The Little Ivies are also sub-grouped by the following consortia: Union College left and Connecticut College joined in 1977.Ī 2016 article by Bloomberg Businessweek lists the members of the Little Ivies as: Īmherst College, Wesleyan University and Williams College joined Bowdoin College to found the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) in 1971, along with Bates College, Colby College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Tufts University, Trinity College and Union College. The term is inspired by the ' Big Three' Ivy League athletic rivalry between Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

The New York Times quotes the President of Swarthmore College saying at the time, 'We not only have the Ivy League, and the pretty clearly understood though seldom mentioned gradations within the Ivy League, but we have the Little Ivy League, and the jockeying for position within that.' Relationship to NESCAC Īmong the Little Ivies are the ' Little Three', a term used by Amherst College, Wesleyan University and Williams College, and ' Maine Big Three', a term used by Bates College, Bowdoin College, and Colby College. The term, however, was in active circulation to depict the original 'Little Ivy' schools as schools and not merely athletic rivals at least as early as 1955. The term is generally and most associated with the colleges of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), with select schools from the Liberty League, Patriot League and the Centennial Conference. According to Bloomberg, the Little Ivies are also known for their large financial endowments, both absolutely and relative to their size.

The term Little Ivy derives from these schools' small student bodies, standards of academic excellence, associated historic social prestige, and highly selective admissions comparable to the Ivy League. The Little Ivies are an unofficial group of small, academically competitive private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States. Unofficial group of American liberal arts colleges Painting of the campus of Bucknell University, a member of the Little Ivies, as it appeared in 1907

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