Public Ivy: Difference between revisions

"Public Ivy" is an American term for state-funded institutions of higher learning with excellent academics. Author Richard Moll defined the term to mean a public institution that "provide[s] an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price." The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education characterized them as "successfully competing with the Ivy League schools in academic rigor... attracting superstar faculty and in competing for the best and brightest students of all races." The term has been used in college guides describing the top public universities.

Origins of the term

The term "Public Ivy" was coined by Richard Moll in his book Public Ivys: a guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities (1985). Public Ivies are public institutions that "provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price." Moll was the director of admissions at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and traveled the nation examining higher education and in particular, identified the eight public institutions (same as the number of Ivies) that he thought had the look and feel of an Ivy League university.

The term "Public Ivy" is a direct play on the term "Ivy League" which was established as an athletic conference by eight schools (Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Cornell University). Seven of these schools were included in the nine colonial colleges: institutions of higher learning established in the American colonies before the Declaration of Independence was published in 1776. In the 1930s, New York newspaper editors raised a discussion about these older American colleges—whom they referred to as "Ivies" or "Ivy colleges"—creating a formal league, or conference, to organize their competition in intercollegiate athletics. These schools, aside from their historical origins, were amongst the first to participate in athletic events against each other, starting in the mid-ninteenth century. The term "Ivy League" has evolved from the name of the athletic conference organized in 1954 to connote the cultural, societal, and institutional atmosphere that surrounds these institutions. It was a continuation of this connotation of "Ivy" that Richard Moll sought to use to apply to an collection of public colleges and universities that met the same level of academic rigor combined with this social and cultural atmosphere.

The College of William and Mary, founded in 1693, and Rutgers University, founded as Queen's College in 1766, are the only institutions among the nine colonial colleges to be referred to as "public Ivies." Both, along with the United States Military Academy and the United States Naval Academy, were considered by early sports-writers and popular culture to be included in references to the "ivy colleges" because of their age, but declined invitations to join the Ivy League athletic conference at its formation in 1954.

Many of the public ivies, such as the University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin or University of Virginia are also the flagship campuses of their respective state university systems. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, established in 1789, is the oldest school that was initially organized as a public institution.^[1]

The Public Ivies

From Moll's Public Ivys: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities published in 1985 (school and year founded):

• College of William and Mary (1693)
• Miami University (Ohio, 1809)
• University of California system (1868) ^[2]
• University of Michigan (1817)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1789)
• University of Texas at Austin (1883)
• University of Vermont (1791)
• University of Virginia (1819)

A later book titled The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2001, ISBN 0-06-093459-X) by Howard and Matthew Greene of Greene's Guides expanded upon the list in the first book.

From Greene's Guides published in 2001, additional schools:

• Binghamton University
• Indiana University Bloomington
• Michigan State University
• The Ohio State University
• The Pennsylvania State University
• Rutgers University
• University of Arizona
• University of Colorado at Boulder
• University of Connecticut
• University of Delaware
• University of Florida
• University of Georgia
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Iowa
• University of Maryland, College Park
• University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

Howard Greene and Matthew Greene present a slight variant of their own list in an appendix to an earlier volume Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence, (2000, ISBN 0-06-095362-4),

• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Davis
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of California, San Diego
• University of California, Santa Barbara
• College of William and Mary
• Indiana University Bloomington
• Pennsylvania State University
• University of Colorado at Boulder
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Michigan
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Virginia
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

Other schools are sometimes referred to as Public Ivies as well, partly as a result of the acceptance of the term into popular culture and in other cases as a result of marketing efforts by the colleges and universities themselves.

For example, based on U. S. News and World Report rankings, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education opines that, in addition to the above, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) could also be considered a "Public Ivy".

Though not included on the above lists, Murray State University includes the phrase "Kentucky's Public Ivy University" on its official logo and the State University of New York at Geneseo, part of the State University of New York system, describes itself as a "Public Ivy."^[3]

Academic comparisons

Five of the top public universities rank among the top 30 national universities in the U.S. News & World Report rankings for 2006. Moll and Greenes did not address the issue of prestige associated with the various schools reviewed. No direct comparison was made between a Public Ivy and any other school.

U.S. News ranks Berkeley's mechanical engineering program higher than that of any Ivy[4]; two of the top three pharmacy programs as ranked by U.S. News (UCSF, University of Texas—Austin, and UNC-Chapel Hill) are at Public Ivies[5]. U.S. News also ranked the University of Washington's medical school (primary care) and nursing school #1 out of all national universities, public and private [6]. Still, as undergraduate colleges, U.S. News generally gives them a ranking below those of the Ivy League. For example, in 2006, the highest-ranked "public Ivy" (Berkeley) ranked 20th, while the lowest-ranked member of the Ivy League (Brown) ranked 15th.[7] Nevertheless, the refusal of both the Ivies and the "Public Ivies" to publish standardized test results, such as LSAT, MCAT, GMAT and GRE scores, for their students makes objective academic comparisons difficult.

Many Ivy League universities boast lower acceptance rates than top public universities, and for some of these universities, incoming students have higher GPA and standardized test scores. However, as recently as 1992, 4 out of 8 of Moll's "Public Ivies" received more applications and accepted fewer applicants than at least one member of the Ivy League.^[8]

Athletic comparisons

One sharp distinction between the Ivy League and most "Public Ivies" is their approach to athletics. One of the Ivy League's distinguishing characteristics is its prohibition on the awarding of athletic scholarships; athletes may only receive the same need-based financial aid to which they would be entitled if they did not play a sport. In contrast, many of the "Public Ivies" engage in widely popular, quasi-commercial athletics that, in a few cases, make significant contributions to the university's revenue. Most participate in major athletic conferences such as the Big East, Big Ten, ACC, SEC, or Pac 10; award athletic scholarships; and rely on profits, if any, from large-scale football and men's basketball programs to support the athletic department as a whole (College of William and Mary, Miami University and University of Vermont are exceptions, as their athletic programs remain quite modest but award scholarships nonetheless).

Collegiate experience comparisons

Princeton Review's 2007 list of the top twenty "party schools" includes eight of the "Public Ivies" (University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University Bloomington, University of Arizona, University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, College Park, University of Wisconsin-Madison) (and no members of the Ivy League).

See also

• Hidden Ivy
• Ivy League
• Jesuit Ivy
• Little Ivies
• Southern Ivies

Notes

1. ^ The University of North Carolina was the first organized explicitly as a public, state-funded institution, in 1789. While the College of William and Mary (1693) and Rutgers University (1766) are older, they were private institutions until the twentieth century. William and Mary became a public institution in 1925, and Rutgers University became the state university of New Jersey in 1945 (finalized in 1956).
2. ^ Moll's book considered the entire University of California system as one institution.
3. ^ Geneseo using "Public Ivy" to describe itself.
4. ^ U.S. News and World Report 1993 College Guide - June 4, 1993.

References

• Howard Greene (2000). Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning: The Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-095362-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)