Little Ivies

Little Ivies
(Singular: Little Ivy)

Most commonly associated with the NESCAC
The Little Ivies are restricted to the Northeastern United States
Named after	Ivy League, Ivy plant
Region	New England, Northeastern United States
Membership	18 private liberal arts colleges and research universities

Little Ivies (or singular: Little Ivy) is an academic and descriptive term that has been used in the United States to characterize eighteen private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States. These schools tend to exhibit academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism similar to the Ivy League, but at smaller, often more rural, institutions.

Originally, it was informally used to describe members of the Ivy League that were in comparison to the Big Three, but has since been associated with schools that have smaller student bodies and exhibit traits comparable to the Ivy League in some way usually in academic prominence. The term is most often associated with the founding member colleges of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). It also includes seven select schools drawn from the Centennial Conference, the Liberty League and the Patriot League due to their long histories, academic rigor and associated social prestige. The Little Ivies are colleges and universities located in the Northeastern United States.

The grouping is also linked to various consortia that some of the associated schools are members of such as the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium and the former Triangular League known as the Little Three. The term was first used in 1955 but was subsequently popularized through various lists by publications and academic pundits.

All of the Little Ivies place in the top 20% of the 2016 U.S. News & World Report, and Forbes college rankings.^[1][2] U.S. News has named a member of the Little Ivies as the best liberal arts college in the country since it began ranking colleges, naming Williams College as the top one in 2016.

Members

Institution	Location	Hidden Ivies (2009)	NESCAC (1971)	Acceptance Rate (2015)[3][4]	US News NLAC Rank (2016)[5]	Forbes National Rank (2015)[6]	Washington Monthly LAC Rank (2015)[7]	Notes
Amherst College	Amherst, Massachusetts			13.7%	2	9	18	NESCAC founding, and charter member.
Bates College	Lewiston, Maine			21.4%	27 (tie)	70	8	NESCAC Charter Member.
Bowdoin College	Brunswick, Maine			14.9%	6	21	35	NESCAC founding, and charter member.
Bucknell University	Lewisburg, Pennsylvania			29.5%	32	43	101	Competes athletically in the Patriot League.
Colby College	Waterville, Maine			22.5%	12 (tie)	44	52	NESCAC Charter Member.
Colgate University	Hamilton, New York			23.7%	12 (tie)	40	48	Competes athletically in the Patriot League.
Connecticut College	New London, Connecticut			36.2%	50	92	100	Joined NESCAC in 1982.
Hamilton College	Clinton, New York			23.9%	12 (tie)	51	60	NESCAC Charter Member.
Haverford College	Haverford, Pennsylvania			23.3%	12 (tie)	19	9	Competes athletically in the Centennial Conference.[8][9][10][11][12]
Lafayette College	Easton, Pennsylvania			29.8%	36	53	140	Competes in the Patriot League.
Middlebury College	Middlebury, Vermont			17.0%	4 (tie)	34	78	NESCAC Charter Member.
Swarthmore College	Swarthmore, Pennsylvania			12.2%	4 (tie)	7	4	Competes athletically in the Centennial Conference.[9][10][12][13]
Trinity College	Hartford, Connecticut			31.1%	38	81	183	NESCAC Charter Member.
Tufts University	Medford, Massachusetts			15.8%	27 (National Universities)	24	39 (national rank)	Tufts is a large university with 10,876 students. It is a NESCAC Charter Member and current member.
Union College	Schenectady, New York			37%	38	66	149	NESCAC Charter Member, but left NESCAC in 1977. Currently competes in the Liberty League.
Vassar College	Poughkeepsie, New York			23.7%	12 (tie)	28	28	Competes athletically in the Liberty League.
Wesleyan University	Middletown, Connecticut			21.9%	21 (tie)	17	14	NESCAC founding, and charter member.
Williams College	Williamstown, Massachusetts			16.8%	1	2	13	NESCAC founding, and charter member.

