After a difficult application year, college hopefuls have a ‘love-hate relationship’ with ‘Ivy Day,’ expert says

March
28
is “Ivy
Day,”
when
the
nation’s
top
schools
release
long-awaited admissions
decisions.

A
fascination
with
the
eight
private
colleges
that
comprise
the

Ivy
League
spans
decades.
It
is
only
now,
some
say,
that
students
are
taking
a
more
skeptical
view.

Applications
for
early
admission
at

Harvard
University
took
a
sharp
nosedive
last
fall
amid
multiple
incidents
of
antisemitism
on
campus
while
backlash
ensued
over
Harvard
President
Claudine
Gay’s
congressional
testimony,
which
contributed
to
her

resignation.

Yet,
just
weeks
later,
Harvard was
named
the
ultimate
“dream”
school,
according
to
a
Princeton
Review survey of
college-bound
students.

“Right
now,
a
lot
of
students
are
still
aiming
for
these
top-tier,
name-brand
schools.
But
they
really
have
these
love-hate
relationships
with
[colleges
in
the
Ivy
League]
because
they
make
the
process
so
confusing
and
chaotic,”
said
Christopher
Rim,
president
and
CEO
of
Command
Education.

Few
college
admission
cycles
have
been

as
tumultuous
as
this
one.

In
June,
the Supreme
Court ruled
that
the affirmative
action admission
policies
of Harvard and
the University
of
North
Carolina were
unconstitutional.

The
ruling
was
considered
a
massive
blow
to
decades-old
efforts
to
boost
enrollment
of
minorities
through
policies
that
took
into
account
applicants’
race.

It
also
raised
questions
about
the

practice of
giving
priority
to
the
children
of
alumni
and
requirements
for
standardized
test
scores,
both
of
which
have reinforced
race
and
wealth
gaps,
research
shows.

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could
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in
college
enrollment

Harvard
is
back
on
top
as
the
ultimate ‘dream’
school

More
of
the
nation’s
top
colleges
roll
out
no-loan
policies

Some
colleges
chose
to
end legacy
preferences,
while
others,
such
as
Princeton
University,

recently
announced
it
would
continue
to
consider
legacy
status
in
its
application
process.

Some
schools
also
decided
to
rely
less
on
SAT
and
ACT
scores
while
others,
including
Dartmouth
and
Brown
University,
announced
they
are
bringing
back
standardized
testing
requirements
after
relaxing
them
in
the
years
since
the Covid-19
pandemic began.

At
Yale,
students
are
now
allowed
to
submit
Advanced
Placement,
or
AP,
scores
to
fulfill
the
testing
requirement,
another
move
that
could
affect
socioeconomic
and
racial
diversity,
experts
say,
since
low-income
and
minority
students
have
traditionally
had
less
access
to
those
classes.

“You
are
really
giving
some
students
an
unfair
advantage,”
Rim
said, “although
it
should
be
going
the
other
direction
right
now.”

Then
there
is
the
matter
of
cost,
especially
at
the
highest
level.
Tuition
and
fees
plus
room
and
board
for
a
four-year
private
college
averaged $56,190
in
the
2023-24 school
year.
At
four-year,
in-state
public
colleges,
it
was
$24,030,
according
to the College
Board,
which
tracks trends
in
college
pricing
and
student
aid.

Higher
education,
as
a
whole,
is

under
pressure,
experts
say.
Rising
college
costs
and
ballooning

student
loan
debt
balances
have
caused
more
students
to
question
the return
on
investment. 

However,
when
it
comes
to
the
Ivy
League,
demand
has
remained
remarkably
strong,
according
to
Connie
Livingston,
a
former
admissions
officer
at
Brown
University
who
is
now
with
counseling
firm
Empowerly.

“They’re
like
the
untouchables,
like
the
elusive
and
exclusive

Birkin
bag:
No
matter
what,
people
are
always
going
to
want
it,”
Livingston
said.

For
decades,
studies
have
shown
that
earning
a
college
degree
is almost
always
worthwhile.

A
recent report by
Harvard
University-based
nonpartisan,
nonprofit
research
group
Opportunity
Insights
found
that
an
Ivy
League
degree
carries
even
more
weight
in
the
workforce
and
beyond.

The
group
of
Harvard
and
Brown
University-based
economists
compared
the
estimated
future
income
of
waitlisted
students
who
ultimately
attended
Ivy
League
schools
with
those
who
went
to
public
universities
instead.

In
the
end,
they
found
that
attending
an
Ivy
League
college
has
a “statistically
insignificant
impact”
on
earnings.

Even
attending
a
college
in
the “Ivy-plus”
category
—
which
typically includes
other
top
schools
such
as
Stanford
University,
Duke
University,
the
University
of
Chicago and
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology —
rather
than
a
highly
selective
public
institution
nearly
doubles
the
chances
of
attending
an
elite
graduate
school
and
triples
the
chances
of
working
at
a
prestigious
firm.

Further,
it
increases
students’
chances
of
ultimately
reaching
the top
1% of
the
earnings
distribution
by
60%,
the
Opportunity
Insights
report
found. 

“Highly
selective
private
colleges
serve
as
gateways
to
the
upper
echelons
of
society,”
the
researchers
said.

“Because
these
colleges
currently
admit
students
from
high-income
families
at
substantially
higher
rates
than
students
from
lower-income
families
with
comparable
academic
credentials,
they
perpetuate
privilege,”
they
added.

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