ANSWERS: 15 Surprising Facts About Ivy League and “Tier One” Schools

Here are the answers to yesterday's quiz!

1. How many Ivy League schools are there? Bonus point if you can name all of them! There are 8 Ivy League schools: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. (Note: all of the Ivy League schools accept the Common Application.)

2. What is the oldest school in the U.S., and when was it founded? Harvard University, founded in 1636, is the oldest school in the U.S.

3. How many applications did the Ivies receive this year, and what percentage of applicants were accepted? This year, the Ivy League schools received over 261,150 applications in total. Keep in mind, the applicant pool is largely a self-selecting group of students who have strong credentials. This year, only 8.7% of those applications resulted in acceptance letters. The rejections included thousands of straight-A students with perfect SAT/ACT scores. (This doesn't mean perfect test scores are a requirement, but you need to be an extremely strong candidate in order to rise to the top.)

4. Can you name 5 non-Ivy League schools that would be considered "Tier One" schools? Popular answers often include Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Amherst, Notre Dame, UCLA, UVA, NYU, and many, many more!

5. Which school publishes the oldest collegiate daily newspaper still in existence? The Yale Daily News is the oldest still in existence. It has been printed five days a week since January 1878.

6. Which school was the only Ivy not to close during the Revolutionary War? Dartmouth!

7. Which Ivy does not require students to take any core classes? There are no mandatory core classes at Brown University. Outside of the courses required for their specific degree programs, students are expected to design their own educational paths. Around 20% of students at Brown double major.

8. Does your "demonstrated interest" in a top school affect your admission chances? Yes, demonstrated interest can make a difference! Highly selective colleges want to admit students who are likely to enroll if admitted. The level of interest a student has shown in a particular school can improve the student’s chances of admission, although demonstrated interest counts for much less than test scores, GPA, and admission essays. Demonstrated interest can include visiting the campus, attending local information sessions, or even simply requesting information on the school's website.

9. Which two Ivy League schools have the largest enrollments? Cornell and Columbia are the largest, with enrollments totaling over 20,000 students each.

10. Which Ivy League school has the smallest enrollment? Dartmouth is the smallest, with a student body totaling around 6,000.

11. Which school has educated more U.S. presidents than any other university? Bonus point if you can name them! A total of 8 presidents earned undergraduate, business, or law degrees from Harvard University. Those presidents are: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

12. How many years of your high school transcript are closely looked at by Ivy League and "Tier One" admissions officers? Ivy League and other “Tier One” schools look closely at all four years of a student’s high school transcript, and they want to see that the student is taking harder courses each year. Grade trends are carefully considered: upward trends are looked upon much more favorably than downward trends.

13. The president of which university coined the word "campus?" In the 1770s, Princeton University’s president John Witherspoon coined the word “campus,” which is Latin for “field.”

14. Who founded the University of Pennsylvania? The University of Pennsylvania was founded by Benjamin Franklin. (Notable alumni include Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Tory Burch, William Carlos Williams, Mark Pincus, John Legend, and Elizabeth Banks.)

15. In what year did Brown University change its name to Brown University? Bonus point if you know how much tuition cost during that year! The College of Rhode Island was renamed Brown University in 1804, after a $5,000 donation to the school from Nicholas Brown, an alumnus and prominent Providence businessman. At the time, tuition was only $5!

If you're interested in finding out whether our Elite Scholars Program may be right for your family, visit our website or email erin@enspherecps.com.
 
To ensure that every family in our Elite Scholars Program gets the special attention they need, we are limiting the number of families we’re accepting for the upcoming school year.

Erin, Director of Student Services