History UsefulNotes / IvyLeague

'''The Ivy League''' ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League Wikipedia]]) is a group of eight old and well-regarded universities in the northeastern United States. Officially, the Ivy League is an athletic conference. Its members have a long history of participation in collegiate sports, and some of America's first sports rivalries were established at these eight schools. The Ivy League was officially established in 1954, although it had existed informally for decades prior.[[note]] The Ivy League claims the history of the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League, the first college basketball conference (founded in 1901), as its own. Every member in the the EIBL's history would eventually join the Ivy League; by 1953, the EIBL membership was identical to that of today's all-sports conference; and upon the creation of the new Ivy athletic conference, the EIBL was incorporated into it.[[/note]] Even though the Ivy League is officially a NCAA Division I conference (FCS for football), it operates much closer to a Division III conference as none of the member schools allow athletic scholarships. In football, the league's champion technically receives an automatic invitation to the FCS playoffs; however, the league abstains from the playoffs, citing academic concerns. Also, for basketball, it was the last league that did not conduct a conference tournament; through the 2015–16 season, it instead awarded the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament to the regular season champion.[[note]]If there was a tie for first, a one-game playoff was conducted. If more than two teams were tied, a series of one-game playoffs was held. Though that number never went past three schools.[[/note]] Since the 2016–17 season, the Ivies have held conference tournaments in men's and women's basketball. Unlike most conference tournaments, the Ivy tournaments do not feature all of the league's teams; only the top four teams of each sex qualify.

On the flip side, the Ivy League is also associated with social elitism. It is often subjected to a unique form of StrawmanU, one in which most of the students are [[RichBitch snobbish, preppy]], [[BlueBlood old-money]] [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASPs]] who are already set for life, and are only going to college to acquire a veneer of respectability (for when they become executives and investment bankers) and to get into their fathers' "old boys" networks and secret societies. Any student who isn't a member of this elite gets spit on and bossed around by them, partly because of the aforementioned elitism, and partly because most of the people who are academically gifted enough to get into an Ivy League school (without resorting to {{nepotism}}) are nerds who had already been encountering this for [[MiddleSchool twelve]] [[HighSchool years]]. Such a school will typically be the setting of a SlobsVersusSnobs plot.

It's also worth noting that the mystique of the Ivy League holds less sway in parts of the country that aren't the northeast. While people on the East Coast dream of going to Princeton or Harvard, Californians often dream of getting into Stanford, USC, UCLA, Caltech, or the University of California, Berkeley instead, while Southerners have their sights set on Vanderbilt, William and Mary, University of Virginia, Duke, Emory, Tulane, or Rice. Even people in the relatively close Midwest often aim for Northwestern, Washington University in St. Louis, Rose-Hulman, University of Michigan, The Ohio State University, Case Western, Notre Dame, or the University of Chicago instead.

** Stereotype: The other ButtMonkey of the Ivy League. The fallback school for those who couldn't get into the others and are willing to shell out extra for the Ivy League name rather than, say, the University of Michigan (another typical "safety school" for Ivy League candidates).[[note]]Ithaca's colder than Ann Arbor, so it's not the weather.[[/note]] Has a really hard engineering school, though. The safety nets under the bridges on campus may or may not have something to do with that.

** Stereotype: Hyper-competitive and nerdy, with terrible sports programs[[note]]Though the men's basketball team has done well of late, with a big upset of New Mexico in the 2013 NCAA Tournament and alumnus Jeremy Lin gaining notice in the NBA.[[/note]] and a world-renowned law school. You don't need to ask someone whether they went to Harvard; [[BlaseBoast they'll tell you]].

** Stereotype: Business nerds, future insider traders. Too proud of having been founded by Creator/BenjaminFranklin. '''Never''' to be confused with Penn State.

** Stereotype: Preppy, elitist, and crawling with secret societies. Possibly [[CardCarryingVillain card-carrying villains]]. Also has a world-renowned law school, which competes aggressively with Harvard's.[[note]]As of 2022, Harvard and Yale have 4 [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts justices of the Supreme Court]] apiece. The 9th seat is Amy Coney Barrett, who went to Notre Dame for law school (as befits The Most Catholic justice on a court of 5 Catholics, 1 Protestant, 1 Jew, and 1 Neil Gorsuch (who has been famously cagey about whether he's a Catholic or an Episcopalian)).[[/note]]

* As did incoming U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, best known as author of ''Literature/HillbillyElegy''. A good chunk of the book recounts his experiences at Yale Law.

* John Kerry attended Yale and was a member of Skull and Bones. In 2004, he ran against fellow Bonesman George W. Bush for President.

The renown of the Ivy League is such that the name "Ivy" is also used to describe other colleges with strong academic reputations. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ivies "Little Ivies"]] may refer to the "Little Three" of Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams, or to a set of small and selective liberal arts colleges (mostly in the NESCAC[[note]]New England Small College Athletic Conference, part of NCAA Division III[[/note]] sporting conference). [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy "Public Ivies"]] are [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEducationalSystem public universities]] that are said to provide an Ivy League-quality education at an affordable price, while [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ivy "Southern Ivies"]] are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what they sound like]]—in fact, there was talk in TheSixties of forming a "Magnolia Conference" of elite private Southern universities[[note]]The primary candidates for joining were Vanderbilt (in Nashville), Emory (Atlanta), Duke (Durham, NC), Tulane (New Orleans), Rice (Houston), and Southern Methodist (Dallas).[[/note]] that wanted to maintain big-ticket sports programs without cutting corners on academics, as they felt that their rivals were doing. There are even hypothetical [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ivy_League "Black Ivies"]], for the historically black colleges set on serving African-Americans after the Civil War, the most famous of which is Howard University in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC. Unlike the normal Ivy League, Black Ivies are more focused on undergraduate study.