History

Note Founding dates and religious affiliations are those stated by the institution itself. Many of them had complex histories in their early years and the stories of their origins are subject to interpretation. See footnotes for details where appropriate. "Religious affiliation" refers to financial sponsorship, formal association with, and promotion by, a religious denomination. All of the "Little Ivies" are private and not currently associated with any religion, except Lafayette which remains nominally Presbyterian.

Usage of the term

The most common schools included are:

• Members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), founded in 1971. The founding NESCAC Colleges were: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Union, Wesleyan, and Williams. Union was a founding member of NESCAC, but left in 1977. Connecticut College joined in 1982.
• The colleges of the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (CBB), three academically selective colleges in Maine: Bates College, Bowdoin College, and Colby College.^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]} These schools are colloquially known as the "Maine Big Three", alluding to the Big Three of the Ivy League: Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
• The colleges of the "Little Three": Amherst, Wesleyan, and Williams. This former athletic league was founded as the "Triangular League" in 1899. These colleges are selective liberal arts colleges located in New England.^{[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]} The term has also been used to compare the three institutions with the Big Three of the Ivy League: Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.^[30]

Related institutions

The schools of the Seven Sisters, historically women's colleges, could be considered a counterpart of the Little Ivies. Schools in this group are occasionally described as "little Ivies" themselves; for example, the Business Times of Singapore mentions "Amherst, Williams, Smith, Wesleyan and Swarthmore" as examples,^[31] and Greenes' Guides, illustrated in the chart above, ranks Vassar among the "little Ivies".

Examples of use

• The New York Times, February 10, 1955, p. 33 quotes the President of Swarthmore, describing and decrying social snobbery: "We not only have the Ivy League, and the pretty clearly understood though seldom mentioned gradations within the Ivy League, but we have the Little Ivy League, and the jockeying for position within that."

• Harvard Magazine

• Associate Justice Kennedy
• Episcopal High School of Houston
• Midwest Elite Hockey League
• The Williams Club
• The Atlantic Monthly: "Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams"
• A Small College in Maine, 1993, Calhoun, Charles mentioned "...Of the three top schools in Maine, the Bates, Bowdoin, Colby drew the most notation to what was informally characterized as a smaller Ivy League, one that provided an Ivy League education with a smaller student body"
• General Catalogue of Bates College, 1980, (n.b. ref. Faith By Their Progressive Works) was referenced, "the group seemed to draw power from their comparisons to the Ivy League operating in such a group entitled, 'the Little Ivies."... Bowdoin often drawing the connection to Harvard, Bates to Princeton, and Colby to Yale."
• Tamalpais Union High School District: "Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Haverford, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams."
• Boston Globe, September 20, 1985, p. 36 refers to "The New England Small College Athletic Conference (alias NESCAC or the 'Little Ivies')".
• "'Little Ivies' big lure for black scholars", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 29, 2006: mentions Amherst, Middlebury, Holy Cross, Bowdoin, Hampshire as "colleges [that] are sometimes known as 'little Ivies,' because they have the image of exclusivity typical of Ivy League schools."
• The Observer of Case Western Reserve University equates the "Little Ivy League" with the NESCAC ("Mentoring program links faculty and student athletes", Matt Cannan September 22, 2006).
• The Greenes' Guide, Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence (2000) mentioned Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, and Williams in their first assessment.^[32][33] The second edition (2009) included the notation of Bates College, Colby College, Haverford College, Tufts University, and Trinity College. This list excluded Connecticut College and Union College, which are included in Appendix II as "other colleges of excellence."^[34]

See also

• Quaker Consortium
• Black Ivy League — informal list of colleges that attracted top African American students prior to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s
• Jesuit Ivy — Use of "Ivy" to characterize Boston College
• Public Ivies — Group of public U.S. universities thought to "provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price"
• Seven Sisters — Historically, these were women's colleges each of which had a close tie to an Ivy League (then, men-only) school.
• Southern Ivies — Use of "Ivy" to characterize excellent universities in the U. S. South
• Golden Triangle (English universities) - a group of leading English universities

References

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