What are the Ivy League Colleges?

Many students have the desire and goal of attending a world-class college. Many times these students and parents think of the Ivy League, which is made up of some of the most prestigious and selective universities in the world. Any student that has ambition can get admitted to and attend an Ivy League college.

There are eight colleges that form the Ivy League: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell. Each of these colleges are ultra selective and offer incredible opportunities and education to their students. These colleges are also some of the oldest in the entire country.

So what really is the Ivy League? Technically, the Ivy League is just an athletic conference formed in 1954, although it has certainly come to symbolize much more. Students that get accepted into these institutions of higher learning each have something that makes them stand out: a "spike." As discussed in the other articles and in our guides, a spike is a student's specialization or clear passion that they devote most of their extracurricular time on. Having a spike is the only way to get into an Ivy League unless an applicant just gets lucky, which does not usually happen.

A spike is necessary because acceptance rates are extremely low. The overall acceptance rates for each of the colleges ranges from about 5% to 14% with most closer to 5% than the latter. This means that for every 100 applicants, on average, only about 5 get accepted. Clearly, the chances of admission are not very good when speaking of the average applicant who does not have a spike. The 5 applicants that do get accepted will almost always be the ones with clear passions and spikes. These admissions statistics should not scare anyone or stop them from applying but should convey the importance of a spike.