There are eight schools in the Ivy League. They are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. These eight schools are some of the most prestigious and selective colleges in the country.
Many people believe that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is also an Ivy League school. That’s because, like the Ivies, MIT is one of the nation’s most selective and prestigious universities. However, MIT is not technically an Ivy League school.
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Is MIT an Ivy League School?
It is no secret that the Ivy League schools are some of the most prestigious colleges in the country. But what about MIT? Is it an Ivy League school?
The answer is no. MIT is not an Ivy League school. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t on par with the eight schools of the Ivy League in terms of selectivity, prestige, and student outcomes. In fact, one could make a strong argument that MIT would rank at or near the top of the Ivy League in academics if it were a member of the conference. MIT is ranked as one of the top universities not just in the country but in the world.
In terms of student success outcomes, MIT can hold its own against any other college or university in the country, including the Ivy League schools. Most graduates earn six-figure incomes right out of college, often in high-tech fields like engineering, software development, and aeronautics.
MIT’s six-year graduation rate is 96%, which is right on par with Yale and only slightly below Harvard. So, despite the fact that MIT has some of the most notoriously difficult coursework of any school, the vast majority of students manage to make it through and graduate in a reasonable time frame.
So why isn’t MIT an Ivy League school? There are a few reasons.
Why Isn’t MIT an Ivy League School?
The simplest explanation for why MIT isn’t an Ivy League school is that the Ivy League is actually an athletic conference. Its eight member schools compete against each other in sports and vie for conference championships.
The Ivy League is an NCAA Division 1 conference, which is considered the highest level of college athletics. D1 schools can offer athletic scholarships, though the Ivy League, by agreement of all eight schools, does not offer them.
MIT, on the other hand, plays in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference, a Division 3 conference. Its conference rivals include schools like Babson College, Emerson College, Wellesley College, and the United States Coast Guard Academy.
Division 3 schools, by NCAA rule, are not allowed to offer athletic scholarships. The level of competition is generally much lower than in Division 1.
Why Doesn’t MIT Join the Ivy League?
There are a few reasons why MIT isn’t a member of the Ivy League athletic conference.
First, while MIT has the same level of prestige, it’s not as old as the Ivy League schools (with the exception of Cornell, which was actually founded four years after MIT).
Also, the Ivies have always been more focused on traditional liberal arts education, while MIT has always been more focused on science and engineering.
Finally, MIT doesn’t recruit for sports at the same level as the Ivy League institutions. Even though schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton don’t give athletic scholarships, they still have decent sports facilities and field competitive teams. MIT, on the other hand, isn’t capable of competing at that level, which is why it plays in a Division 3 conference rather than the D1 Ivy League.
Why Do People Think MIT Is an Ivy League School?
People often mistake MIT for an Ivy League school because of its reputation as a leading research university, its brutally difficult admissions standards, and its status as a veritable pipeline to top-paying jobs for new graduates. Like the eight schools of the Ivy League, MIT is located in the northeastern United States and is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the country. It has similar academic standards (some might argue they’re actually much tougher) and admissions requirements.
How Does MIT Compare to the Ivy League?
MIT is comparable to the eight Ivy League schools in several ways. It is located in the northeastern United States. It’s a private institution. It has a massive endowment valued at $27.4 billion as of 2021 — by comparison, Harvard’s endowment is around $54 billion and Yale’s is around $43 billion, whereas Cornell and Dartmouth have endowments of $10 and $8.5 billion, respectively. MIT also has highly selective admissions.
But MIT doesn’t fit perfectly into the Ivy League. For one, it doesn’t have the same history as most of the Ivy League schools. It also has a strong focus on science and engineering. While most of the Ivy League schools have a strong focus on humanities and the arts, MIT is much more focused on science. This makes sense when you consider that MIT’s motto is “Mens et Manus” which translates to “Mind and Hand.”
Is MIT Harder to Get Into Than an Ivy League School?
MIT is harder to get into than some Ivy League schools and easier than others. With an acceptance rate of 4%, MIT is slightly less selective than Harvard or Princeton, and it is on par with Yale. Other Ivy League schools such as Cornell, Brown, and Dartmouth have higher acceptance rates than MIT. However, every Ivy League school has an acceptance rate below 10%.
