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Little Ivies is an informal term, and not an official body, that has been used in the U.S. to compare small liberal arts colleges to the schools of the northeastern Ivy League in some way, usually in academic quality or in social prestige. While a definitive list of such schools does not exist, they are generally a loosely-defined group of small, selective^[1] American liberal arts colleges.

Institutions identified as Little Ivies are usually old, socially and academically elite, small, exclusive, and academically competitive liberal arts colleges located in the northeastern United States. The colloquialism is meant to imply that Little Ivies share similarities of distinction with the universities of the Ivy League.

It is sometimes synonymous with the "Little Three," Amherst, Wesleyan, and Williams.^[2]^[3]^[4] (The term "Little Three" is well-defined as a former athletic league^[5]^[6]^[7] and has often been used to identify these schools as a socially and academically elite trio;^[2]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11] the term has also been used to compare the three institutions with the so-called Big Three of the Ivy League: Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.^[12]^[13])^{[dead link‍]} Encarta defines "Little Ivies" to refer to these three schools, which it characterizes as "small" and "exclusive" and as having "high academic standards and long traditions."^[14]
It can refer to the academically competitive schools within the modern-day New England Small College Athletic Conference^[15](NESCAC), which includes the "Little Three" together with Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, and Tufts.
Greene and Greene's guide, Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence refers specifically—in its introduction—to "the group historically known as the 'Little Ivies' (including Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, and Williams)" which it says have "scaled the heights of prestige and selectivity and also turn away thousands of our best and brightest young men and women."^[16]^[17]

Schools include

The schools that are known as "Little Ivies" include:

Institution	Location	Little Three	Greenes' Guides "Little Ivies"^[16]^[18]	NESCAC	Class of 2017 Acceptance Rate^[19]	Notes
Amherst College	Amherst, Massachusetts				13.7%	Founding NESCAC member.
Bates College	Lewiston, Maine				23.7%
Bowdoin College	Brunswick, Maine				14.5%	Founding NESCAC member.
Bucknell University	Lewisburg, Pennsylvania				29.5%	Competes athletically in the Patriot League.
Colby College	Waterville, Maine				26.0%
Colgate University	Hamilton, New York				26.0%	Competes athletically in the Patriot League.
Hamilton College	Clinton, New York				27.1%
Haverford College	Haverford, Pennsylvania				23.3%	Competes athletically in the Centennial Conference.^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23]
Middlebury College	Middlebury, Vermont				19.0%
Swarthmore College	Swarthmore, Pennsylvania				14.1%	Competes athletically in the Centennial Conference.^[20]^[21]^[23]^[24]
Trinity College	Hartford, Connecticut				31.1%
Tufts University	Medford, Massachusetts				18.7%	No longer a small liberal arts college; a "research university" with approximately 10,000 students (about 5,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduates).^[25]
Vassar College	Poughkeepsie, New York				23.1%	Competes athletically in the Liberty League.
Wesleyan University	Middletown, Connecticut				19.4%	Founding NESCAC member.
Williams College	Williamstown, Massachusetts				16.9%	Founding NESCAC member.

History

Founding of the institutions

Institution	Founded	Founding religious affiliation
Amherst College	1821	Congregationalist
Bates College	1855 (as Maine State Seminary)	Free Will Baptist
Bowdoin College	1794	Congregationalist
Bucknell University	1846 (as University of Lewisburg)	Baptist
Colby College	1813 (as Maine Literary and Theological Institution)	Northern Baptist
Colgate University	1819 (as Baptist Education Society of the State of New York)	Northern Baptist
Hamilton College	1812	Presbyterian
Haverford College	1833	Quaker (Orthodox)
Middlebury College	1800	Informally Congregationalist
Swarthmore College	1864	Quaker (Hicksite)
Trinity College	1823 (as Washington College)	Episcopal
Tufts University	1852	Universalist Church
Vassar College	1861
Wesleyan University	1831	Methodist
Williams College	1793	Congregationalist

Note Founding dates and religious affiliations are those stated by the institution itself. Many of them had complex histories in their early years and the stories of their origins are subject to interpretation. See footnotes for details where appropriate. "Religious affiliation" refers to financial sponsorship, formal association with, and promotion by, a religious denomination. All of the "Little Ivies" are private and not currently associated with any religion.

