Painting of the campus of Bucknell University, a member of the Little Ivies, as it appeared in 1907

The Little Ivies are an unofficial group of small, academically competitive private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The term Little Ivy derives from these schools' small student bodies, standards of academic excellence, associated historic social prestige, and highly selective admissions comparable to the Ivy League. According to Bloomberg, the Little Ivies are also known for their large financial endowments, both absolutely and relative to their size.[9]

The term is generally and most associated with the colleges of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), with select schools from the Liberty League, Patriot League and the Centennial Conference. The term, however, was in active circulation to depict the original "Little Ivy" schools as schools and not merely athletic rivals at least as early as 1955. The New York Times quotes the president of Swarthmore College saying at the time, "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."[10]

Relationship to NESCAC

Among the Little Ivies are the "Little Three", a term used by Amherst College, Wesleyan University and Williams College, and "Maine Big Three", a term used by Bates College, Bowdoin College, and Colby College. The term is inspired by the "Big Three" Ivy League athletic rivalry between Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.[11][12]

Amherst College, Wesleyan University and Williams College joined Bowdoin College to found the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) in 1971, along with Bates College, Colby College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Tufts University, Trinity College and Union College. Union College left and Connecticut College joined in 1977.

List of Little Ivies

A 2016 article by Bloomberg Businessweek lists the members of the Little Ivies as:[9]

The Little Ivies are also sub-grouped by the following consortia:

See also

References

  1. ^ McDonald, Michael (December 22, 2016). "Little Good News for the Little Ivies". Bloomberg. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  2. ^ Winey, Madison (April 23, 2012). "The Not-So-Little Ivies". thecollegevoice.org. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  3. ^ Staff, Forbes (August 6, 2013). "Little Ivies, or the small renowned liberal arts schools". Forbes. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  4. ^ Matson, Zachary (December 28, 2016). "College investments sink". The Daily Gazette. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  5. ^ Massey, Alana (June 20, 2014). "Higher Ed Pays a High Price for Mediocrity". The Baffler. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  6. ^ Seltzer, Rick (December 1, 2016). "Trinity College in Connecticut sells building and changes enrollment strategy, the socially elite Little Ivies". Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  7. ^ Lawrence, J. P. (October 22, 2014). "Veterans in the Ivory Tower". Pacific Standard. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  8. ^ Peck, Don (November 2003). "The Selectivity Illusion". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  9. ^ a b McDonald, Michael (December 22, 2016). "The Little Ivies' Endowments Took a Big Hit This Year". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  10. ^ The New York Times, February 10, 1955, p. 33
  11. ^ Duckworth, Henry E. (2000). One version of the facts: my life in ... – Henry Edmison Duckworth – Google Books. Univ. of Manitoba Press. ISBN 9780887553523. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  12. ^ a b Calhoun, Charles (1993). A Small College in Maine. Hubbard Hall, Bowdoin College: Bowdoin College. p. 163.: Bowdoin College. pp. 12, 19. ...Of the three top schools in Maine, the CBB 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((cite book)): CS1 maint: location (link)
  13. ^ Duckworth, Henry (2000). One version of the facts: my life in the ivory tower. University of Manitoba Press. p. 94. ISBN 0-88755-670-1.
  14. ^ United States Congress, Senate, Committee on Finance (1951): Revenue Act of 1951. p. 1768. Material by Stuart Hedden, president of Wesleyan University Press, inserted into the record: "Popularly known, together with Williams and Amherst, as one of the Little Three colleges of New England, [Wesleyan] has for nearly a century and a quarter served the public welfare by maintaining with traditional integrity the highest academic standards." Published by the U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951.
  15. ^ Larson, Timothy (2005). Faith by Their Works: The Progressive Tradition at Bates College from 1855 to 1877. Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine: Bates College Publishing. pp. Multi–source.
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