust me... you will be overjoyed to find several that are really good fits.

If all you want is what everyone else wants, you're going to have a tough life.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, February 03, 2003 - 11:59 am: Edit

Great post by Morgantruce.

I may have to trademark the phrase.

By Rachael on Monday, February 03, 2003 - 01:55 pm: Edit

WOW, I agree 100% with Morgantruce! A round of applause to Morgantruce!

By AnotherDad on Monday, February 03, 2003 - 02:09 pm: Edit

Malcolm,
Morgantruce is giving good advice. There are many variables in school personality and strengths. Look for a better match rather than prestige. For example, in certain math fields, you could do better at Carnegie-Mellon or University of Maryland than Harvard.

To cjh54 -- The term "ivies" is given to the teams that established the Ivy League football conference. They have prestige, but certainly have no monopoly.

By wes on Monday, February 03, 2003 - 06:22 pm: Edit

WESLEYAN! 1410 frost SAT average.

By Trevor on Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 07:54 am: Edit

Non-elite schools should stop charging elite prices. Offsetting tuition that is outrageous in the first place with so-called merit awards is bogus.

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 09:21 am: Edit

Perhaps:
* all the professors, groundskeepers, and admissions staffs should take a 50% pay cut

* the government should kick in twice as much money

* the alumni should pony up more money

* student loans should be outlawed

* large and small companies should be force to pay a percentage of their gross sales to colleges

* and college investments in Wall Street should not be allowed to go down in value--only UP...

...just so that you get a free ride?

--------

Everyone: please ask yourself how much money have YOU saved for college and how does that stack up against what a 4 year education costs?

How do you think you'd fare showing up at a Jaguar dealer with $2.48 and a smile?
---------

The availability of college in the United States is nothing short of a miracle. Being asked to pay a small portion of the real cost is no reason to get upset.

By truth on Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 11:49 am: Edit

The reason the cost of an American education is so inflated is less to do with the cost of education, but more to do with the cost of research!

By Shiver on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 04:45 pm: Edit

Hey, who knows some great theater schools on east coast or anywhere?

By ufff on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 11:13 pm: Edit

University of Florida

By Towey (Towey) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 02:21 am: Edit

im from Australia and am entering uni here next year. Is it possible to do exchanges with ivy league universities in America and do they have scholarships for international students? oh, and what is the deal with you having to have a degree first before you can study law in the US?

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 06:46 am: Edit

Well mate, now you've got all us Yanks wondering how you become a lawyer down under?

By Towey (Towey) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 07:21 am: Edit

umm..you go to uni after highschool and do a 5 yr law degree, depending on your ranking within the state..not that complicated, mate. why the hell would you do a degree first? whats the point?

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 07:43 am: Edit

I figure that society thinks it is better off having lawyers that have degrees in political science, history, engineering, etc--instead of a bar made from an identical 5 year program.

Of course that does not explain why the majority of the population views the legal profession as one uniform blob of evil intent. When you are getting shafted by member of this illustrious profession, it rarely dawns on the shaftee to ask, "What was your undergraduate degree in?"

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 12:05 pm: Edit

Good point, MT. If we found out that the were all Philosphy majors (Nietzsche) or Business majors (Ethics), we might be on to something, eh?

By Texas137 (Texas137) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 12:49 pm: Edit

Or maybe all political science majors (Machiavelli)or Art History Majors (Hieronymous Bosch)or literature majors (Dante).

Obscure academic joking aside, I think undergraduate major can be very important to lawyers, at least when they first get out of law school. When I was in grad school I had a lot of friends in law school going through the interview process for jobs. Other than the law review types, the ones who were most in demand were the ones who brought something with them into law school that would let them specialize - like engineering or other technical background, or proficiency in unusual languages (there was a kid who spent several years in Japan and was fluent in Japanese who was very sought after by firms doing int'l law), or medical background (there was a former nurse who was very sought after).