Related colleges

The schools of the Seven Sisters, historically women's colleges, could be considered a counterpart of the Little Ivies. Schools in this group are occasionally described as "little Ivies" themselves; for example, the Business Times of Singapore mentions "Amherst, Williams, Smith, Wesleyan and Swarthmore" as examples,^[1] and Greenes' Guides, illustrated in the chart above, ranks Vassar among the "little Ivies".

Examples of use

The New York Times, February 10, 1955, p. 33 quotes the President of Swarthmore, describing and decrying social snobbery: "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."
Harvard Magazine
Associate Justice Kennedy
Episcopal High School of Houston
Midwest Elite Hockey League
The Williams Club
The Atlantic Monthly: "Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams"
Tamalpais Union High School District: "Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Haverford, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams."
Boston Globe, September 20, 1985, p. 36 refers to "The New England Small College Athletic Conference (alias NESCAC or the 'Little Ivies')".
"'Little Ivies' big lure for black scholars", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 29, 2006: mentions Amherst, Middlebury, Holy Cross, Bowdoin, Hampshire as "colleges [that] are sometimes known as 'little Ivies,' because they have the image of exclusivity typical of Ivy League schools."
The Observer of Case Western Reserve University equates the "Little Ivy League" with the NESCAC ("Mentoring program links faculty and student athletes", Matt Cannan September 22, 2006).

References

^ ^a ^b The Business Times of Singapore mentions Little Ivies as "elite liberal arts colleges" that are "small and selective." April 17, 2001.
^ ^a ^b Tyre, Peg & William Lee Adams (2005), "Prep Chic," Newsweek, May 4, 2005 "23 percent of Taft graduates attended one of the Ivies or little Ivies (Wesleyan, Williams and Amherst)."
^ Union-News (Springfield, MA), December 5, 1988, p. 13 (quotes a Bryn Mawr official: "If the Seven Sisters were now Siblings, she asked, did that mean that Wesleyan, Williams and Amherst colleges, referred to as the 'Little Ivies,' were cousins?")
^ The New York Times (1970): "Students decline Wesleyan offers," June 15, 1970, p. 28: "Amherst College, a member with Williams and Wesleyan in the Little Ivy League..."
^ Potts, David B. (1999) Wesleyan University, 1831-1910: Collegiate Enterprise in New England. Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0-8195-6360-9. p. 183: "Wesleyan joined Amherst and Williams in early 1899 to form a new 'Triangular League.' Football, baseball and track competition in this league became something of a trial run for later contests in a wide range of sports under the rubric 'Little Three.'"
^ Watterson, John Sayle (2002): College Football. Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-7114-X. p. ix: "Wesleyan played big-time football in the 1880s and 1890s... but a hundred years later they played a small-college schedule and belong to the Little Three, which also included Amherst and Williams."
^ Bello, Michael T. "Around the Courts: College Squash Weekend Highlights (1/30/2011)". College Squash Association. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
^ http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/node/58050
^ "2011 Top 300 Colleges and Universities Ranked by Internet 'Brand Equity'". The Global Language Monitor. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
^ Kingston, Paul William and Lionel S. Lewis, "Introduction: Studying Elite Schools in America" (1990). In The High Status Track: Studies of Elite Schools and Stratification. SUNY Press, ISBN 0-7914-0010-7. p. xviii: "More widely recognized is the distinctive cachet of an Ivy League education—and possibly that at the 'Little Three' (Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams) and a small number of other private colleges and universities."
^ 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.
^ Duckworth, Henry. One version of the facts: my life in the ivory tower. University of Manitoba Press. p. 94. ISBN 0-88755-670-1.
^ http://education.newsweek.com/2010/09/12/the-25-most-desirable-schools/williams-college.html
^ Definition at MSN Encarta supports definition as the Little Three and calls Little Ivies schools "that have high academic standards and long traditions but are smaller than those in the Ivy League.". Archived 2009-11-01.
^ As of 2005^[update], the NESCAC (website) includes: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams.
^ ^a ^b "Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning: The Hidden Ivies". Retrieved 1 March 2015.
^ Greene, Howard and Matthew Greene (2000) Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning: The Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-095362-4, book description at HarperCollins.com
^ Howard Greene; Matthew W. Greene (11 May 2010). The Hidden Ivies: 50 Top Colleges—from Amherst to Williams —That Rival the Ivy League. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-201164-0.
^ Caldwell, Tanya. "Colleges Report 2013 Admission Rates". New York Times. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
^ ^a ^b [1] ^{[dead link‍]}
^ ^a ^b "Are Ivy Degrees Worth the Sacrifices?". Retrieved 1 March 2015.
^ [2]
^ ^a ^b "Library Building Projects". Retrieved 1 March 2015.
^ "The Selectivity Illusion". Retrieved 1 March 2015.
^ [3]

[bt-1] The Business Times of Singapore mentions Little Ivies as "elite liberal arts colleges" that are "small and selective." April 17, 2001.

