The Ivy League Today

Study of the curricula and implicit values of the 8 Ivy League schools -- Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale.

Mark Bernstein shows that much of the culture that surrounds American football, both good and bad, has its roots in the Ivy League. With their long winning streaks, distinctive traditions, and impressive victories, Ivy teams started a national obsession with football in the first decades of the twentieth century that remains alive today. In so doing they have helped develop our ideals about the role of athletics in college life.

"Exploring the character of each school and what sets it apart, from renowned graduates and dominant political stances to athletic rivalries, architectural styles, pop culture references, or even popular fashions."--P. 11.

First stop: Harvard or Yale or Princeton or... Next stop: Wall Street riches...house on the Vineyard...vineyard with a house...a Nobel Prize... Not so fast. Everybody knows that the schools of the Ivy League-universally touted as the pinnacle of American higher education-have graduated countless political leaders, corporate titans, and global power brokers. But did you know these schools have also produced murderers, warmongers, traitors, plagiarists, slave traders, pederasts, and every other variety of moral reprobate? Whether you're a high school student grinding away in the hope of gaining admission to one of these institutions, a parent propelling a child toward Ivy glory, a current Ivy League undergraduate wondering "What the hell is this place?"-or even an Ivy League alum, professor, administrator, or dropout-this book was written specifically for you. As a warning. Because there are certain things-monstrous things-that go unmentioned in the catalog, campus tour, or employment package. And if your Ivy League application was rejected, here's compelling and consoling evidence of how lucky you are.

The Hidden Ivies focuses on liberal arts colleges and universities that are comparable quality to the Ivies. Based on surveys and interviews with students as well as college presidents, deans of faculty, and other administrators, The Hidden Ivies presents an insider perspective of thirty leading institutions of exceptional merit. Thee colleges and universities provide an outstanding educational experience for the gifted college-bound student and provide the foundations for life after graduation.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the governing body for some 400,000 college athletes in the United States. During football's bowl season and basketball's March Madness, the NCAA likes to remind its millions of TV viewers that it represents student athletes: most of its members compete as amateurs and will never go pro. Somehow, that message seems increasingly lost in a sea of multimillion-dollar TV deals, recruitment scandals, back-channel payouts, fan hysteria, player misbehavior both civil and criminal, and the routine bendingÑor floutingÑof college and NCAA rules about player academic eligibility. Far from this madding crowd, the nation's oldest, most prestigious private colleges and universities go about the business of making scholar-athletes from the ranks of their admitted classes, without special recruitment or scholarship money, and demanding and getting the best from them both on the field and in the classroom. Using a model that has changed very little since it was founded in 1954, the Ivy League offers a bracing corrective to the excesses of big-money college sports. In Ivy League Athletes, veteran sportswriter Sal Maiorana follows nine student-athletes from seven Ivy League campuses through the 2011Ð2012 season. Along the way he shows us the qualities of heart, mind, and body that got them there and allow them to prosper on the field and in the classroom. The book includes a foreword by former Harvard and current NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Deresiewicz takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with demands for perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications received by college admissions committees. Students are losing the ability to think independently. College is supposed to be a time for self-discovery-- but the system is broken, and he offers solutions on how to fix it.

Ivy League schools on average reject some 90 percent of applicants. But there is another way to get into the top colleges in the United States—the back gate—that will still see motivated students come out the front gate with an Ivy League diploma. This book is the plan B that offers you an alternative set of keys to seven of the Ivy League universities: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania (Penn), and Brown. Also covered are the so-called second tier of elite universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Duke, Northwestern, and University of Virginia, among others, which have highly selective admission requirements and confer social and economic benefits on par with the traditional Ivy Leagues. From extension schools to special programs for working students to online studies, the range of back gateways is remarkable for leveling the field for students of all stripes. This book provides the little-known strategies to help you succeed in enrolling in the school of your dreams.