List Of Ivy League Schools And Colleges Rankings

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 5, 2025, 8:08 PM

list of ivy league schools and colleges rankings

Ivy League schools are considered the most sought-after institutions of higher learning in the country and around the world. These eight private Northeastern schools are known for their highly selective admissions process, academic excellence and promising career opportunities for those who attend. The name recognition and social prestige don’t hurt either. First grouped together by athletic conference, Ivy League schools have been known to churn out not only well-rounded student-athletes, but future presidents, Nobel Prize winners and other high-achieving graduates. The list of Ivy League schools includes some of the oldest institutions in education, with well-respected professors, ample research grants and generous financial aid resources. To make it to the halls of Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and the like, prospective students’ applications must be extraordinary.

Check out the Ivy League schools ranking based on U.S. News’ National University ranks, and see how these schools stack up against each other to find the best fit. Princeton University|Office of Communications|Denise Applewhite Princeton University, established nearly 280 years ago, is the fourth-oldest college in the country. A world-renowned research university, Princeton is No. 1 in our National Universities ranking.

Princeton offers first-rate academic resources, from specialized libraries to state-of-the-art laboratories and even an art museum on campus. More than 117,000 works reside in the collections of the Princeton University Art Museum. The most popular majors at Princeton University include social sciences; engineering; computer and information sciences and support services; biological and biomedical sciences; and public administration and social service professions. With a 5-to-1 student-faculty ratio, the university allows students to benefit from small class sizes and one-on-one advising relationships. Home to Rhodes scholars and high-achieving students, Princeton has educated past U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices, Olympic medalists and Nobel Prize winners.

Last updated March 1st, 2023: This list of Ivy league schools is based upon information curated from University Review, The Times, Jiao Tong and the USnews. For many years running Harvard has been considered the best Ivy League University; however, it is easily seen from the rankings that all of them offer a world class standard of education. Indeed six of the eight Ivy league universities rank in the top 10 colleges in the USA list. The Times and Jiao Tong rankings shown in this list of ivy league schools table reflect data available for world and for American colleges. The term Ivy League initially referred to an athletics conference established by a group of prestigious universities and colleges in North-eastern U.S., but the name has now come to refer to the academic institutions... Ivy League now refers to not only the sports conference, but also refers to the academic, admissions and social class of the eight universities as a whole.

By now, whether you’ve been told about them at a young age, know someone attending one of them, or just discovered them, my guess is that you’ve heard of the Ivy League schools. But do you really know them? Most often regarded as the best schools in America, if not in the world, the Ivies’ prestige has inspired countless students to aim for their dreams, but let’s go a little deeper. What are the Ivy League rankings? How are the Ivy League schools ranked? Who in the world ranks them?

What is the best Ivy League school? And most importantly: What are your chances of getting in? Try asking these questions to your family and friends, and you’ll quickly find that reaching a mutual consensus is a rather ambitious idea, much like asking them to name the same best restaurants or... Ivy League rankings or not, the answer all depends on the person. And Ivy League school rankings depend on a variety of factors (academic reputation, students’ future careers, quality of livelihood) – but ultimately, you’ll need to figure out what works best for you. Getting into any one of these schools is a tremendous accomplishment worth celebrating, considering how difficult it is to receive that admissions letter.

You’ll come across many lists of Ivy League school rankings that delve into the overall quality of their academics. Major publications releasing such Ivy League rankings include Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education, and other outlets that focus on education. It’s important to keep in mind, though, that these publications create their Ivy League rankings based on different sources. For example, U.S. News & World Report focuses on the overall academic reputation of the universities; they offer peer-assessed surveys to university officials and high school counselors to make such conclusions.

Alternatively, a publication like Forbes will focus on post-graduate outcomes such as salaries, student debt after graduation, and prestigious accomplishments, such as winning the Nobel Prize (no pressure). Being aware of such ranking criteria will be helpful in understanding which Ivy League school could be best for you. Let’s take a closer look at what the Ivy League rankings would look like if acceptance rate was the sole factor: Eight research schools make up the “Ivy League,” including Harvard University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Columbia University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Cornell University. Each university has a rich history with outstanding programs, state-of-the-art facilities, and amazing networking opportunities. They’re also highly selective.

Here’s a quick look at the list of Ivy League schools and what you need to know about them. An “Ivy League school” refers to one of the eight prestigious private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The name is believed to have been coined by a sports writer in the 1930s, and the colleges founded the Ivy Group, a conference for their football teams, in 1954. Each of the schools is known for their strong academics, historic campuses, large endowments, state-of-the-art facilities, notable alumni, unique networking opportunities, and more. Every Ivy League is highly selective – in 2023, Harvard accepted just 3% of applicants. Cornell was the least selective, yet only 8.5% were accepted.

Eight universities make up the Ivy League conference. Below, we’ve listed them, along with their acceptance rates and for the 2023 admissions cycle, current enrollment, sticker prices for, and some other fun facts. RELATED >> 2025 College Raptor Top 50 Best Colleges in the United States. For its 2025 edition, US News and World Report dropped two factors that it previously used as criteria to determine a given college’s national ranking — first generation graduation rate and first generation graduation... It also heightened the importance of some preexisting factors to its methodology: Pell graduation rate and Pell graduation rate performance. While US News is the oldest and most well-known college rankings publication, other publications have grown in prominence in recent years, most notably the college rankings system that The Wall Street Journal launched in...

Yet none yet hold a candle to US News in terms of their popular appeal. US News’ recent changes in methodology over the last few years came after a number of universities withdrew from providing their data to the organization’s rankings. In addition to Columbia University as a whole, a number of Ivy League graduate programs stopped participating, as well as a number of non-Ivy League schools. In the end, each student will have their own criteria for determining what school is right for them — their interests, their passions, and their needs. US News and other rankings can be a helpful guide and a source of information. But the best way to get to know which college is right for you comes, of course, through a campus visit and serious, thoughtful research.

Below is an analysis of US News’ 2025 ranking for each of the eight Ivy League schools followed by Ivy Coach’s own ranking: Ivy League rankings indicate how schools are viewed overall, but schools provide different opportunities that might be best for your child Ivy League rankings are released annually by major publications to the delight of students, alumni and university staff whose schools moved up and to the chagrin of those whose schools moved down. Current and former students often use these rankings for bragging rights, and many journalists, media members, and educators downplay their significance, citing issues with methodology and bias. However, the pushback does not deter high-achieving college applicants and parents, who want to know which Ivy League school is the best. Interest in this answer stems from the Ivy League being synonymous with America’s most selective, prestigious, and elite colleges.

In other words, not only are Ivy League acceptance rates among the country’s lowest, each school carries a strong brand name that follows its alumni throughout their educations, careers, and networks. Before we dive into the rankings and discuss which is the best Ivy League school, here’s the alphabetized list of the eight Ivy League schools: Learn more about the Ivy League schools, which universities are included, where they are located and how to apply for Ivy League colleges. The member institutions are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. Many international students consider the US as a destination for its top-ranking schools. Knowing what the Ivy League is and what those schools can offer will help students better understand which institution is right for them.

Here, we explain the origins of the Ivy League, which colleges it includes and how international students can apply to them. The Ivy League is a collection of eight private colleges located in the northeast of America. These universities were originally members of the NCAA Division 1 athletics league, which was established in the 1950s. These eight American colleges were known for their highly competitive sports programmes, and as they continued to perform well in the athletic world, they began to attract further funding, grants and top lecturers from... As a result, the schools soon gained a reputation for academic achievement alongside sporting success. Expert guidance to help students reach their dream college

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List Of Ivy League Schools And Colleges Rankings

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