[prepchic-2] Tyre, Peg & William Lee Adams (2005), "Prep Chic," Newsweek, May 4, 2005 "23 percent of Taft graduates attended one of the Ivies or little Ivies (Wesleyan, Williams and Amherst)."

[3] Union-News (Springfield, MA), December 5, 1988, p. 13 (quotes a Bryn Mawr official: "If the Seven Sisters were now Siblings, she asked, did that mean that Wesleyan, Williams and Amherst colleges, referred to as the 'Little Ivies,' were cousins?")

[4] The New York Times (1970): "Students decline Wesleyan offers," June 15, 1970, p. 28: "Amherst College, a member with Williams and Wesleyan in the Little Ivy League..."

[5] Potts, David B. (1999) Wesleyan University, 1831-1910: Collegiate Enterprise in New England. Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0-8195-6360-9. p. 183: "Wesleyan joined Amherst and Williams in early 1899 to form a new 'Triangular League.' Football, baseball and track competition in this league became something of a trial run for later contests in a wide range of sports under the rubric 'Little Three.'"

[6] Watterson, John Sayle (2002): College Football. Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-7114-X. p. ix: "Wesleyan played big-time football in the 1880s and 1890s... but a hundred years later they played a small-college schedule and belong to the Little Three, which also included Amherst and Williams."

[7] Bello, Michael T. "Around the Courts: College Squash Weekend Highlights (1/30/2011)". College Squash Association. Retrieved 1 March 2015.

[8] ttp://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/node/58050

[9] "2011 Top 300 Colleges and Universities Ranked by Internet 'Brand Equity'". The Global Language Monitor. Retrieved 1 March 2015.

[10] Kingston, Paul William and Lionel S. Lewis, "Introduction: Studying Elite Schools in America" (1990). In The High Status Track: Studies of Elite Schools and Stratification. SUNY Press, ISBN 0-7914-0010-7. p. xviii: "More widely recognized is the distinctive cachet of an Ivy League education—and possibly that at the 'Little Three' (Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams) and a small number of other private colleges and universities."

[11] 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.

[12] Duckworth, Henry. One version of the facts: my life in the ivory tower. University of Manitoba Press. p. 94. ISBN 0-88755-670-1.

[13] ttp://education.newsweek.com/2010/09/12/the-25-most-desirable-schools/williams-college.html

[14] Definition at MSN Encarta supports definition as the Little Three and calls Little Ivies schools "that have high academic standards and long traditions but are smaller than those in the Ivy League.". Archived 2009-11-01.

[15] As of 2005^[update], the NESCAC (website) includes: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams.

[greene's-16] "Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning: The Hidden Ivies". Retrieved 1 March 2015.

[green-17] Greene, Howard and Matthew Greene (2000) Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning: The Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-095362-4, book description at HarperCollins.com

[GreeneGreene2010-18] Howard Greene; Matthew W. Greene (11 May 2010). The Hidden Ivies: 50 Top Colleges—from Amherst to Williams —That Rival the Ivy League. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-201164-0.

[Colleges_Report_2032_Admission_Rates-19] Caldwell, Tanya. "Colleges Report 2013 Admission Rates". New York Times. Retrieved 16 April 2013.

[tamdistrict.org-20] [1] ^{[dead link‍]}

[goldsea.com-21] "Are Ivy Degrees Worth the Sacrifices?". Retrieved 1 March 2015.

[22] [2]

[hclib.org-23] "Library Building Projects". Retrieved 1 March 2015.

[24] "The Selectivity Illusion". Retrieved 1 March 2015.

[25] [3]

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@@ Line 234: / Line 234: @@
 * [[NESCAC]]
 * [[Quaker Consortium]]
-* [[Black Ivy League]] -informal list of colleges that attracted top African American students prior to the [[Civil Rights Movement]] in the 1960s
+* [[Black Ivy League]]&nbsp;— informal list of colleges that attracted top African American students prior to the [[Civil Rights Movement]] in the 1960s
 * [[Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence]]
 * [[Jesuit Ivy]]&nbsp;— Complementary use of "Ivy" to characterize [[Boston College]]