Richard Moll Public Ivy League

The prestige that is attached to the Ivy League schools doesn’t come cheap. Ivy League institutions carry a lot of respect in the business and academic world, but they are private schools that have extremely high entry requirements and matching high tuition rates.

During the 1980s, a university administrator named Richard Moll saw the positive aspects of Ivy League schools in a number of public institutions, and came up with a list of eight schools now known as the Public Ivy Leagues.

This list of schools was compiled while Moll traveled across the country in the 1980s, evaluating all levels of higher institutions, and was released to the public in 1985 in a book entitled “Public Ivys: A Guide to America’s best public undergraduate colleges and universities.” Moll used strict criteria when comparing schools to the Ivy League, as this is the most prestigious category of schools in the nation.

All of the schools in the Public Ivy Leagues List share characteristics with each other and with the original Ivy League schools. They have a long, rich history that has sparked many traditions that students and alumni alike support. Their academic quality is superior to all but the cream of the crop. They have beautiful grounds that are well-kept and lush. And the teaching staff are some of the best in the nation.

The main difference between the Public Ivy Leagues List and the original Ivy League schools is two-fold: the Public Ivies are public, not private institutions, and they are usually much cheaper to attend. That’s not to say they are a steal: their tuition rates are among the highest in the public realm. However, they are much less expensive than the Ivy League.

The Public Ivy Leagues List includes the following schools:

• College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)
• Miami University (Oxford, Ohio)
• University of California
• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Vermont (Burlington)
• University of Virginia (Charlottesville)

In addition to these schools, several runner-up schools were later added to the Public Ivy Leagues List in order to give recognition to other top universities and colleges in the nation:

• University of Colorado at Boulder
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• New College of the University of South Florida (Now New College of Florida)
• Pennsylvania State University at University Park
• University of Pittsburgh
• State University of New York at Binghamton
• University of Washington at Seattle
• University of Wisconsin–Madison

The Public Ivies are institutions of excellence, like their Ivy League cousins, and if you are looking for some of the best education that this country can provide, your search should start with them.