Hidden Ivies — 20 High-Signal Schools Beside the Ivy League
Twenty selective private universities and college-scale campuses that sit next to the Ivy League — Emory, Tufts, Colgate shelf — without the eight Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, or hyperbrand near-Ivies (Duke, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern). Membership is editorial; rank is by admission rate.
Editorial membership · ranked by admission rate · Top 20 · Compiled 2026-09-01
Chase these schools
Top schools on this list that also show up elsewhere — hop lists without leaving the trail.
#5
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN
#6
Georgetown University
Washington, DC
#8
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA
- 1Tufts UniversityMedford, MA · Private10.1%Compare nearby
- 2Emory UniversityAtlanta, GA · Private11.1%Compare nearby
- 3Colgate UniversityHamilton, NY · Private11.9%Compare nearby
- 4Washington University in St LouisSaint Louis, MO · Private12.0%Compare nearby
- 5University of Notre DameNotre Dame, IN · Private12.4%Compare nearby
- 6Georgetown UniversityWashington, DC · Private13.1%Compare nearby
- 7Tulane University of LouisianaNew Orleans, LA · Private14.6%Compare nearby
- 8Boston CollegeChestnut Hill, MA · Private15.7%Compare nearby
- 9University of MiamiCoral Gables, FL · Private18.5%Compare nearby
- 10College of the Holy CrossWorcester, MA · Private21.1%Compare nearby
- 11Wake Forest UniversityWinston-Salem, NC · Private21.6%Compare nearby
- 12University of RichmondUniversity of Richmond, VA · Private23.3%Compare nearby
- 13Villanova UniversityVillanova, PA · Private25.1%Compare nearby
- 14Case Western Reserve UniversityCleveland, OH · Private28.7%Compare nearby
- 15Lehigh UniversityBethlehem, PA · Private29.3%Compare nearby
- 16Lafayette CollegeEaston, PA · Private31.5%Compare nearby
- 17Franklin and Marshall CollegeLancaster, PA · Private31.8%Compare nearby
- 18Bucknell UniversityLewisburg, PA · Private32.0%Compare nearby
- 19Brandeis UniversityWaltham, MA · Private35.3%Compare nearby
- 20University of RochesterRochester, NY · Private35.9%Compare nearby
How this list was built
- Measure
- Editorial membership set; within that set, ranked by admission rate (lowest to highest).
- Source variable
ADM_RATE- Dataset
- Membership is editorial. Displayed figures come from U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, Most-Recent-Cohorts-Institution (05-19-2025 release).
- Four-year, main-campus institutions awarding bachelor's degrees or higher (2,406 schools).
- Membership is an editorial set of high-signal private schools adjacent to — but not in — the Ivy League. Excluded by design: the eight Ivies; MIT, Stanford, and Caltech; and Duke, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, and Northwestern.
- Within that set, schools are ranked by College Scorecard admission rate (lowest = most selective). Rank order will change when Scorecard updates admit rates.
- Large megabrands with distorted early-decision admit rates (e.g. Northeastern) and STEM institutes in the MIT peer set are omitted even when Scorecard admit rates look extreme.
An editorial shortlist is a narrow way to sample prestige signaling — not a quality verdict. Read this alongside other Scorecard rankings, and see the methodology.
Keep exploring
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- Live leaderboardReshuffle Top 10–50 on one Scorecard measure
- Explore games & mapsShowdown, Name That College, sports, and more lists
- Sports at Tufts UniversityEADA programs for the #1 school on this list
Keep going
The Ivy League — All Eight Schools, Ranked by Selectivity
The eight members of the Ivy League athletic conference — Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale — ranked by admission rate. Membership is fixed by the conference, not editorial.
Little Ivies — The 20 Most Selective Elite Liberal Arts Colleges
Twenty undergraduate-focused liberal arts colleges with Ivy-like selectivity and prestige signal — Amherst-to-Swarthmore shelf, Claremont included — without research-university scale. Membership is editorial; rank is by admission rate.
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An editorial ranking of how loudly a U.S. undergraduate brand tends to read on a résumé in elite hiring and selective graduate admissions — not a quality score, and not a College Scorecard sort.