Eight private schools comprise the Ivy League. The Princeton Companion identifies Harvard, Yale and Princeton as the initial three Ivy League schools. These are known as the Big Three. The other five are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and Pennsylvania. All eight schools reside in the northeastern area of the U.S., and all eight are highly revered academically, consistently appearing in the U.S. News and World Report's top 10 universities.
Sportswriter Stanley Woodward first dubbed the term "Ivy League," according to the Princeton Companion. The group of eight schools formed in order to share common scholarship and sports values. The eight Ivy League school presidents created the league to encourage a successful academic environment amid varsity athletics. From the 1950s through the 1970s, the Ivy League expanded the variety of sports from the original football, soccer, track and others to lacrosse, field hockey, women's athletics and a round-robin schedule that assured all eight schools' participation.
Today, Ivy League schools participate--and prosper--in a large number of sports such as football, soccer, wrestling, lacrosse, rugby and rowing. Each school appears in the top 20 for Division I sports, according to Ivy League Sports, which is quite a feat considering the competitive nature within the Division I. Likewise, numerous Olympic medalists and professional athletes graduated from the Ivy League schools.
While the Ivy League developed initially for sports and academic purposes, it is most popularly known for its academic superiority. Ivy League undergraduate retention rates exceed those of other American schools. The average standardized test scores and grade point averages of incoming undergraduates are also much higher than the averages of other institutions' entering students. Academically, the athletes within the group dominate the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Academic Progress Rate compilation.
The "Ivy League" title is often inappropriately used when referencing non-Ivy League schools. While the Ivy League correctly identifies those eight schools sharing the historic athletics and academics agreement, the term is loosely thrown around elsewhere. For example, many non-eastern schools are academically considered in the Ivy League category, such as Rice University, the "Ivy League of the South," or Stanford University, the western coast's equivalent. Colloquially, many great schools are called "Ivy League" because of their academic rigor and reputation. A school need not officially classify as Ivy League in order to be recognized, although the Ivy League's great strides to promote academic excellence throughout history is unparalleled.