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What Is An Ivy League School?
If you’ve seen most movies about American college life, you’ll notice that the vast majority of them take place at a well-known, prestigious university. Animal House, Legally Blonde, A Beautiful Mind, and Good Will Hunting all depict the odd parties and characters that exist within the walls of these prestigious institutions.
These prestigious and highly selective universities are often referred to as the “Ivy League,” and their history is quite interesting and significant in American higher education.
Which American Colleges Are Ivy League?
Universities affiliated with the Ivy League in the United States were formed as league of eight highly competitive athletic colleges, namely:
- Harvard University (Massachusetts)
- Yale University (Connecticut)
- Princeton University (New Jersey)
- Columbia University (New York)
- Brown University (Rhode Island)
- Dartmouth College (New Hampshire)
- University of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania)
- Cornell University (New York)
Stanford Is One of the World’s Elite Universities
Stanford University is one of the top universities in the world. As a result, many people believe that Stanford must be an Ivy League university. However, this isn’t true! Stanford is not considered to be part of any of the eight schools that make up the Ivy League, but it does have its own set of accolades and distinctions. Let’s take a look at how it stacks up against other prestigious colleges and universities!
Is Stanford An Ivy League School?
When most people picture an Ivy League university, they envision academic distinction, groundbreaking scientific discoveries, and world-renowned alumni.
Stanford University, one of the most renowned and prestigious institutions in the United States as well as across the world, certainly fits that description.
Stanford University is located in Palo Alto, California, which is in the center of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. As a result, it’s no surprise that Stanford is regarded as a world-class research institution and home to numerous tech and scientific breakthroughs.
Stanford is recognized for its entrepreneurial spirit and has a long track record of funding start-ups.
The surrounding area is full of redwood trees and distinct structures with red tile roofs, sand-colored concrete walls, and lots of arches.
Stanford’s campus is lovely. In fact, last year, Architectural Digest selected Stanford University as one of the 50 most beautiful college campuses in the United States!
Stanford is more than a beautiful campus
However, beauty isn’t the whole story at Stanford; it’s also got brains. 84 Nobel laureates are among the university’s alumni as of 2021.
Merit scholarships are awarded to students based on their academic excellence. Many notable alumni include former President Herbert Hoover, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Senator Cory Booker, golf phenom Tiger Woods, first American woman in space Sally Ride, and Chelsea Clinton.
Stanford students, professors, and alumni are at the forefront of numerous disciplines, including computer science and technology to politics, law, public policy, medicine, and engineering. It is without a doubt an Ivy League caliber institution!
We’ll go through what it means to be in the Ivy League, how Stanford compares, and what you can do to get accepted in this post.
Is Stanford an Ivy League School?
Stanford is not a member of the Ivy League. Although it is comparable to the Ivies, it does not belong to that group. It has been referred to as “the Harvard of the West” informally.
The Ivy League, which was founded in 1954 and comprises of eight colleges including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, and Cornell.
These are some of the oldest, most well-known institutions of higher education in the United States, and they consistently rank among the country’s top institutions in terms of reputation, selectivity, endowment, and alumni influence.
The Ivy League has long been known primarily as an athletic organization, but it is now more recognized for academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and research quality.
Stanford is not formally a member of the Ivy League, but it is nonetheless an extremely prestigious, selective, and impactful institution that frequently outperforms many Ivy League institutions in publications such as U.S. News and World Report.
Stanford alumni are guiding organizations and innovation in every field of endeavor, with the university still attracting the world’s most brilliant and promising students and scholars.
Surprisingly, despite its contemporary Ivy League status, Stanford has a long history of outstanding athletic teams. In 2014, the Stanford Cardinal was named No. 1 in CBSSports.com’s Best in College Sports.
Stanford’s success in high-profile sports like football, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball provides for a lively campus with a lot of school spirit, affectionately known as “Nerd Nation” by Stanford University students.
Why Is Stanford Mistaken For An Ivy League School?
Many people mistakenly believe that Stanford is an Ivy, since the name has been co-opted by other institutions. When we think of the Ivy League today, we usually think of the most selective colleges.
Because of its prestigious reputation, it’s easy to assume that Stanford University is an Ivy League institution.
