Ivy League

The eight Ivy League schools are some of the most selective colleges in the United States. Each one of these universities has top-ranked academics and award-winning faculty. The members of the Ivy League can also boast of beautiful and historic campuses.

1. Brown University Location: Providence, Rhode Island Acceptance rate: 9% (2010) Enrollment: 8,705 (6,318 undergraduates)

2. Columbia University Location: New York, New York Acceptance rate: 10% (2010) Enrollment: 25,208 (7,743 undergraduates)

3. Cornell University Location: Ithaca, New York Acceptance rate: 19% (2010) Enrollment: 20,939 (13,935 undergraduates)

4. Dartmouth College Location: Hanover, New Hampshire Acceptance rate: 13% (2010) Enrollment: 6,141 (4,248 undergraduates)

5. Harvard University Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts Acceptance rate: 7% (2010) Enrollment: 27,594 (10,265 undergraduates)

6. Princeton University Location: Princeton, New Jersey Acceptance rate: 9% (2010) Enrollment: 7,724 (5,142 undergraduates)

7. University of Pennsylvania Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Acceptance rate: 14% (2010) Enrollment: 25,007 (11,940 undergraduates)

8. Yale University Location: New Haven, Connecticut Acceptance rate: 8% (2010) Enrollment: 11,593 (5,275 undergraduates)

A number of famous political and social figures in the United States have graduated from the Ivy League. After the Second World War, the Ivy League began to expand the type of students admitted in an effort to improve the caliber of their sports teams. Traditionally, the Ivy League focus had been on academics above all else.

In 1954, the Ivy League officially came into being with the signing of an agreement dictating academic, financial, and athletic standards for the football teams of the respective Ivies. This agreement later came to cover other intercollegiate sports as well, with the first Ivy League game played in 1956. The Ivy League sets high academic standards for their sports stars, refusing to sacrifice educational quality to excellence in sports.

The Ivy League schools are heavily endowed, with Harvard being the wealthiest university in the world, Yale the second wealthiest, and Princeton the fourth wealthiest. Many critics say that the schools embody traditional conservative East Coast values, with the students primarily white and wealthy. Ivy League also refers to a specific style of dress, which includes clothing in synthetic fabrics, button-down shirts, and penny

loafers. Currently, none of the schools have official religious affiliations.

Competition between the schools is fierce, although the Ivy League notably cooperates on one of the largest interlibrary loan programs in the world, with over 88 million items accessible to students from seven schools within four days. Harvard is the only Ivy League school that does not participate in the interlibrary loan program.

Resources: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-ivy-league.htm http://collegeapps.about.com/od/choosingacollege/tp/ivy-league-schools.htm