The Ivy League is composed of eight colleges:

• Harvard

• Princeton

• Yale

• University of Pennsylvania

• Columbia

• Brown

• Dartmouth

• Cornell

All eight Ivy League colleges were founded during Colonial times before 1776, with Harvard being the country’s first and oldest college—founded 1636.

There are several other top colleges considered “Ivy Tier”—meaning they are not officially part of the Ivy League, but their rankings and prestige, along with overall student success post graduation have led to their distinction. Such colleges include Stanford, M.I.T., Duke, the University of Virginia, and the University of Chicago.

All of these colleges are considered “Tier One” or “Ivy Tier” colleges due to their consistently high rankings in the top 10 and top 20 colleges each year, along with their endowment sizes, academic quality and caliber of professors, and overall student experiences both as students and post graduation.