Ivies in Crisis

America's elite universities face mounting challenges in reputation and relevance

This article originally appeared in Minding the Campus.

Ivy League applications are down, and Ivy League schools have begun to panic. Over the past few weeks, America’s most coveted schools welcomed the early decision cohort of the class of 2029. Yet unlike in previous years, which saw a consistent increase in the number of applications and a corresponding decrease in acceptance rates, the data from this year’s admissions pool told a different story.

Brown’s early decision acceptance rate skyrocketed from 13 percent for the class of 2027 to 18 percent for the class of 2029, resulting in a perceived decline in prestige as nearly 1 in 5 students now have a chance to attend this Ivy League university. Similarly, Columbia saw a 2.28 percent decrease in applications, likely reflecting a consensus among Jewish students to disavow the institution following its refusal to condemn anti-Semitic incidents. Even more shockingly, Harvard refused to disclose admissions data entirely, departing from a decade-long trend of releasing early decision admissions data to the general public—likely in an attempt to obfuscate numbers that resemble those of Brown or Columbia. Whether out of concerns for anti-Semitism, a refusal to “play the game” of Ivy League admissions, or another reason entirely, qualified high school applicants have collectively boycotted the Ivy League. We must now wonder what happened—and what is in store for the eight institutions that comprise the world’s most famous college sports conference.

It is no secret that the Ivy League has been broken for decades. While a number of factors have contributed to its downfall, among the most egregious offenders is the nebulous admissions process, whereby students are expected to roleplay corporate CEOs or lose nights of sleep over memorizing the Krebs cycle in hopes of securing a spot amongst the supposed American intelligentsia. Increased scrutiny of the Ivy League admissions process, furthermore, incited by Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, a 2023 landmark supreme court case that de jure abolished the practice of affirmative action, has sparked some insightful conversation about the declining role of meritocracy in this fraught selection process or the necessity for an Ivy League education in the first place. Indeed, amidst a resurgence of campus anti-Semitism that culminated in the 2024 wave of pro-Hamas encampments—which originated at my alma mater, Columbia University—many students have abandoned their Ivy League dreams entirely.

In my view, there are three primary factors responsible for the recent decline of the Ivy League: the far-left propaganda machine, the resurgence of anti-Semitism, and the ridiculous standards of the college admissions process. For one, an uptick in Marxist academics since the 1980s has left many students who hold centrist, conservative, or libertarian viewpoints to feel shunned and alienated from both classroom discussions and campus affinity groups. These students, many of whom once regarded the liberal arts education system of the Ivy League as the epitome of open intellectual discourse, feel rightly disillusioned by the Soviet-style censorship on campus, leading them to collectively turn away from the liberal arts education as a whole.

Jewish students feel similarly snubbed.

The questionable reactions to October 7th from the higher education world—from the notorious December 2023 congressional hearing that resulted in the resignation of two university presidents to the violent campus protests—have led many Jewish students to abandon their hopes of the Ivy League and shift their sights elsewhere. The heavily televised “Tentifada” fever unveiled the reality of university bureaucracy systems and the anti-Semitism that pervades the ranks of university professors and administrators. At Columbia, for instance, a series of anti-Semitic group chat messages revealed the extent to which “diversity, equity, and inclusion” administrators have it out for Jewish students. Wealthy donors, many of whom are Jewish and rightly outraged at the administration’s response to Jewish student plight, have begun to pull their funds, resulting in a significant decline in donations at schools such as Columbia. As my college consulting colleague put it, “I don’t think it is [prestigious to go there anymore.]” Neither, it seems, do students.

These same high school students are also beginning to see through the absurdity of the college admissions game.

As students race to establish non-profits that will grow to gargantuan proportions—only to be abandoned once they receive their acceptance letters—or exploit their parents’ connections to gain publication in prestigious journals, many parents are lifting eyebrows at the sanity of the admissions process and encouraging students to explore alternatives. Ivy League admissions officers often claim that past performance indicates future success, but the problem is that most of these students are not performing of their own accord—they follow a set of rigid rules prescribed by their college counselors and are lost once they emerge into the real world and repeat the process themselves. As the requirements of the admissions process become increasingly absurd, many students and parents recognize that authenticity during a student’s teenage years is more important than forging a cookie-cutter admissions profile. As a result, many talented students forgo the Ivy League application process entirely.

It is safe to say that the Ivy League has taken a permanent hit to its reputation, but what’s next for high achieving students?

For one, many have begun to look to non-traditional alternatives such as Bari Weiss’s University of Austin, an institution that prioritizes classical liberal learning over pronouns and identity politics. Similarly, flagship state schools such as the University of Illinois or Rutgers University have experienced a recent influx of applications as students begin to prioritize vocational education over the classical liberal arts experience. And while the Ivy League isn’t going anywhere for at least the next several years, the tides have certainly turned: these institutions, once the epitome of intellectual inquiry and prestige, have lost the respect of the general public. And they have done this to themselves.

Follow Liza Libes on Minding the Campus here.