Little Ivies

Last updated
Painting of the campus of Bucknell University, a member of the Little Ivies, as it appeared in 1907 Bucknell-Campus-Painting.jpg
Painting of the campus of Bucknell University, a member of the Little Ivies, as it appeared in 1907

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]

Contents

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] [12]

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: [9]

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

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colby College</span> Private college in Waterville, Maine, US

Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, it was renamed Waterville College in 1821. The donations of Christian philanthropist Gardner Colby saw the institution renamed again to Colby University before settling on its current title, reflecting its liberal arts college curriculum, in 1899. Approximately 2,000 students from more than 60 countries are enrolled annually. The college offers 54 major fields of study and 30 minors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowdoin College</span> Private college in Brunswick, Maine, US

Bowdoin College is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 35 majors and 40 minors, as well as several joint engineering programs with Columbia, Caltech, Dartmouth College, and the University of Maine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England Small College Athletic Conference</span> American collegiate athletic conference

The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III comprising sports teams from eleven highly selective liberal arts institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The eleven institutions are Amherst College, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Connecticut College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Tufts University, Trinity College, Wesleyan University, and Williams College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bates College</span> Private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine, U.S.

Bates College is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine, United States. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals 813 acres (329 ha). It maintains 600 acres (240 ha) of nature preserve known as the "Bates-Morse Mountain" near Campbell Island and a coastal center on Atkins Bay.

The Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (CBB) is an athletic conference and academic consortium between three private liberal arts colleges in the U.S. State of Maine. The group consists of Colby College in Waterville, Bates College in Lewiston, and Bowdoin College in Brunswick. In allusion to the Big Three of the Ivy League, Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin are collectively known the "Maine Big Three", a play on words with the words "Maine" and "main". The school names are ordered by their geographical organization in Maine.

The Little Three is a term started by and used in reference to athletic competition between three private liberal arts colleges in the New England region of the United States: Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

<i>The Hidden Ivies</i> Book by Howard Greene and Matthew Green

Hidden Ivies is a college educational guide with the most recent edition, The Hidden Ivies, 3rd Edition: 63 of America's Top Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities, published in 2016, by educational consultants Howard and Matthew Greene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England Rugby Football Union</span>

The New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) is a Geographical Union (GU) for rugby union teams in New England.

The Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges (CLAC) is a nonprofit organization of 75 American liberal arts colleges which formed in 1984 under the leadership of Oberlin College's president S. Frederick Starr. CLAC brings together the IT professionals from its member colleges and universities to help those institutions make the best use of technology to enrich students’ learning, facilitate teaching and research, and to support the business of the higher education. CLAC has been supporting collaboration, knowledge sharing, professional growth of its IT members, and advocacy for the liberal arts at the national level for more three decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Williams Ephs</span> Collegiate sports club in the United States

The Williams Ephs are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowdoin Polar Bears</span> Athletic teams of Bowdoin College

The Bowdoin Polar Bears are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Bowdoin College, located in Brunswick, Maine. The Polar Bears compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). Bowdoin College currently fields teams in fourteen men's sports and sixteen women's sports. The polar bear team name was selected to honor Robert Peary of the class of 1877 who lead the first expedition that reached the North Pole.

The NCAA Division III women's ice hockey is a college ice hockey competition governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as part of the NCAA Division III. Sixty-seven teams competed in NCAA Division III women's hockey across eight conferences in the 2023–24 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bates Bobcats</span> Athletic teams of Bates College

The Bates Bobcats are the athletic teams of Bates College largely based in Lewiston, Maine and the surrounding areas. The college's official mascot has been the bobcat since 1924, and maintains garnet as its official color. The school sponsors 32 varsity sports, most of which compete in the Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). Bates has rivalries with Princeton in Squash and Dartmouth in Skiing and selected hockey bouts. The college also competes with its Maine rivals Bowdoin and Colby in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (CBB). This is one of the oldest football rivalries in the United States. This consortium is a series of historically highly competitive football games ending in the championship game between the three schools. Bates has won this championship at total of twelve times including 2014, 2015, and in 2016 beat Bowdoin 24–7 after their 21–19 abroad victory over Colby. Bates is currently the holder of the winning streak, and has the record for biggest victory in the athletic conference with a 51–0 shutout of Colby College. The three colleges also contest the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Chase Regatta. The college is the all-time leader of the Chase Regatta with a total of 14 composite wins, followed by Colby's 5 wins, concluded with Bowdoin's 2 wins.

The 1946 Little Three Conference football season was the season of college football played by the three member schools of the Little Three Conference as part of the 1946 college football season.

The 2016 Trinity Bantams football team was an American football team that represented Trinity College of Hartford, Connecticut as a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) during the 2016 NCAA Division III football season. In their 11th season under head coach Jeff Devanney, the Bantams compiled a perfect 8–0 record and won the NESCAC championship.

The 2021 Williams Ephs football team was an American football team that represented Williams College as a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) during the 2021 NCAA Division III football season. In their 12th year under head coach Mark Raymond, the Ephs compiled a 9–0 record and won the NESCAC championship. It was the first 9–0 season in Williams College history.

The 2010 Williams Ephs football team was an American football team that represented Williams College as a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) during the 2010 NCAA Division III football season. In their first year under head coach Aaron Kelton, the Ephs compiled an 8–0 record, won the NESCAC championship, and outscored opponents by a total of 293 to 107.

Daniel A. DiCenzo is an American college football coach. He is the head football coach for Wesleyan University, a position he has held since 2015. He also coached for Trinity (CT), Brown, and Williams. He played college football for Wiliams as a strong safety.

References

  1. ↑ McDonald, Michael (December 22, 2016). "Little Good News for the Little Ivies". Bloomberg. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ Winey, Madison (April 23, 2012). "The Not-So-Little Ivies". thecollegevoice.org. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  3. ↑ Staff, Forbes (August 6, 2013). "Little Ivies, or the small renowned liberal arts schools". Forbes. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  4. ↑ Matson, Zachary (December 28, 2016). "College investments sink". The Daily Gazette. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  5. ↑ Massey, Alana (June 20, 2014). "Higher Ed Pays a High Price for Mediocrity". The Baffler. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  6. ↑ Seltzer, Rick (December 1, 2016). "Trinity College in Connecticut sells building and changes enrollment strategy, the socially elite Little Ivies" . Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  7. ↑ Lawrence, J. P. (October 22, 2014). "Veterans in the Ivory Tower". Pacific Standard. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ Peck, Don (November 2003). "The Selectivity Illusion". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  9. 1 2 McDonald, Michael (December 22, 2016). "The Little Ivies' Endowments Took a Big Hit This Year". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  10. ↑ The New York Times , February 10, 1955, p. 33
  11. ↑ Duckworth, Henry E. (2000). One version of the facts: my life in ... – Henry Edmison Duckworth – Google Books. Univ. of Manitoba Press. ISBN   9780887553523 . Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  12. 1 2 Calhoun, Charles (1993). A Small College in Maine. Hubbard Hall, Bowdoin College: Bowdoin College. p. 163.: Bowdoin College. pp. 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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  13. ↑ Duckworth, Henry (2000). One version of the facts: my life in the ivory tower. University of Manitoba Press. p. 94. ISBN   0-88755-670-1.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ Larson, Timothy (2005). Faith by Their Works: The Progressive Tradition at Bates College from 1855 to 1877. Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine: Bates College Publishing. pp. Multi–source.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.