After all, according to its acceptance rate of around 4%, which is in the range of 50,000 applicants each year, Stanford is clearly popular! Its 2019 acceptance rate was the lowest in the country at 4%.
The Ivy League was originally an athletic association, as previously said. Today, the Ivy League is associated with academic excellence and elitism. Stanford most certainly fits that description – it’s just not a member of the Ivy League. In every respect but name, it’s an Ivy League School.
MIT, Caltech, Duke, Georgetown, and the University of Chicago are among the top schools in this field and likewise aren’t Ivy League.
The initial objectives of Stanford University, which was founded in 1885, were the humanities and engineering. However, during the twentieth century, it became a center of scientific and technological innovation.
Now, what it means to be Stanford is defined by groundbreaking study. The quality of Stanford’s most popular disciplines, such as computer science, biology, and engineering, is evident in their popularity.
In every area, Stanford’s students benefit from the excellence of their peers and instructors. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to almost thirty faculty members, as well as four Pulitzer Prizes.
More About Stanford University
It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get into Stanford University. Its 4% acceptance rate – the lowest in the nation – implies that only four out of every 100 applicants are accepted.
One of the major reasons that Stanford is regarded so highly by national publications is its selective admissions process.
Stanford University is ranked #6 in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, which puts it ahead of four Ivy League colleges: UPenn, Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell.
Meanwhile, Washington Monthly – the most formidable competitor to US News – gives Stanford first place in the country, topping all of the Ivies. It’s conceivable that soon, Stanford will no longer be referred to as “the Harvard of the West,” but rather “the Stanford of the East!”
According to Niche.com, which analyses student and alumni evaluations of institutions, Stanford ranks third overall in the United States and comes in second for Best College for Student Athletes, #3 College with the Best Academics in America, and #3 Best Value Colleges in America.
Stanford University is the world’s second-best university, according to a recent ranking from Times Higher Education. The University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and again edging out all of the Ivies in America has been named the world’s best university by the same organization.
How do you get into Stanford?
Stanford is one of the most selective institutions in the world, and strong applicants must have a stellar blend of high test scores, high GPAs, enthusiastic teacher endorsements, standout essays, and outstanding extracurriculars.
Stanford’s holistic admissions review considers the applicant as a whole rather than, for example, limiting their evaluation to just grades and test scores.
Nonetheless, successful Stanford applicants have very good GPAs and standardized test results. The average GPA of accepted students at Stanford is 3.96, so prospective students must earn almost straight As in all of their subjects to have a chance at being accepted.
However, in order to get the most out of their AP or IB classes, students must also take advantage of all available AP, IB, honors, and other accelerated courses provided by their high school.
These courses, paired with your high school transcripts and SAT or ACT scores, can help you stand out to Stanford as a serious student who is well-prepared for the academic challenges that await them in college.
Stanford’s average SAT score is 1500, and the average ACT score is 34. Students must submit scores from all test dates before they can be considered for admittance. The admissions office combines the student’s highest individual Verbal and Math scores from each test date to compute a superscore.
Unlike the other Ivies, Stanford is not a typical liberal arts-focused institution; rather, it leans more towards STEM disciplines, somewhat like MIT and Caltech.
This implies that a student with a high STEM profile (GPA, test scores, etc.) may be more desirable to Stanford and thus more likely to be accepted.
Stanford Is NOT an Ivy League School, But unofficially an Ivy of the West.
To summarize, although Stanford University is not a member of the Ivy League, it might as well be. Stanford has produced some of the world’s greatest graduates in such domains as technology, engineering, politics, law, and theater, and it is home to some of the most cutting-edge research.
It’s difficult to discover a ranking system in which Stanford isn’t among the top 10 schools, and it’s not uncommon for it to be ranked number 1.
Students and academics are persuaded to this “Ivy of the West” because it provides an unrivaled research-based education in the center of Silicon Valley, with all that California has to offer.
Stanford alums have gone on to become heads of states, entrepreneurs, intellectual leaders, tech gurus, and world-changing figures. Stanford has proved to be more difficult to get into than any of the Ivy League institutions in several admissions years!
When you toss in Stanford’s world-class academics, ground-breaking research, strong athletics, attractive and inspiring campus, and renowned professors, it’s easy to see why the university is frequently referred to as an unofficial Ivy or even a greater institution than an Ivy!