IvyGate was a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

and

online news An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the electronic publishing, online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical literature, periodical. Goin ...

source covering news and

gossip Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling. Gossip is a topic of research in evolutionary psychology, which has found gossip to be an important means ...

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

universities. The site was written and edited by students and recent graduates.

History

IvyGate was founded in 2006 by

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

alumni Chris Beam and Nick Summers. The blog covers the "follies" of Ivy League schools, such as a

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

class president accused of setting a squirrel on fire, a

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

graduate student who turned out to be in prison, and a

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...

member arrested for burning an

American Flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the ca ...

. ] IvyGate rose to prominence through its

investigative reporting Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years res ...

of the details of the " Impossible is Nothing" Internet meme, concerning an impossibly boastful

video résumé Video résumé or video resume is a recording promoting a job seeker. History Video resumes, sometimes called Visumé or Video CV, were first introduced in the 1980s for use and distribution via VHS tape, but the idea never took off beyond the v ...

produced by then

student Aleksey Vayner. It was a nominee for the 2006 Weblog Award for "Best Educational Blog". A minor controversy arose in December 2006 involving Beam's father, prominent ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' columnist

Alex Beam Alex Beam (born Jacob Alexander Beam in 1954)Staff report (July 2000) ''Stanford Magazine'' is an American writer and journalist. He retired as a columnist for ''The Boston Globe'' in 2012, but still contributes to the paper's op-ed page. He h ...

. The younger Beam had covered a Brown University professor who wrote prolific

letters to the editor A letter to the editor (LTE) is a letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through conventional mai ...

in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Five days later the elder Beam covered the same story in his column, without attribution, leading to humorous but well-publicized complaints of plagiarism. Beam has written for the online magazine ''Slate'' and ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'', and his fellow Columbia graduate Nick Summers is an editor for ''

''. The blog was the first to publish results of the '' U.S. News & World Report'' 2007 college rankings. It also broke the

scoop Scoop, Scoops or The scoop may refer to: Objects * Scoop (tool), a shovel-like tool, particularly one deep and curved, used in digging * Scoop (machine part), a component of machinery to carry things * Scoop stretcher, a device used for casualt ...

on the disbanding of a

fraternity, and broke the Pi Phi Rush Guidelines controversy at Cornell. Adam Clark Estes, a former editor at IvyGate, was criticized for making fun of the death of a Cornell student who had died due to swine flu in 2009. It employs reporters and commentators throughout the Ivy League, though reporting is sometimes viewed as displaying favoritism. IvyGate's last post was published in October 2015. In 2018, the site was taken offline. Its archives can still be found using the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

References

External links

*{{official, http://www.ivygateblog.com American student news websites Internet properties established in 2006