Is "Public Ivy" really a thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently go laughed at for not knowing the UVA is considered a public Ivy. I was taken aback by the snottiness of the person saying this to me because I thought it was a ridiculous thing to be snotty about. I just ignored it and moved on. That's what OP needed to do.

It's a ridiculous term for ridiculous people who are attempting to be snotty but failing miserably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley, UVA, UNC, WM, Michigan, etc. There is a top tier of public colleges. Call them public Ivys. Call them top public schools. Call them highly selective public universities. Call them great colleges your kid is lucky to get into. Who cares? A kid worked hard to get into UVA. Doubly so if OOS. If it makes mom feel good to say public Ivy, why be a jacka@@?

This is really what people are fighting about?

Don’t forget U Vermont and Miami of Ohio! Funny how those always get left behind.

You know what— if it makes someone feel good to think that U Vermont is a “public ivy,” that’s fine. You do you and all that. Not sure how it hurts me or my kid.

[Anonymous]

It’s cheesy for anyone to argue that “public ivies” still or ever mattered or that it’s also a conference or a league. And I’m a Tar Herl. Just like it’s cheesy when someone says their kid got into UNC when it’s really UNCG or UNCW (and the peoooke push back, oh but it’s all the same, when it’s not but whatever).

OP should be gracious and cool her jets. She’s really splitting hairs though insinuating that UNC Chapel Hill isn’t a selective school close to or on par with Cornell, especially if that student is accepted OOS and that the other persons’s child didn’t study their @ss off too or work hard to get accepted there. A few quick clicks on the internet show UNC OOS acceptance between 10-13%, and Cornell’s 10-14%.

But hey, Cornell is better than going to Dook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley, UVA, UNC, WM, Michigan, etc. There is a top tier of public colleges. Call them public Ivys. Call them top public schools. Call them highly selective public universities. Call them great colleges your kid is lucky to get into. Who cares? A kid worked hard to get into UVA. Doubly so if OOS. If it makes mom feel good to say public Ivy, why be a jacka@@?

This is really what people are fighting about?

That is exactly why the term exists. To make moms feel good.

Okay. I’m a mom of a kid who is applying to college this year. And I have spent something like 20,000 hours— or more— carpool and waiting through music lessons and watching boring soccer games and (even worse) sitting through football games so I can watch the band march for 6 minutes and overseeing homework (and sitting up past midnight with high school kids who are doing homework so they aren’t alone), and getting ADHD diagnoses (and treatment). And supervising teens. And hugging crying teens when the world isn’t fair. And trying to come up with logical consequences, and teach morals and good judgement and the skills necessary to be a functioning adult. And all the other things moms (and dads) do. If my kid gets into WM or UVA (donut hole family, only privates with merit aid for my kids)— or goes to VCU or Redford or NoVA— and majors in something they enjoy that could lead to being gainfully employed, gets decent grades and is a kind, decent person with good values, and is successfully transitioning into adulthood, I would be over the moon. IF all these things happen, I will feel that have done the hardest, most important job of my life well. And I have a well respected, demanding job when I am not parenting.

So let Mom feel good. Some kids turn out well despite shitty parents. Some amazing parents have kids who struggle. But most of the time, if a kid becomes a successful adult, Mom (and often Dad) did a lot of work. It’s okay to humor them. It’s okay to let them feel good what their child has accomplished and the person they are growing up to be. It’s even okay to let them put a marginally legit label on their kids college. Because if your mom isn’t cheering you on, who is?

I personally think getting hung up on labels is silly, because different kids need different schools based on different strengths and different goals. But a mom who is proud of raising a successful adult and good human being? Give her the win FFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s cheesy for anyone to argue that “public ivies” still or ever mattered or that it’s also a conference or a league. And I’m a Tar Herl. Just like it’s cheesy when someone says their kid got into UNC when it’s really UNCG or UNCW (and the peoooke push back, oh but it’s all the same, when it’s not but whatever).

OP should be gracious and cool her jets. She’s really splitting hairs though insinuating that UNC Chapel Hill isn’t a selective school close to or on par with Cornell, especially if that student is accepted OOS and that the other persons’s child didn’t study their @ss off too or work hard to get accepted there. A few quick clicks on the internet show UNC OOS acceptance between 10-13%, and Cornell’s 10-14%.

