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The list of high quality colleges and universities in the United States is anything but brief. Yet, among the many, eight stand out. They are perceived bastions of academic excellence. They have substantial endowments and a rock star line-up of professors on tenure. They have been around, in some cases, longer than America itself. They are ladder rungs in social hierarchy, stepping stones to career success, and in a league of their own. They are the Ivies.

Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale are eight of the most respected schools in the country. For most students, they represent the ultimate achievement in college admissions. Yet are they truly deserving of this regard or are they in reality simply an intellectual feedlot for the offspring of America’s wealthy and influential? Is there more to the Ivy League than money and pretense?

Brown, Penn, Wesleyan, Pomona, WashU?

After a frustrating year spent at the wrong university for me, I was lucky enough to receive five thick envelopes in the mail in exchange for the significant toil of transfer applications. Eventually, I chose to decline offers of admission from Pomona, Washington University in St Louis, and Penn, and my choice narrowed to Wesleyan and Brown. In originally applying, I had my heart set on Wesleyan, a small liberal arts focused university in suburban Connecticut. Wesleyan, affectionately called ‘Wes’ among students, is known for its liberal, hippy-hipster attitude. Their tight-knit, inclusive community seemed a dream after wandering the anonymous, labyrinthine halls of my former place of education. After a long visit on campus with a friend, I felt at home there.

My parents, however, were applying considerable pressure to further explore my acceptance to Brown. After having had a negative experience with their precollege program three years prior, I could hardly manage to remember why I had applied to transfer there in the first place. I certainly could not fathom my own attendance when my Brown letter of admission initially arrived. The pro-con, Wes vs. Brown list began to formulate in my mind. Though Wesleyan started out ahead, the scale quickly shifted.

I knew I felt at home at Wes, in the moment. I knew I would be happy there and feel the stress of anonymity dissipate with a satisfying immediacy. Wes offered instant social gratification in addition to excellent academics. But I have always wanted to enter the legal field following the completion of my formal education. 92 – 95% of Brown graduates are accepted to one of their top three choices of law school. That success rate is nearly 100% in the case of business school applications. Wesleyan, though a university of an extremely high caliber, does not hold Ivy clout with top law schools in the same way Brown does. I noted a team list of United States Supreme Court justices that read like a Division 1 roster, and I had to admit the obvious Ivy home field advantage.

While there were countless other points that eventually tipped the scale to Brown, including considerable parental influence, it was the Ivy name as weighted factor that was most difficult to accept. Simple facts were much less morally challenging; Wesleyan’s endowment was dwarfed by that of Brown. Brown has a larger student body, and is a research university, allowing me access to a wider range of classes, albeit at the expense of a certain degree of community. These quantifiable truths were reassuring of my decision, unlike the selling point of name.

The Value of Prestige

As uncomfortable as it may make me to admit it, the shiny Ivy name factored in my college choice. I am unsure why I find such difficultly in admitting I want a spot in that exclusive league. The benefits seem obvious, and the connections endless. Yet in this economic downturn, Ivy League endowments are dropping in double-digit percentages, and some perks, services, and visiting professors are being dropped along with them. Yet even if the tangible benefits received in return for hefty tuition costs wane, esteem does not.

Many students are fortunate enough to have a choice between schools when the letters come in, whether they applied for freshman or transfer admission. That decision will likely be influenced, even to the smallest degree, by perceptions of prestige. When a student pays in excess of $200,000 for college, they aren’t just purchasing four years of classes and parties. College is, in a way, a drawn-out transaction by which a student buys their degree. For the money, it seems logical that a student should want the name above theirs on that very valuable piece of paper to be recognizable and respected. But at the end of the day, prestige is just another puzzle piece in the admissions game.

By Risa Stein