For the purposes of discussion, here are some definitions:

Ivy League- Eight universities in the Northeast United States that are the most prestigious and most selective

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, University of Pennsylvania

Ivy Plus –Ivy League plus Stanford, M.I.T., Duke and the University of Chicago

Public Ivies: Prestigious public universities at lower prices than Ivies, as described in Richard Moll’s book, The Public Ivys are:

• College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)
• Miami University (Oxford, Ohio)
• University of California.
• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• University of Texas at Austin.
• University of Vermont (Burlington)
• University of Virginia (Charlottesville)

Runner ups for public Ivys:

• University of Colorado Boulder
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• New College of the University of South Florida (now New College of Florida)
• Pennsylvania State University at University Park
• University of Pittsburgh
• State University of New York at Binghamton (also called Binghamton University)
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin–Madison

Little Ivies: smaller liberal arts colleges in the Northeast United States

• Amherst College.
• Bates College.
• Bowdoin College.
• Bucknell University.
• Colgate University.
• Connecticut College.
• Colby College.
• Hamilton College.