For the Canadian "Ivys", University of British Columbia is ranked quite a bit higher than Queen's, and has recently surpassed Mc Gill in certain world rankings, while Queens has slipped to #8 in Canada. Wouldn't U of T (#1 in Canada), Mc Gill (#3 in Canada) and UBC (#2 in Canada) be better representative of Canadian "Ivys" than the latter two and Queen's?
Edited by 168.99.91.146
Erda
The Ivy League for Everyone trope is more about situations where the characters going off to Ivy League schools would be improbable (like, where the high school in question isn't very good). Do we really need to include situations where the use of Ivy League schools is justified: like, where the school in question is an elite prep school (as in Gossip Girl) boasting high Ivy admissions rates, or in an elite profession where Ivy League degrees would be commonplace?
Edited by Erda Hide / Show Replies
I agree that if the number of Ivy Leaguers is realistic, then it's not trope-worthy. But I think that even in elite prep schools and professions, it's unrealistic to depict everyone as having (or wanting) degrees from schools like Columbia, Cornell, and Dartmouth, if there's barely any mention of schools like Duke, Rice, or Johns-Hopkins. (The latter universities aren't Ivy League, but they're just as competitive and prestigious as many of the Ivies.)
Edited by lemler
This trope isn't about improbability- it's about "went to an Ivy League school" being used as shorthand for "this person is very smart". Now, the number of Ivy League graduates we see in fiction is improbable- the freshman admission of all the Ivies put together is probably less Florida State, but this is incidental for reasons that I'm going to explain in the write-up since that's actually a very good question and this information should be in the article.
See you in the discussion pages.
Ironically I first became aware of this trope from a review of the Gossip Girl book series in which the reviewer, an Ivy League grad, wrote to the effect that the girls were far too socially focused and spent far to little time on school work to be a realistic portrayal of someone even considering an Ivy League education. I have never read the books or seen the TV show, so I can't say if this is true or not. But I will say that the only person from my high school class who went to an elite private school (in the midwest, not an Ivy) was smart enough to have to study little for A's, but spent her free time working on science fair projects, quiz bowls, learning to play french horn, mock trial club, etc. and went far beyond what the students who went to the state flagship did (which itself is one of the nation's top 10 public schools) did.
If this isn't about improbability I think the title should be changed. Because every work page I've seen that features this page has it used to show the improbability.
It's a good thing our last name isn't Drew, because then you'd be Nancy Drew and I'd be Andrew Drew. -Andy Botwin
The improbability is a side-effect of the smartness it is meant to show.
It's like IQ tests. IQ tests are generally bell-curved with SD 15 and Mean 100. So when some character has an IQ of 180, it is supposed to have the viewer go "Ah! He's smart." The probability of getting a 180 on an IQ test is extremely low, so it signifies smartness/uniqueness/specialness/etc. The same thing applies for this trope.
"The Group of Eight" reference to Australian universities is not analogous to "Ivy League" when it comes to code for smarty-pants characters. I'd edit the reference, but I feel newbie-shy, and I'm not sure there is a nationally recognised nickname for Australian "Ivy League" universities, or an accepted set of universities to fit.
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: three tropes in one
, started by captainpat on Nov 1st 2011 at 7:14:27 PM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman