For many parents, especially those who reside in the northeastern United States as well as other places, the pinnacle of education is found in Ivy League schools. Their cherished dream and life-long ambition is to send their sons and daughters to these schools, believing that the higher standards of education and social connections available there will likely set up their offspring for life. They are impressed no end by the Ivy League, with its connotations of academic excellence and its reputation for social elitism, and with good reason.
The term Ivy League can trace its roots to 1935, but the term really gained national attention starting in 1954 with the formation of the NCAA Division I athletic conference. With the dearth of professional sports at the time, people became rabid supporters of their favorite college teams and the Ivy League schools were no exception. Today, the term Ivy League is no longer associated wholly with athletics but with educational philosophy as exhibited by the country’s oldest schools.
There are eight private institutions that comprise the Ivy League: Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island; Columbia University in New...