Let’s say you’ve watched a number of American movies about college life, you will notice that a good number of them take place in a popular, and elite university. Most of these movies whose names you can mention—all display amazing student parties and personalities that exist within the walls of these coveted institutions
These popular and renowned institutions are often categorized under the term ‘Ivy League’, and their history is usually amazing and relevant to American tertiary education. If you are considering applying for a Bachelor’s or Master’s in the United States, find below a number of important things you need to know about these Ivy League institutions.
Why are Ivy Leagues such a big deal?
When you start researching for undergraduate and graduate courses, these Ivy universities will pop up first, for loads of reasons.
The first is that these institutions deploy a lot of resources to attract talented, hard-working, and career-minded applicants–from all over the world. Secondly, we all know that these institutions really do help students in their professional career paths. Across several fields, going from medicine and programming, to electrical engineering and business, the Ivy League universities are super dominant in these categories. Obtaining a degree from these schools will give you loads of opportunities in the future.
Sadly, these institutions are quite expensive., with tuition fees going between $55,000 and $60,000 per annum. Thankfully, they also give a good deal of financial aid in the form of scholarships for excellent students.
List of Ivy League American Universities
Ivy League universities in the U.S. initially started out as a group association of about eight highly competitive athletic colleges, viz:
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Harvard University (Massachusetts)
Yale University (Connecticut)
Princeton University (New Jersey)
Columbia University (New York)
Brown University (Rhode Island)
Dartmouth College (New Hampshire)
University of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania)
Cornell University (New York)
When these athletic teams started attracting more funding and became popular, general standards for student performance increased as well and admission became more demanding and rigorous.
Ever since, starting from the 1960s, these Ivy League schools and colleges became very popular and gained a reputation for graduating students with the highest levels of academic performance, and social renown, in addition to career futures that’ll turn out successful. As at today, these institutions continue to maintain their reputation, and maintain a large presence among the top-ranked universities in the U.S league tables.
Interestingly, these coveted universities are joined in this position by Stanford, M.I.T., and Caltech – institutions which are not typical Ivy League institutions, but usually enjoy such a reputation and social prestige.
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What Should you know about Ivy League before Applying?
The entry requirements for these elite schools are highly competitive; you’ll have to present academic standards that are much higher than the ones at most public institutions. To provide context, the admission rates in 2019 sat below 20%.
Do well to check the admission requirements carefully, plus test results (SAT, GRE, LSAT, GPA), recommendations, extracurricular activities, and other academic achievements. These really matter!
Have at the back of your mind, though, that there are tons of tertiary institutions in the U.S., and loads of them achieve high university rankings while offering cheaper tuition costs. That said, when researching universities, do well to look for a perfect fit that checks all the boxes.
If you aspire to run a startup or a major corporation, or occupy an office in government, or gain a powerful advantage in research and innovation,we would encourage you to apply to an Ivy League university.
These institutions are impressive breeding-grounds for top achievers, with tons of Nobel Prize winners having graduated from here. But that doesn’t mean your degree is somewhat devalued if you choose to attend another school in the USA – public or private. Several other schools are equally recognised the world over for their world class education.
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