Little Ivies Explained

The Little Ivies are an unofficial group of small, academically competitive private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]} The term Little Ivy derives from these schools' small student bodies, standards of academic excellence, associated historic social prestige, and highly selective admissions comparable to the Ivy League. According to Bloomberg, the Little Ivies are also known for their large financial endowments, both absolutely and relative to their size.^[9]

The term is generally and most associated with the colleges of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), with select schools from the Liberty League, Patriot League and the Centennial Conference. The term, however, was in active circulation to depict the original "Little Ivy" schools as schools and not merely athletic rivals at least as early as 1955. The New York Times quotes the president of Swarthmore College saying at the time, "We not only have the Ivy League, and the pretty clearly understood though seldom mentioned gradations within the Ivy League, but we have the Little Ivy League, and the jockeying for position within that."^[10]

Relationship to NESCAC

Among the Little Ivies are the "Little Three", a term used by Amherst College, Wesleyan University and Williams College, and "Maine Big Three", a term used by Bates College, Bowdoin College, and Colby College. The term is inspired by the "Big Three" Ivy League athletic rivalry between Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.^[11]

Amherst College, Wesleyan University and Williams College joined Bowdoin College to found the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) in 1971, along with Bates College, Colby College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Tufts University, Trinity College and Union College. Union College left and Connecticut College joined in 1977.

List of Little Ivies

A 2016 article by Bloomberg Businessweek lists the members of the Little Ivies as:

• Amherst College
• Bates College
• Bowdoin College
• Bucknell University
• Colby College
• Colgate University
• Connecticut College
• Hamilton College
• Haverford College
• Lafayette College
• Middlebury College
• Swarthmore College
• Trinity College
• Tufts University
• Union College
• Vassar College
• Wesleyan University
• Williams College

The Little Ivies are also sub-grouped by the following consortia:

• The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) members: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan and Williams.
• The colleges of the "Little Three": Amherst, Wesleyan, and Williams. This athletic league was founded as the "Triangular League" in 1899 in New England. The term is inspired by the term "Big Three" of the Ivy League: Harvard, Princeton, and Yale despite there being no academic, athletic or historical association.^{[12] [13]}
• The colleges of the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (CBB), an athletic conference among three academically selective colleges colloquially known as the "Maine Big Three": Bates College, Bowdoin College, and Colby College.^{[14] [15]}

See also

• Black Ivy League — informal list of colleges that attracted top African American students prior to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s
• Claremont Colleges — group of highly selective liberal arts colleges in Southern California
• The Hidden Ivies — college educational guide designed by its authors "to create greater awareness of the small, distinctive cluster of colleges and universities of excellence that are available to gifted college-bound students"
• Jesuit Ivy — Use of "Ivy" to characterize Boston College and other prominent American Jesuit colleges
• Public Ivies — Group of public U.S. universities that "provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price"
• Quaker Consortium — a Philadelphia-based arrangement between Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, Swarthmore College, and the University of Pennsylvania
• Southern Ivies — Use of "Ivy" to characterize excellent universities in the U.S. South
• Seven Sisters (colleges) — historically women's colleges founded as an answer to the (at the time) all male Ivy League: Wellesley College, Radcliffe College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Barnard College, Vassar College, and Bryn Mawr College
• Maple League — The Maple League is made up of four Canadian universities – Acadia, Bishop's, Mount Allison and St. Francis Xavier – who together form an alliance of small, rural, academically oriented, liberal arts institutions with Francophone heritage and a commitment to honouring indigenous communities.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Little Good News for the Little Ivies. McDonald. Michael. December 22, 2016. Bloomberg. April 18, 2018.
2. Web site: The Not-So-Little Ivies. Winey. Madison. April 23, 2012. thecollegevoice.org. en-US. April 18, 2018.
3. News: Little Ivies, or the small renowned liberal arts schools. Staff. Forbes. August 6, 2013. Forbes. April 18, 2018. en.
4. Web site: College investments sink. Matson. Zachary. December 28, 2016. The Daily Gazette. en. April 18, 2018.
5. News: Higher Ed Pays a High Price for Mediocrity. Massey. Alana. June 20, 2014. The Baffler. April 18, 2018. en-US.
6. News: Trinity College in Connecticut sells building and changes enrollment strategy, the socially elite Little Ivies. Seltzer. Rick. December 1, 2016. April 18, 2018. en.
7. News: Lawrence . J. P. . October 22, 2014 . Veterans in the Ivory Tower . en-us . Pacific Standard . April 18, 2018.
8. News: The Selectivity Illusion. Peck. Don. November 2003. The Atlantic. April 18, 2018. en-US.
9. News: The Little Ivies' Endowments Took a Big Hit This Year. McDonald. Michael. December 22, 2016. Bloomberg.com. April 18, 2018.
10. The New York Times, February 10, 1955, p. 33
11. Book: Duckworth . Henry E. . One version of the facts: my life in ... – Henry Edmison Duckworth – Google Books . 2000 . Univ. of Manitoba Press . 9780887553523 . en-us . 2011-12-19.
12. Book: Duckworth, Henry. One version of the facts: my life in the ivory tower. 2000. University of Manitoba Press. 0-88755-670-1. 94.
13. United States Congress, Senate, Committee on Finance (1951): Revenue Act of 1951. p. 1768. Material by Stuart Hedden, president of Wesleyan University Press, inserted into the record: "Popularly known, together with Williams and Amherst, as one of the Little Three colleges of New England, [Wesleyan] has for nearly a century and a quarter served the public welfare by maintaining with traditional integrity the highest academic standards." Published by the U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951.
14. Book: Calhoun, Charles. A Small College in Maine. Bowdoin College. 1993. Hubbard Hall, Bowdoin College: Bowdoin College. p. 163.. 12, 19. "...Of the three top schools in Maine, the CBB drew the most notation to what was informally characterized as a smaller Ivy League, one that provided an Ivy League education with a smaller student body".
15. Book: Larson, Timothy. Faith by Their Works: The Progressive Tradition at Bates College from 1855 to 1877. Bates College Publishing. 2005. Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine. Multi-source.