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The Little Ivies are an unofficial group of small, academically competitive private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States. The term Little Ivy derives from these schools' small student bodies, standards of academic excellence, associated historic social prestige, and highly selective admissions comparable to the Ivy League. According to ''Bloomberg'', the Little Ivies are also known for their large financial endowments, both absolutely and relative to their size.

The term is generally and most associated with the colleges of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), with select schools from the Liberty League, Patriot League and the Centennial Conference. The term, however, was in active circulation to depict the original "Little Ivy" schools as schools and not merely athletic rivals at least as early as 1955. ''The New York Times'' quotes the president of Swarthmore College saying at the time, "We not only have the Ivy League, and the pretty clearly understood though seldom mentioned gradations within the Ivy League, but we have the Little Ivy League, and the jockeying for position within that."

Relationship to NESCAC

Among the Little Ivies are the "Little Three", a term used by Amherst College, Wesleyan University and Williams College, and " Maine Big Three", a term used by Bates College, Bowdoin College, and Colby College. The term is inspired by the " Big Three" Ivy League athletic rivalry between Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

Amherst College, Wesleyan University and Williams College joined Bowdoin College to found the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) in 1971, along with Bates College, Colby College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Tufts University, Trinity College and Union College. Union College left and Connecticut College joined in 1977.

List of Little Ivies

A 2016 article by ''Bloomberg Businessweek'' lists the members of the Little Ivies as:
*Amherst College
*Bates College
*Bowdoin College
*Bucknell University
* Colby College
*Colgate University
*Connecticut College
*Hamilton College
*Haverford College
*Lafayette College
*Middlebury College
*Swarthmore College
* Trinity College
*Tufts University
*Union College
*Vassar College
*Wesleyan University
*Williams College

The Little Ivies are also sub-grouped by the following consortia:
* The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) members: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan and Williams.
* The colleges of the "Little Three": Amherst, Wesleyan, and Williams. This athletic league was founded as the "Triangular League" in 1899 in New England. The term is inspired by the term " Big Three" of the Ivy League: Harvard, Princeton, and Yale despite there being no academic, athletic or historical association.
* The colleges of the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (CBB), an athletic conference among three academically selective colleges colloquially known as the " Maine Big Three": Bates College, Bowdoin College, and Colby College.

See also

* Ivy Plus — informal group of universities outside but considered peers of the original eight Ivy league institutions
* Black Ivy League — informal list of colleges that attracted top African American students prior to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s
* '' The Hidden Ivies'' — college educational guide designed by its authors "to create greater awareness of the small, distinctive cluster of colleges and universities of excellence that are available to gifted college-bound students"
* Public Ivies — group of public U.S. universities that "provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price"
* Southern Ivies — use of "Ivy" to characterize excellent universities in the U.S. South
* Seven Sisters (colleges) — historically women's colleges founded as an answer to the then- all male Ivy League.

References

{{Reflist

Lists of universities and colleges in the United States
New England Small College Athletic Conference
Colloquial terms for groups of universities and colleges
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