Public Ivy is a term coined by Richard Moll in his 1985 book Public Ivys: A Guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities to refer to universities which "provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price."^[1] Public Ivies are considered, according to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, to be capable of "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."^[2]

Origins of the term

Moll, who earned his Master of Divinity degree from Yale University in 1959,^[3] was an admissions officer at Yale, and the director of admissions at Bowdoin College, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Vassar College.^[3][4][5] 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 original eight Public Ivies

The original eight Public Ivies list by Moll (1985):^[2]

• University of California^[6]
• College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)
• Miami University (Oxford, Ohio)
• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Vermont (Burlington)
• University of Virginia (Charlottesville)

Moll also offered in the same book "a list of worthy runners-up" and brief summaries of them^[7]:

• University of Colorado at Boulder
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• New College of the University of South Florida (Now New College of Florida)
• Pennsylvania State University at University Park
• University of Pittsburgh
• State University of New York at Binghamton
• University of Washington at Seattle
• University of Wisconsin–Madison

Greenes' Guides

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.

The Public Ivies according to Greene's Guides

A later book titled The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2001) by Howard and Matthew Greene of Greene's Guides expanded upon the list in the first book (italicized below) to include 30 colleges and universities.^[8]

Eastern

• College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)
• Pennsylvania State University (State College)
• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (New Brunswick, New Jersey)
• State University of New York at Binghamton
• University of Connecticut (Storrs)
• University of Delaware (Newark)
• University of Maryland (College Park)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Virginia (Charlottesville)

Western

• University of Arizona (Tucson)
• University of California (6 of 10 campuses):
  • Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara
• University of Colorado at Boulder
• University of Washington (Seattle)

Great Lakes & Midwest

• Indiana University (Bloomington)
• Miami University (Oxford, Ohio)
• Michigan State University (East Lansing)
• Ohio State University (Columbus)
• University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)
• University of Iowa (Iowa City)
• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
• University of Minnesota (Minneapolis-St. Paul)
• University of Wisconsin (Madison)

Southern

• University of Florida (Gainesville)
• University of Georgia (Athens)
• University of Texas at Austin

Other Public Ivies

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. ^[9]

Institutional comparisons

Academic comparisons and rankings

Moll and 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,^[10] and the law schools of the University of Michigan and University of Virginia are always ranked in the top ten.

In general undergraduate rankings, U.S. News and World Report consistently ranks Ivy League institutions 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^[11].

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 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.

See also

• Canadian Ivy League
• Colonial colleges
• Hidden Ivy
• Ivy League
• Jesuit Ivy
• Little Ivies
• Southern Ivies
• Flagship university

References and other resources

Citations

Books

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