* Creator/BrookeShields, Princeton 1987.

** Stereotype: Preppy, elitist, and crawling with secret societies. Possibly [[CardCarryingVillain card-carrying villains]].

* '''Columbia University''' ([[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies originally]] King's College) in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, New York (more specifically, Upper Manhattan): established in 1754. Historic religious affiliation: Episcopalian/Anglican. Motto: In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen ("In thy light shall we see the light").

* '''Harvard University''' in Cambridge, Massachusetts: established in 1636 (oldest university in the US). Motto: Veritas ("Truth")

* '''Yale University''' in New Haven, Connecticut: established in 1701. Motto: האורים והתומים [=HaUrim v'HaTummim=]/Lux et veritas ("Light and truth").

* '''University of Pennsylvania''' in UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}, Pennsylvania: established in 1740. Motto: Leges sine moribus vanae ("Laws without morals are useless").

* '''Princeton University''' in Princeton, UsefulNotes/NewJersey: established in 1746. Motto: Dei sub numine viget ("Under God's power she flourishes"--though wags will tell you it means "God went to Princeton").

* '''Columbia University''' ([[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies originally]] King's College) in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, New York (more specifically, Upper Manhattan): established in 1754. Motto: In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen ("In thy light shall we see the light").

* '''Brown University''' in Providence, Rhode Island: established in 1764. Motto: In Deo Speramus ("In God we hope").

* '''Dartmouth College''' in Hanover, New Hampshire: established in 1769. Motto: Vox clamantis in deserto ("The voice of one crying in the wilderness").

* '''Cornell University''' in Ithaca, UsefulNotes/{{New York|State}}: established in 1865. The only one that gets support from a state government (it's not exactly public, but the State of New York provides some of its budget), the only one not among the nine [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_colleges colonial colleges]], and the only one to have been coeducational from its founding. Motto: [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study]].

* As did J.D. Vance, best known as author of ''Literature/HillbillyElegy''. A good chunk of the book recounts his experiences at Yale Law.

* Ezra Pound, revolutionary poet turned pro-Mussolini propagandist, attended the University of Pennsylvania.

* In one episode of ''Series/GilligansIsland'', after an enraged outburst of gibberish from an apeman, Harvard grad [[UpperClassTwit Thurston Howell III]] comments that the fellow "must be a ''Yale'' man!"

* Sideshow Bob of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' went to Yale.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''

** Stereotype: A [[StrawmanU Jim Jones University]] where everybody dual-majors in Wall Street ethics and [[WackyFratboyHijinx partying]]. That, or every other person you meet is a recruiter for a spy agency (due to the school's famous international relations program).

* Dr. Samuel Conway, known to the FurryFandom as Uncle Kage and is the chair of Anthrocon, went to Dartmouth.

* Theodore Giesel, aka Creator/DrSeuss, went to Dartmouth, and in fact his book ''Literature/GreenEggsAndHam'' was inspired by an all-green breakfast served to freshmen during his time there.

However, the name has much broader connotations. The Ivy League is associated with academic excellence, with many people in fiction and real life dreaming of [[IvyLeagueForEveryone gaining admission to an Ivy League school]], as it is seen as a sign that one is truly the best of the best. (Admissions are highly selective, with admission rates being less—usually ''much'' less—than twenty percent.) Indeed, this was the ''real'' reason why the Ivy League was created—they felt that collegiate athletics were growing too dominated by big money and sponsorship deals, and that continuing to compete with other schools would force them to lower their academic standards.

* The setup of ''Film/AcrossTheUniverse'' involves Jude traveling from Liverpool to find his father at Princeton—where he meets and befriends Max.

* In ''[[VideoGame/AfterTheEndACrusaderKingsIIMod After the End: A Crusader Kings II Mod]]'', Harvard's libraries still exist in some capacity over 600 years after the end of civilisation, and are known to the Occultists of New England as "the Crimson Library".

* '''Cornell University''' in Ithaca, UsefulNotes/{{New York|State}}: established in 1865. The only one that gets support from a state government (it's not exactly public, but the State of New York provides some of its budget), as well as the only one not among the nine [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_colleges colonial colleges]]. Motto: [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study]].

* Jeremy Lin, now playing pro basketball in China after nearly a decade as an [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] journeyman.

* Both UsefulNotes/BillClinton and his wife UsefulNotes/{{Hillary|Clinton}} attended Yale Law School

* Legendary OSS/CIA spymaster UsefulNotes/JamesJesusAngleton was a Yale man.

* Nobel laureate John Nash did his graduate work at and continued to do mathematics at Princeton until his death in a 2015 auto accident.

* In the Creator/SamRaimi ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'', Peter Parker attends Columbia. (In the comics and most adaptations, he attends the fictitious "Empire State University").