Public Ivy

 

"Public Ivy" is a term first used by American author Richard Moll to mean a public institution that "provide[s] an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price." The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education characterized them as "successfully competing with the Ivy League schools in academic rigor... attracting superstar faculty and in competing for the best and brightest students of all races."^[1]

Origins of the term

The term "Public Ivy" was coined by Richard Moll in his book Public Ivys: A Guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities (1985). Moll is a Yale University graduate, was an admissions officer at Yale University and the director of admissions at Bowdoin College, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Vassar College. [2] [3] [4] He traveled the nation examining higher education and in particular, identified eight public institutions (the same as the number of Ivy League members) that he thought had the look and feel of an Ivy League university. In addition to academic excellence, other factors considered by Moll included those that were visually like an ivy league, aged as an ivy league, had traditions like an ivy league, and so forth.

The more recent and expansive Greene's list (including a list of approximately 30 schools) had one focus alone: public schools with academic quality comparable to an ivy league institution. Greene's Guide, according to some, has arguably become a more widely accepted list because of its academic emphasis. It was believed that Moll's methodology was flawed considering that Ivy League schools themselves had nothing to do with age for example (the Ivy League was originally an athletic conference).

The Original Eight Public Ivies

The original list of the eight Public Ivies according to Moll (1985):^[2]

• College of William and Mary
• Miami University at Oxford
• University of California system^[3]
• University of Michigan
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Vermont
• University of Virginia

The Public Ivies According to Greenes' Guides

A later book titled The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2001) by Howard and Matthew Greene of Greenes' Guides expanded upon the list in the first book to include 30 colleges and universities. That book listed the following as Public Ivies:^[4]

• College of William and Mary
• Florida State University
• Indiana University Bloomington
• Miami University
• Michigan State University
• North Carolina State University
• The Ohio State University (Columbus)
• Pennsylvania State University (University Park)
• Purdue University
• Rutgers University
• University of Arizona
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Davis
• University of California, Irvine
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of California, San Diego
• University of California, Santa Barbara
• University of Colorado at Boulder
• University of Connecticut
• University of Delaware
• University of Georgia
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Iowa
• University of Maryland College Park
• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Virginia
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

Other schools are sometimes referred to as Public Ivies as well, partly as a result of the acceptance of the term into popular culture and in other cases as a result of marketing efforts by the colleges and universities themselves. Though not included on the above lists, Murray State University includes the phrase "Kentucky's Public Ivy University" on its official logo, and the State University of New York at Geneseo, part of the State University of New York system, also describes itself as a "Public Ivy." ^{[5] [6]}

Institutional comparisons

Academic comparisons and rankings

Moll and the Greenes did not address the issue of prestige associated with the various schools reviewed. No direct comparison was made between a Public Ivy and any other school.

Many of the institutions categorized as "Public Ivies" have a large number of faculty, or alumni, who have been awarded prizes for their achievements in their respective field including the Nobel Prize (See Nobel Prize laureates by university affiliation), Fields Medal, and the Pulitzer Prize.

Several schools considered as "Public Ivies" are consistently ranked among the top schools in the multitude of surveys on American colleges and universities undertaken by U.S. News & World Report. For instance, U.S. News and World Report ranks the mechanical engineering program at University of California-Berkeley in the top three, and the University of Washington medical school has been consistently ranked as the top program for Primary Care and medicine.^[7]

The Public Ivies are ranked very highly when compared to other universities worldwide. In the Academic Ranking of World Universities, 8 of the top 25 schools in the world are American public universities.

However, in general undergraduate rankings, U.S. News and World Report consistently ranks Ivy League institutions just above the Public Ivies. For example, the highest ranked Public Ivy, the University of California at Berkeley, ranked 21st in the United States, while the lowest ranked Ivy League institution, Brown University, ranked 14th^[8]; but this may be attributable to the inclusion of endowment size in the ranking process which puts public universities (who are less reliant on private funding and thus tend to have smaller endowments) at a disadvantage.

Athletic comparisons

One sharp distinction between the Ivy League and most "Public Ivies" is their participation in intercollegiate athletics. One of the Ivy League's distinguishing characteristics is its prohibition on the awarding of athletic scholarships (athletes may only receive the same need-based financial aid to which they would be entitled even if they did not play a sport). In contrast, many of the "Public Ivies" participate in major athletic conferences such as the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC, or Pac-10; award athletic scholarships; and rely on profits, if any, from large-scale football and men's basketball programs to support the athletic department as a whole (Miami University and University of Vermont are exceptions, as their athletic programs remain quite modest but award scholarships nonetheless).

See also

• Colonial colleges
• Hidden Ivy
• Ivy League
• Jesuit Ivy
• Little Ivies
• Southern Ivies
• Flagship universities

References and other resources

Citations

1. ^ "Comparing Black Enrollments at the Public Ivies" from the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (Autumn 2005) accessed on 3 September 2006.
2. ^ http://www.jbhe.com/news_views/49_blackenrollment_publicivies.html
3. ^ In Moll's book, he refers to the entire UC system
4. ^ Greenes' Guides: The Public Ivies (accessed on May 16, 2007); see also [1].
5. ^ SUNY Geneseo statement using "Public Ivy" to describe itself. accessed 22 October 2006.
6. ^ Logo Guidelines at Murray State University accessed 5 September 2006, stating: "Effective immediately, the following new 'Kentucky's Public Ivy University' logos replace the 'Excellence begins here' logo."
7. ^ U.S. News and World Report (2006 Pharmacy program rankings), accessed 21 October 2006.
8. ^ U.S. News and World Report (2006 general rankings), accessed 31 August 2007.

Books

• Greene, Howard and Greene, Matthew. The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (New York: HarperCollins, 2001). ISBN 0-06-093459-X
• Greene, Howard and Greene, Matthew. Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence (New York: HarperCollins, 2000). ISBN 0-06-095362-4
• Moll, Richard. The Public Ivies: A Guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities (New York: Penguin (Viking), 1985). ISBN 0-14-009384-2 or ISBN 0-670-58205-0
• Princeton Review. The Best 361 Colleges, 2007 Edition (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Review, 2006). ISBN 0-375-76558-1

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