Ivy League facts for kids
| Ivy League | |
|---|---|
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| Established | 1954 |
| Association | NCAA |
| Division | Division I |
| Subdivision | FCS |
| Members | 8 |
| Sports fielded |
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| Region | Northeast |
| Headquarters | Princeton, New Jersey |
| Commissioner | Robin Harris (since 2009) |
| Locations | |
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The Ivy League is a group of eight universities in the northeastern United States. They are among the oldest (seven were founded during America's colonial era) and most respected universities in the United States. The term has connotations of academic excellence as well as a certain amount of elitism. The Ivy League schools are sometimes affectionately referred to as "The Ancient Eight."
Ivy League schools are generally viewed as some of the most prestigious, and are ranked among the best universities worldwide by U.S. News & World Report. All eight universities place in the top fifteen of the U.S. News & World Report 2017 nation university rankings, including the top four schools and five of the top eight. U.S. News has named a member of the Ivy League as the best national university in each of the past seventeen years ending with the 2017 rankings: Princeton ten times, Harvard twice, and the two schools tied for first five times.
The members of the Ivy League are:
- Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, founded 1764
- Columbia University, New York, New York, founded 1754 as King's College
- Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, founded 1865
- Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, founded 1769
- Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, college founded 1636, university founded 1780
- Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, founded in 1746 as College of New Jersey
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded 1749
- Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, founded 1701
Ivy League universities have some of the largest university financial endowments in the world, which allows the universities to provide many resources for their academic programs and research endeavors. As of 2014, Harvard University has an endowment of $36.4 billion. Additionally, each university receives millions of dollars in research grants and other subsidies from federal and state governments.
Contents
Terminology
The term Ivy League was first coined informally to refer to these schools which compete in both scholastics and sports, 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" and "Navy," i.e. the United States Military Academy and 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
Caswell Adams of the New York Tribune made a passing comment about the schools in 1937, referring to the ivy growing on their walls. Stanley Woodward, a fellow sports writer, 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.
School Reputations
In the Ivy League, Harvard, Yale and Princeton (aka "H-Y-P") are generally the most selective and most widely recognized in the United States for their undergraduate programs, while other universities such as University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and Cornell are notable for their higher degree programs.
Rivalries
Harvard and Yale are traditional rivals.
U.S. presidents in the Ivy League
Of the forty-four men who have served as President of the United States, fifteen have graduated from an Ivy League university. Twelve presidents have earned Ivy undergraduate degrees. Three of these were transfer students: Donald Trump transferred from Fordham University, Barack Obama transferred from Occidental College and John F. Kennedy transferred from another Ivy, Princeton, where he had been class of 1939. John Adams was the first president to graduate from college, graduating from Harvard in 1755.
| President | School(s) | Graduation year |
|---|---|---|
| John Adams | Harvard University | 1755 |
| James Madison | Princeton University | 1771 |
| John Quincy Adams | Harvard University | 1787 |
| William Henry Harrison | University of Pennsylvania | (withdrew) |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | Harvard Law School | 1845 |
| Theodore Roosevelt | Harvard University Columbia Law School |
1880 (withdrew) (Awarded J.D. in 2008, class of 1882) |
| William Howard Taft | Yale University | 1878 |
| Woodrow Wilson | Princeton University | 1879 |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | Harvard University Columbia Law School |
1903 (withdrew) (Awarded J.D. in 2008, class of 1907) |
| John F. Kennedy | Princeton University Harvard University |
(withdrew) 1940 |
| Gerald Ford | Yale Law School | 1941 |
| George H. W. Bush | Yale University | 1948 |
| Bill Clinton | Yale Law School | 1973 |
| George W. Bush | Yale University Harvard Business School |
1968 1975 |
| Barack Obama | Columbia University Harvard Law School |
1983 1991 |
| Donald Trump | University of Pennsylvania | 1968 |
Images for kids
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Yale University playing baseball against Princeton University
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Harvard Yard: left to right, Hollis Hall (1763), Stoughton Hall (1805), and Holworthy Hall (1812)
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Brown's Front Green: left to right, Hope College (1822), Manning Hall (1834), University Hall (1770), and Slater Hall (1879)
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Yale's Old Campus: left to right, Durfee Hall (1871), Battell Chapel (1876), Farnham Hall (1870), and Lawrence Hall (1886)
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On the Dartmouth Green: left to right, Dartmouth Hall (1784, rebuilt after fire 1905) and Thornton Hall (1829)
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Robinson Hall at Brown, built 1878
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Yale University's four-oared crew team, posing with the 1876 Centennial Regatta trophy
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The 1879 Brown baseball varsity, with W.E. White seated second from right; recent research suggests that White's appearance in an 1879 major league game broke baseball's color line 68 years before Jackie Robinson
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Yale rowing team in the annual Harvard-Yale Regatta, rowed since 1852
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Penn's ICAA track champions in 1907
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Students in Stell Hall at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business
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Students of Yale College in 1866
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Statue of Benjamin Franklin on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania
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The A.D. White Reading Room at Cornell's Uris Library
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A cartoon portrait of the stereotypical Columbia man in the early 20th century
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Harvard Law School students circa 1895
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New students march through Van Wickle Gates at Brown University's opening Convocation
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Built in 1927, Penn's Palestra has been called the "Cathedral of Basketball"
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Performance of a Greek play at Harvard Stadium in 1903
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Locations of Ivy League universities
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Chancellor Green Library at Princeton and Robinson Hall at Brown (below), contemporary examples of the panoptic principle in library architecture
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The Yale Bowl during The Game, the annual football game played between Harvard and Yale since 1875
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