People who apply to MIT often have strong scores on standardized tests and a demonstrated interest in math and science. Because the school doesn’t carry the Ivy League cachet, some might argue it doesn’t get as many “Hail Mary” applications, meaning ones from students who have zero legitimate chance of getting in but decide to apply just in case. This would make MIT’s applicant pool more self-selective, making the school’s 4% acceptance rate even more impressive.
It’s safe to say that applicants to MIT need to be sure that they stand out from the crowd.
Are Classes at MIT Harder Than the Ivies?
There is no easy answer to the question of whether classes at MIT are harder than those at the Ivy League schools, as it depends on a number of factors: the classes a student chooses to take, the specific professors who teach those classes, and the academic strengths of the student and how those strengths align with their coursework.
On one hand, MIT is known for being a rigorous academic institution, and its students are some of the brightest in the world. On the other hand, the Ivy League schools are also highly competitive and challenging, and their students are also among the brightest in the world. So it is difficult to say definitively which school is more difficult academically.
Both MIT and the Ivy League schools attract a very high-achieving student body, as they are among the most selective institutions on the planet. In order to be admitted to either type of school, students must have excellent grades and test scores, but even that usually isn’t enough. To get admitted to an Ivy League school or MIT, a student must find a way to rise above the pack of thousands of other applicants with top grades and scores, whether that means having stellar leadership qualities, a unique skill set, or a compelling background story.
So it stands to reason that both types of schools are highly academically challenging. MIT students tend to be more practical and theoretical than their Ivy League counterparts, who are often more focused on the arts. That said, both types of schools offer a wide variety of opportunities for a well-rounded education in the liberal arts.
What Other Schools Are Comparable to the Ivy League?
MIT isn’t the only so-called “Ivy adjacent” school — institutions that aren’t technically a member of the eight-school Ivy League conference but that have similarly lofty reputations, academic standards, and student success outcomes.
Other non-Ivy schools that are comparable to the Ivy League include the following five institutions.
Stanford University
Stanford University, located in Palo Alto in California’s Bay Area, is one of the world’s leading research universities. Stanford faculty and alumni have founded some of the world’s most recognizable tech companies, including Google, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems. Stanford is also known for its competitive admissions process; only about 5% of applicants are admitted each year, and that number keeps dropping.
Founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford, the university was originally intended to be a “classless” institution where students from all backgrounds could receive a quality education. Today, Stanford continues to uphold this tradition of diversity; over half of the student body comes from outside California.
Academically, Stanford is strong across the board, with top programs in business, engineering, law, and medicine.
Duke University
Though Duke University is not an Ivy League school, it is one of the most prestigious and selective universities in the United States. Located in Durham, North Carolina, Duke University has an undergraduate enrollment of about 6,600 students and a graduate student body of about 8,000. The university offers a wide range of degree programs in arts and sciences, business, divinity, engineering, law, medicine, nursing, and public policy.
Founded in 1838 as Trinity College by Methodist and Quaker communities seeking to establish a college to train religious leaders for ministry in the expanding country west of the Appalachians, Duke University has grown into one of the world’s leading research universities. The university’s endowment is currently valued at over $8 billion.
Duke University also has a long history of excellence in basketball, having won five NCAA championships under legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a world-renowned private research university located in Pasadena, California. Founded in 1891, Caltech has an endowment of over $2 billion and an enrollment of around 2,000 students. The school is known for its strong science and engineering programs, and its alumni include 33 Nobel laureates, 13 Turing Award winners, and one Fields Medalist.
Caltech is often ranked alongside MIT as one of the top engineering schools in the world. Like MIT, Caltech is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
The University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is one of the most prestigious universities in the United States. It’s known as a “life of the mind” school, with students focused more on intellectual pursuits than on sports, partying, and Greek life.
The school is located in the Hyde Park neighborhood south of downtown Chicago and was founded in 1891. It has a long history of academic excellence and is home to some of the world’s top scholars, particularly in its economics department, where the principles of free market capitalism have been honed and refined over the years. The school offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs and is known for its research facilities.
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University is a private research university located in Baltimore, Maryland. The university was founded in 1876 and is named after its first benefactor, Johns Hopkins. The university is organized into nine divisions and includes graduate-level programs in Washington, D.C., including its prestigious School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Johns Hopkins enrolls more than 24,000 full-time and part-time students across its nine divisions. The university offers undergraduate degrees in more than 170 majors as well as graduate degrees in a variety of disciplines.
The university has made significant contributions to the fields of medicine, public health, and biomedical engineering and is home to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which was ranked the #5 hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in 2022-2023.
