Is "Public Ivy" really a thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP...mine goes to a "Community College Ivy" ...just kidding. The whole thing of "public ivy" is ridiculous. No such thing.

That's the thing with this forum envy, resentment and pettiness runs high.
Cornell is a great school maybe a little underrated but a great school. I f you do not agree with that statement you have 4000+ colleges that you can go. Provided that you can get in and pay for it.

[Anonymous]

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.

Voice of reason. I am one year behind you pp. Isn't everyone exhausted from this insanity! Your protest is viewed as insecurity.

[Anonymous]

It was a term used by a well respected author in the 1980s. So to say that it doesn’t exist is false. UVA and W&M are public Ivies on the original list. Those are facts too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was a term used by a well respected author in the 1980s. So to say that it doesn’t exist is false. UVA and W&M are public Ivies on the original list. Those are facts too.

Some people may use the term but it’s not an actual organization like the Ivy League athletic conference.

[Anonymous]

This whole thread is absurd. College is college period. I can say that because my kids had all different experiences and honestly a B school in Engineering or Computer Science worked just as well as siblings Engineering/Computer Science at an IVY ("real IVY"). UGH>..

The other mom was proud of her child. Why in the world do you care that she called UNC a public IVY? It doesn't diminish your child's experience. Although, if your child is studying Art History at Cornell and mine was studying pre med at UNC and succeeding I would be laughing in my head!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is absurd. College is college period. I can say that because my kids had all different experiences and honestly a B school in Engineering or Computer Science worked just as well as siblings Engineering/Computer Science at an IVY ("real IVY"). UGH>..

The other mom was proud of her child. Why in the world do you care that she called UNC a public IVY? It doesn't diminish your child's experience. Although, if your child is studying Art History at Cornell and mine was studying pre med at UNC and succeeding I would be laughing in my head!

Ah reverse snark, nice one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s amusing when parents get angry/accusative when their kids “elite” acceptance doesn’t fuel the sort of jealousy and awe they always dreamed of.

+1

[Anonymous]

I have a difficult time accepting the term "public ivy." It was cited on this forum using a wikipedia page and it was one person's opinion, not a fact such as the Ivy League (which, yes, is an athletic conference). Now, for the record, I know many brilliant people who graduated from Cornell as well as a few people who I'd classify as dipshits; they flamed out after their graduation. Likewise, I can say the same for my experiences with UNC Chapel Hill graduates. Again, just my experiences.

A lot of people are saying that the OP is an elitist. I'd disagree and say that the mom whose child was accepted into UNC, a very prestigious school, should be so incredibly proud of her child and their accomplishments that she doesn't need to use a stupid term like "fake ivy" in order to pump up her child's achievement. It is weird and also sends the message that she values the term "ivy league" more than reality.

By the way, I never would have been accepted to either school. Congratulations to both kids!

[Anonymous]

Are your smart kids at state schools because you're a modest family with talented kids who believes in public education . . . or are you a closet status-obsessed striver nutbag who wishes your kid was at an Ivy so they can try to social climb? Only the latter would ever utter "public Ivy" with a straight face. So so so cringe. Seriously, so cringe. Just stop.

[Anonymous]

It's a shorthand way of describing schools exhibiting particularly attractive academic traits. "Ivy" is a useful term for that characteristic.

How do others here feel about Stanford? MIT? Caltech? Duke? Chicago? Middlebury? Johns Hopkins? I mean, they're also not Ivies. So they're not worthy of comparison, or of being grouped with Ivies as excellent schools?

The term originated in the 1980s, with three schools consistently at the top: UVA, Michigan, Cal. It's a clever bit of branding that stuck.

What would be better? Public "HYPSM's"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a shorthand way of describing schools exhibiting particularly attractive academic traits. "Ivy" is a useful term for that characteristic.

How do others here feel about Stanford? MIT? Caltech? Duke? Chicago? Middlebury? Johns Hopkins? I mean, they're also not Ivies. So they're not worthy of comparison, or of being grouped with Ivies as excellent schools?

The term originated in the 1980s, with three schools consistently at the top: UVA, Michigan, Cal. It's a clever bit of branding that stuck.

What would be better? Public "HYPSM's"?

"highly-rated public schools"?

why do they need a special term?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a difficult time accepting the term "public ivy." It was cited on this forum using a wikipedia page and it was one person's opinion, not a fact such as the Ivy League (which, yes, is an athletic conference). Now, for the record, I know many brilliant people who graduated from Cornell as well as a few people who I'd classify as dipshits; they flamed out after their graduation. Likewise, I can say the same for my experiences with UNC Chapel Hill graduates. Again, just my experiences.

A lot of people are saying that the OP is an elitist. I'd disagree and say that the mom whose child was accepted into UNC, a very prestigious school, should be so incredibly proud of her child and their accomplishments that she doesn't need to use a stupid term like "fake ivy" in order to pump up her child's achievement. It is weird and also sends the message that she values the term "ivy league" more than reality.

By the way, I never would have been accepted to either school. Congratulations to both kids!

This about sums it up for me. It's a silly term that some author invented years ago, and some people glommed on to it because it soothed some insecurity they had. We could create college classification terms here and use them enough that they get their own Wikipedia page as well, but why would we want to do that? These terms are only useful for bragging, and parents who brag about the prestige of the school their kids attend are kind of pitiful and should strive to do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I found this humorous but was chatting with another parent and after I revealed my daughter is going to Cornell she said "that's wonderful, my son is going to an ivy too!". I said "that's great, which one?" and she said "UNC, chapel Hill". I said "I'm sorry that's not ivy league"and she retorted "yes it is, it's a public ivy".

I'm sorry but isn't there only one ivy league? My child worked incredibly hard to get into an ivy I frankly think it's rude to misrepresent and say that UNC is ivy league - even though it is a great school.

It's a nickname, not an actual thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I found this humorous but was chatting with another parent and after I revealed my daughter is going to Cornell she said "that's wonderful, my son is going to an ivy too!". I said "that's great, which one?" and she said "UNC, chapel Hill". I said "I'm sorry that's not ivy league"and she retorted "yes it is, it's a public ivy".

I'm sorry but isn't there only one ivy league? My child worked incredibly hard to get into an ivy I frankly think it's rude to misrepresent and say that UNC is ivy league - even though it is a great school.

It's a nickname, not an actual thing.

No, it's a real thing and has been around 35 years. College counselors use the term, both public and private. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I found this humorous but was chatting with another parent and after I revealed my daughter is going to Cornell she said "that's wonderful, my son is going to an ivy too!". I said "that's great, which one?" and she said "UNC, chapel Hill". I said "I'm sorry that's not ivy league"and she retorted "yes it is, it's a public ivy".

I'm sorry but isn't there only one ivy league? My child worked incredibly hard to get into an ivy I frankly think it's rude to misrepresent and say that UNC is ivy league - even though it is a great school.

It's a nickname, not an actual thing.

No, it's a real thing and has been around 35 years. College counselors use the term, both public and private. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy

Lol....nobody with any intelligence takes it even a little bit seriously.