The Little Ivies are an unofficial group of small, academically competitive privateliberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States. The term Little Ivy derives from these schools' small student bodies, standards of academic excellence, associated historicsocial prestige, and highly selective admissions comparable to the Ivy League. According to Bloomberg, the Little Ivies are also known for their large financial endowments, both absolutely and relative to their size. The term is generally and most associated with the colleges of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, with select schools from the Liberty League, Patriot League and the Centennial Conference. 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 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."
A 2016 article by Bloomberg Businessweek lists the members of the Little Ivies as:
Amherst College
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Bucknell University
Colgate University
Connecticut College
Colby College
Hamilton College
Haverford College
Lafayette College
Middlebury College
Swarthmore College
Trinity College
Tufts University
Union College
Vassar College
Wesleyan University
Williams College
The Little Ivies are also sub-grouped by the following consortia:
The New England Small College Athletic Conference current and former members: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Union, Wesleyan and Williams.
The colleges of the "Little Three": Amherst, Wesleyan, and Williams. This athletic league was founded as the "Triangular League" in 1899 in New England. The term is inspired by the term "Big Three" of the Ivy League: Harvard, Princeton, and Yale despite there being no academic, athletic or historical association.
The colleges of the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium, an athletic conference among three academically selective colleges colloquially known as the "Maine Big Three": Bates College, Bowdoin College, and Colby College.