But hey, Cornell is better than going to Dook.

Yesssssss! NC born and bred. Went to WFU, but my sister attended UNC. As an aside, Coach K hasn’t aged at all in 35 years, and I suspect he drinks the blood of puppies and kittens to stay young.

The weird thing about UNC is the cap on OOS students is so low. 80% of the students have to be in state. And NC isn’t drawing from a NoVA. A large part of the state has been very depressed for 15 years. It’s actually not that hard to get into UNC in state. But OOS— completely different story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley, UVA, UNC, WM, Michigan, etc. There is a top tier of public colleges. Call them public Ivys. Call them top public schools. Call them highly selective public universities. Call them great colleges your kid is lucky to get into. Who cares? A kid worked hard to get into UVA. Doubly so if OOS. If it makes mom feel good to say public Ivy, why be a jacka@@?

This is really what people are fighting about?

That is exactly why the term exists. To make moms feel good.

Okay. I’m a mom of a kid who is applying to college this year. And I have spent something like 20,000 hours— or more— carpool and waiting through music lessons and watching boring soccer games and (even worse) sitting through football games so I can watch the band march for 6 minutes and overseeing homework (and sitting up past midnight with high school kids who are doing homework so they aren’t alone), and getting ADHD diagnoses (and treatment). And supervising teens. And hugging crying teens when the world isn’t fair. And trying to come up with logical consequences, and teach morals and good judgement and the skills necessary to be a functioning adult. And all the other things moms (and dads) do. If my kid gets into WM or UVA (donut hole family, only privates with merit aid for my kids)— or goes to VCU or Redford or NoVA— and majors in something they enjoy that could lead to being gainfully employed, gets decent grades and is a kind, decent person with good values, and is successfully transitioning into adulthood, I would be over the moon. IF all these things happen, I will feel that have done the hardest, most important job of my life well. And I have a well respected, demanding job when I am not parenting.

So let Mom feel good. Some kids turn out well despite shitty parents. Some amazing parents have kids who struggle. But most of the time, if a kid becomes a successful adult, Mom (and often Dad) did a lot of work. It’s okay to humor them. It’s okay to let them feel good what their child has accomplished and the person they are growing up to be. It’s even okay to let them put a marginally legit label on their kids college. Because if your mom isn’t cheering you on, who is?

I personally think getting hung up on labels is silly, because different kids need different schools based on different strengths and different goals. But a mom who is proud of raising a successful adult and good human being? Give her the win FFS.

The whole point is focus on the kid and the school, NOT the label.

UNC is great on its own - it certainly doesn't need the ridiculous "public ivy" label. Fake labels are products of insecurity, not pride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one thing these threads are good for is bringing out the fools who love to remind everyone at every opportunity they "went to school in Boston."

As has previously been stated, the "Public Ivy" designation is really a value comparison. It's possible to acknowledge that from an ROI perspective, there are many great schools on par with ivies that cost a lot less. This is especially true for undergraduate education, which is the whole ball of wax.

But it's always amusing to read the responses from people shelling out the price of a house for their snowflake's education and then sniff that say, "sure, they're perfectly fine but Hahvahd is bettah." At the margins, maybe it is, but a decade down the road, it's very possible the Public Ivy grad is out-earning the snowflake and, as a bonus, probably living a more full life.

So then you just say "top public schools" or "public schools in top 10" - why refer to a sports conference?

PP here. Because the “Ivy League” as a collective is universally acknowledged as a proxy for the most historically elite institutions in the country. The “public ivy” moniker, however clumsy, merely points out that there are many other institutions that are just as good and at a better value. It’s this “just as good” claim that drives Ivy Leaguers around a bend. The real question is “by what measure?” What Ivy Leaguers apparently can’t Stand is not everyone shares or validates their priorities.

So here’s basically the criteria:

Value for money? Winner: Public Ivy.
Income potential? Hard to say.
Best education? Maybe Ivy League at the margins.
Research opportunities? Probably PI.
Campus life? Depends on what you want.
Networking with famous people? Winner: Public Ivy.
Matriculation to graduate school? Tie.
Entry into high society? Winner: Ivy League.

