A collegiate athletic conference that was established in 1954 consisting of eight higher education colleges and universities located in the Northeast region of the United States is known as the Ivy League. The name now unanimously indicates the colleges that form the conference as well as their academic excellence, social elitism and selectivity in admission. The eight colleges that form the Ivy League are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University. These are considered some of the elite and ranked best universities of the world. Seven of the colleges (except Cornell) were founded during the colonial period of the U.S. Each institution admits 4,000 to 14,000 undergraduates a year. Overall student enrollment in each college ranges from 6,100 at Dartmouth to 20,000 at Columbia, Cornell, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. Financially these colleges are more stable with billions of dollars in endowment funds.
The term Ivy League became as a result of the formation of NCAA Division I in 1954. But today it represent more than the athletic. Ivies are a dominant plant species in the Northeastern part of the U.S. “Planting the Ivy” is still a tradition in each college.
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