By Autodidact (Autodidact) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 07:40 pm: Edit

The devil in a suitjacket we got to spend just short of an hour and a half with last night (Closed session School Board Meeting) majored in Psychology, and said he didn't understand my comment that, as he was representing our district, he would naturally slant questions to their advantage as it is in their best interest to do so. I don't think he was half as dumb as he pretended, but as we were being taped,it would not have been prudent for him to acknowledge bias as he was conducting the meeting.

By Towey (Towey) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 11:09 pm: Edit

yeh well most people here in auz who do a law degree do a double degree, law-arts or law-science, and obviously then major in their arts degree in shite like political science, history, european studies etc etc, which creates the diversity of knowledge in the legal profession, whilst only having to be at uni for 5 yrs all up. personally, i think australia is better, but thats just me.

By Jasmin (Jasmin) on Thursday, March 20, 2003 - 06:57 pm: Edit

Does anyone know what the top 10 medical shools are?

By Wembleyfraggle7 (Wembleyfraggle7) on Thursday, March 20, 2003 - 08:34 pm: Edit

depends on who you ask, jasmin...according to u.s. news and world report they are:

harvard
hopkins
u of pennsylvania
washington university (st. louis)
columbia
duke
ucsf
yale
u of washington
stanford

but hey...no matter what med school you go to...when you graduate, they still call you doctor :-)

By Jonny228 (Jonny228) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 03:41 am: Edit

I cannot believe that everybody immediately thinks that ivy leagues are the best schools. For a medical career I can clearly say that Indiana University is your best choice, it is not outrageously expensive and is in the top 3 in all medical professions and the nursing school is the largest in America. Specifically the Indianapolis campus (IUPUI). In the past the main campus has required you take your senior year of undergrad at IUPUI. Besides when you go into your doctors office, honestly is the first thing you look for the school on the diploma, no, you play with the gadgets first. Before surgery people want to know how much experience the surgeon has, not how many degrees. For Law I would say University of California: Berkeley. The prestige of this school is steadily climbing, in 91 tuition for in-state was a meager 2k dollars, in 96 it was 8k and now is near 12k although out-state is nearly double. I suggest getting a residence in Cali before attending. If the growth continues, by the time your looking for a career the school will be in the top 5. Whos to say you will even have to look?

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 07:27 am: Edit

Go Jonny, GO! Please bust some more bubbles. That was just the kind of post that this forum is in need of hearing. The "Harvard-Yale-Princeton or bust" readers need to hear more of this! Would you please go on and name several other great schools? Continue explaining why they are great. Thanks.

By Jonny228 (Jonny228) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 04:47 am: Edit

Sure I will continue Morgan, How about Wabash College. Surely should be in many top 10 lists. Simply overlooked. It is the most prestigious and one of few all male schools left. It is in a small town of Crawfordsville, IN. Beautiful campus, if you stay on campus, a slightly more than 2 hour drive to Chicago, 45 minutes to the racing capital of the world. Not the greatest if you want to date, but if you want an education and your male, this is the place, companies know your serious when they see this school on your resume. However it is pricy. Don't be surprised if you end with 120K in debt. Ok, say you want to study alternative medicine. Bastyr University near Seattle, is amazing they are one of the only and most prestigious school for alternative medicines. The tuition looks a bit steep, but if you look into the average grants it is more than affordable the average student receiving over 15K. Another point, when somebody tells you they have a degree from Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, do you immediately believe them? Besides if you grad from one of these schools, look at your competition, yeah everybody gets a job, but how many of those get a job that pays off their tuition? In less than 30 years?

By Jonny228 (Jonny228) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 04:55 am: Edit

most people in this post are looking for medical and law schools? If somebody wants to know a great school for a particular profession please post your career considerations!

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 09:49 am: Edit

There IS a topic on Med schools... look down near the bottom of the Main Topics page.

By Amulekii (Amulekii) on Tuesday, November 18, 2003 - 05:34 pm: Edit

Hey. I'm looking for some of the best bioengineering doctoral programs. Can someone help me out?