Nice meme, but that really doesn’t do justice to the reality.
- Seven of the schools that became the Ivy League were “colonial colleges” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_colleges). William & Mary and Rutgers did not become part of the Ivy League, and Cornell (not a colonial college) did.
- They are all research universities, which makes them distinct from many colleges that seem to have similar origins.
- The schools are all in the northeast corridor, but Massachusetts is definitely on the Eastern side of the Ivy geographic area. Ivies center more around colonial era settlements than the state of Massachusetts.
Are you predicting donations to Stanford and USC will crater to a level that existentially threatens either institution?
I haven't put enough thought into it to have strong feelings one way or the other - I'm just aware of the argument being made.
Smart kids get in on scholarships and grants and help uphold the prestige of the university name while getting access to the highly talented professors. They are able to take advantage of this access, do well in the school, and have prestigious results in the real world, move on to be involved in that prestigious research, etc.
You also have the elbow rubbing of the moneyed elite with people that might be very well suited to take that money and help grow it to even larger levels.
That's the idea, anyway. Whether or not it's reality, I don't know. I didn't attend an Ivy League (or quasi-Ivy League in Stanford's case) school. They also of course receive significant money from the government via grants as well, so it's not entirely all coming from the pockets of the rich.