Brown was founded in 1764 as the College of Rhode Island in Warren. It was originally a Baptist school and the only one in the Ivy league, when it was first founded, that welcomed students of all religious persuasions. Brown is located in Providence, RI and has roughly 6000 undergraduates. The majority of students major in social sciences.
Harvard is the oldest of the Ivy League and all universities in the United States, founded in 1636 by Congregationalist minister John Harvard. Harvard has 12 degree granting schools servicing about 6,700 undergrads, as well as the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study. Located in Cambridge Massachusetts, Harvard has bestowed honorary degrees on 14 US presidents.
Columbia University was founded in 1754 as Kings College by an order of King George II of England. The college was renamed in 1784 after the American Revolution. Columbia is located in New York City and started out as Episcopalian. Columbia established the first medical school in the US to grant an MD degree. Columbia has about 5,700 undergrads.
The University of Pennsylvania is often referred to as just Penn and was created by Benjamin Franklin in 1749 as a university unlike other colonial colleges; it was intended to prepare students for business and public service instead of educating clergy. Penn is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has nearly 10,000 undergrads.
Cornell University is located in the small town of Ithaca, New York, but has about 14,000 undergrads. Cornell has a large number of engineering students. It was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White. Cornell is the only Ivy League school that is a land grant institution.
Princeton is located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has about 5000 undergrads and about 17 percent of the students study engineering. Princeton was chartered as the College of New Jersey in 1746 and kept that name for 150 years. Princeton was initially founded as a Presbyterian university.
Dartmouth is located in the rural town of Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth has about 4000 undergrads with mostly social science majors. Eleazar Wheelock, a Congregational minister, founded Dartmouth in 1769. The school is named for William Legg, the second earl of Dartmouth.
The charter for Yale was granted in 1701, but didn't get the name Yale until 1718 when it was named after Elihu Yale who donated the proceeds of the sale of goods, books and a portrait of King George to the college. Yale is located in New Haven, Connecticut and has roughly 5,300 undergrads. Yale was also originally a Congregationalist school.