Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence
Encyclopedia
Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence is a college educational guide published in 2000. It concerns college admissions in the United States
College admissions in the United States
College admissions in the United States refers to the annual process of applying to institutions of higher education in the United States for undergraduate study. This usually takes place during the senior year of high school...

. The authors define both the title of this book as well as their goals in writing it on page one in the following manner: "Our mission in writing this book for students and parents is to create greater awareness of the small, distinctive cluster of colleges and universities of excellence that are available to gifted college-bound students." In the introduction, the authors further explain their aim by referring specifically to "the group historically known as the 'Little Ivies' (including Amherst
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

, Bowdoin
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...

, Middlebury
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...

, Swarthmore
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....

, Wesleyan
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...

, and Williams
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

)" which the authors say have "scaled the heights of prestige and selectivity and also turn away thousands of our best and brightest young men and women." The second edition includes the assessment of all the institutions considered "Little Ivies" except Connecticut College
Connecticut College
Connecticut College is a private liberal arts college located in New London, Connecticut.The college was founded in 1911, as Connecticut College for Women, in response to Wesleyan University closing its doors to women...

. Connecticut College is referenced on three occasions in the book for its affiliation and student exchange program with other Little Ivies, and the college is included in Appendix II as another college of excellence.

In this book, the authors (using the same criteria often used to evaluate Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

 schools) discuss thirty American schools that are small in size and are either liberal arts colleges
Liberal arts colleges in the United States
Liberal arts colleges in the United States are certain undergraduate institutions of higher education in the United States. The Encyclopædia Britannica Concise offers a definition of the liberal arts as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general...

 or universities that emulate them. Hidden Ivies: 50 Top Colleges that Rival the Ivy League, the second edition of the guide published in 2009, evaluates fifty "renowned academic institutions."

Nine of the fifty schools in the second edition are located in the Midwestern United States
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

, 24 in the Northeastern United States
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...

, 11 in the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

, and six in the Western United States
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...

.

Overview

Hidden Ivies discusses the college admissions process and attempts to evaluate 50 colleges in comparison to Ivy League colleges. The schools are examined based on academics, admissions process, financial aid, and student experiences. The book argues the importance of a liberal arts education and goes on to inquire about the qualities of Ivy League schools in general, and how such qualities apply to higher education.

See also

  • Black Ivy League
    Black Ivy League
    The Black Ivy League is a colloquial term that at times referred to the historically black colleges in the United States that attracted top African American students prior to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Similar groups include: Public Ivies, Southern Ivies, and the Little Ivies, among...

     - A list of Historically Black Colleges or Universities that provide Ivy quality education in a predominantly black environment
  • Jesuit Ivy
    Jesuit Ivy
    "Jesuit Ivy" is the title of a commencement speech delivered at and, subsequently, a nickname given to Boston College, a Jesuit university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. The term was coined in a 1956 commencement address by then-Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy...

     — Complimentary use of "Ivy" to characterize Boston College
    Boston College
    Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...

  • Little Three
    Little Three
    The "Little Three" is an unofficial athletic conference of three elite liberal arts colleges in New England, United States. The "Little Three" are:* Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts* Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut...

     - Three liberal arts colleges in New England (Amherst
    Amherst College
    Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

    , Wesleyan
    Wesleyan University
    Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...

    , and Williams
    Williams College
    Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

    ), in contrast to the Big Three
    Big three
    Big Three is a term used colloquially to refer to the three most prominent entities in any given grouping or subject.It may refer to:- People :* The leaders of the three major Allies of World War I: David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Woodrow Wilson...

     of the Ivy League (Harvard
    Harvard University
    Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

    , Yale
    Yale University
    Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

    , and Princeton
    Princeton University
    Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

    )
  • Little Ivies
    Little Ivies
    Little Ivies is a colloquialism referring to a group of small, selective American liberal arts colleges; however, it does not denote any official organization....

     — Group of U.S. liberal arts college
    Liberal arts college
    A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...

    s that parallel the Ivy League in some respects
  • Public Ivies — Group of public U.S. universities thought to "provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price"
  • Seven Sisters
    Seven Sisters (colleges)
    The Seven Sisters are seven liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States that are historically women's colleges. They are Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe College, Smith College, Vassar College, and Wellesley College. All were founded between 1837 and...

     — Historically, these were women's colleges each of which had a close tie to an Ivy League school.
  • Southern Ivies — Complimentary use of "Ivy" to characterize excellent universities in the U.S. South
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