I would say it’s the latter one that’s really what people are arguing about. Those who most cover the ivy league are obsessed with status. The rest of us don’t care about that and it drives them around a bend that we don’t.

[Anonymous]

Sorry winner for networking should say Ivy League not PI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley, UVA, UNC, WM, Michigan, etc. There is a top tier of public colleges. Call them public Ivys. Call them top public schools. Call them highly selective public universities. Call them great colleges your kid is lucky to get into. Who cares? A kid worked hard to get into UVA. Doubly so if OOS. If it makes mom feel good to say public Ivy, why be a jacka@@?

This is really what people are fighting about?

Don’t forget U Vermont and Miami of Ohio! Funny how those always get left behind.

Hey! Miami was a university in Ohio when Florida belonged to Spain, dammit.

It is a good option for undergraduates if you want your student taught by actual professors and not TAs, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one thing these threads are good for is bringing out the fools who love to remind everyone at every opportunity they "went to school in Boston."

As has previously been stated, the "Public Ivy" designation is really a value comparison. It's possible to acknowledge that from an ROI perspective, there are many great schools on par with ivies that cost a lot less. This is especially true for undergraduate education, which is the whole ball of wax.

But it's always amusing to read the responses from people shelling out the price of a house for their snowflake's education and then sniff that say, "sure, they're perfectly fine but Hahvahd is bettah." At the margins, maybe it is, but a decade down the road, it's very possible the Public Ivy grad is out-earning the snowflake and, as a bonus, probably living a more full life.

So then you just say "top public schools" or "public schools in top 10" - why refer to a sports conference?

PP here. Because the “Ivy League” as a collective is universally acknowledged as a proxy for the most historically elite institutions in the country. The “public ivy” moniker, however clumsy, merely points out that there are many other institutions that are just as good and at a better value. It’s this “just as good” claim that drives Ivy Leaguers around a bend. The real question is “by what measure?” What Ivy Leaguers apparently can’t Stand is not everyone shares or validates their priorities.

So here’s basically the criteria:

Value for money? Winner: Public Ivy.
Income potential? Hard to say.
Best education? Maybe Ivy League at the margins.
Research opportunities? Probably PI.
Campus life? Depends on what you want.
Networking with famous people? Winner: Public Ivy.
Matriculation to graduate school? Tie.
Entry into high society? Winner: Ivy League.

I would say it’s the latter one that’s really what people are arguing about. Those who most cover the ivy league are obsessed with status. The rest of us don’t care about that and it drives them around a bend that we don’t.

No. I can't stand the labels or the endless comparisons.

There are a lot of great schools. Some private. Some public. Some big. Some small. Some in cities. Some in rural areas. Some focused on undergraduate experience. Some focused on research. Some part of a old-timey sports conference. Some not.

Take each school and the opportunities it offers at its own value. Not because of a label that some schmuck is pushing.

[Anonymous]

As has been stated, the Ivy League does not provide anything superior in the humanities. Parents who send their kids to Ivys looking for excellence in the humanities should be laughed at

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley, UVA, UNC, WM, Michigan, etc. There is a top tier of public colleges. Call them public Ivys. Call them top public schools. Call them highly selective public universities. Call them great colleges your kid is lucky to get into. Who cares? A kid worked hard to get into UVA. Doubly so if OOS. If it makes mom feel good to say public Ivy, why be a jacka@@?

This is really what people are fighting about?

Don’t forget U Vermont and Miami of Ohio! Funny how those always get left behind.

You know what— if it makes someone feel good to think that U Vermont is a “public ivy,” that’s fine. You do you and all that. Not sure how it hurts me or my kid.

You think someone is trying to hurt your kid? Weirdest comment of the day.

[Anonymous]

Second to yours.

[Anonymous]

Vermont is a public ivy so not really sure what this weirdo is talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As has been stated, the Ivy League does not provide anything superior in the humanities. Parents who send their kids to Ivys looking for excellence in the humanities should be laughed at

You're a bit dim but whatever.