Is Ivy League what we think it is?

Image from: Ivy Select College Consulting

By Gerardo Alfaro

For a very long time Ivy League has been considered the pinnacle of American education, and you can ask the majority of people which university provides a better education in engineering Cornell which is Ivy League or the University of Michigan, and they are likely to say Cornell. Why well it’s Ivy League so it’s got to be better right? Well actually Cornell is ranked 9th in undergraduate engineering by U.S. Weekly in 2007 and that’s the only Ivy League college on the top ten; So why is it that we think Ivy League is better?

The Ivy League colleges undoubtedly provide a high quality education (at least in relative terms, as compared to other American Colleges) but it’s much more than that now; Now Ivy League is a brand which is not only recognized by the parents and students but also by business. This is were it might “pay off” to be Ivy League because of all the recognition you immediately get after graduating, just because of the name of the college on your diploma.

Ivy League has become so competitive that some of it’s members reject 90% of the students that apply, and reject more than half of the students who apply with a perfect SAT score. This however doesn’t mean that you are getting the best education. In fact in an Ivy League college only 40% of it’s classes are taught by tenure-track faculty unlike other less renowned colleges. Additionally if you want to use the production of graduate students as a quality measurements Ivy League doesn’t produce the largest quantity of graduate students, in fact smallest colleges such as Harvey Mudd produce the most graduate students.

So to conclude whenever students are deciding which college to go to they should probably guide themselves by other things than just the name of the institution, because the name doesn’t guarantee the best education. Students should instead consider their field of study, whether they are undergraduate, graduate, etc. as to be able to choose the college for them and the one that they will be able to gain the most from.

Sources:
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/college/?article=ivyleagueworthit
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-doct-engineering