Is the Ivy League mystique overblown?
Yes and no. The Ivy League schools have maintained their reputation in part because they mostly have strong graduate schools. For example, U. Penn has climbed up from the bottom of the Ivy rankings on the back of its strong Wharton business school (and shameless use of early decision). Cornell has grabbed recent headlines with its domination of the Mars Rover project. Ivy League schools also tend to have hefty endowments. For example, Harvard’s endowment is over $18 billion, whereas Tufts’ is $677 million and Georgetown’s is about $650 million. The Ivy League schools also have been around longer, since at least the time of the Civil War or much earlier. Thus, there are simply more graduates, both living and dead. Among other things, that means more graduates to give you a first job after college, or a break in a job interview. Whether it is fair or not, an Ivy League degree is still a tangible advantage in the real world, whose benefits you reap from the day you are admitted until the
