What Chinese New Year Animal Is 2016

The Chinese use the lunar calendar for festive occasions including the New Year which falls somewhere between late January and early February. The cycle of twelve animal signs derives from Chinese folklore as a method for naming the years. The animals follow one another in an established order and are repeated every twelve years - rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each animal has particular characteristics and people born in a certain year are believed to take on these characteristics. Why is the Chinese zodiac system so important to the Chinese?

Everyone, from the date of birth, has his unique animal sign accompanying him with the life long time. It is the birth symbol and mascot with different symbolic meanings for each one affecting their behaviours, characters and destiny. People show their strong belief in fortune and luck through the animal signs. As each animal sign has unique personality traits, the Chinese people like to predict people's relations and more according to this. For example, when finding their mates, Chinese people hope to find the person with the animal sign that compatible with his best.

Also the zodiac provides guidance on how people live their lives. For example, according to Chinese astrology, in different animal years, people under different signs should pay attention to different things in order to go smoothly in the year. All in all, the Chinese zodiac is an important component of China's ancient culture, reflecting the rich psychology of the Chinese people vividly. People under different signs have unique characters and fortune. You can find out your animal signs quickly according to the zodiac years below. You can also learn detailed information about the personality traits, lucky numbers, colours, compatible animals of persons under different signs.

And peek your horoscope of Career, Wealth, Love and Health in 2016, the year of Monkey. In Chinese tradition, each year is represented by one of 12 zodiac animals. It is believed that each animal has their own set of personality traits, which are shared by those born in a particular year. Use your birth year to find out your Chinese zodiac animal and let us know if your personality matches. It is believed that a person's characteristics are decided by their birth year's zodiac animal sign and element. The monkey is considered a clever animal that is always compared to a smart human being and is ubiquitous in Chinese culture and astrology, symbolising intelligence and long life.

Occupying the last position in 12 Chinese Zodiac animals, Pig is mild and a lucky animal representing carefree fun, good fortune and wealth. Personality traits of the people born under the sign of the Pig are happy, easygoing, honest, trusting, educated, sincere and brave. The possible dark sides the Pig people are stubbornness, naive, over-reliant, self-indulgent, easy to anger and materialistic. Opportunities abound for all Chinese zodiac animals in 2016.

If you're interested in Chinese culture or traditional Chinese medicine, learn more about becoming a student in one of PCOM's acupuncture, massage therapy or holistic nursing programs. No matter your sign, a thorough understanding of Chinese astrology will help you accomplish great things. Detailed below are the 12 major signs of the Chinese zodiac and their corresponding personality traits. Also included are the birth years for each Chinese New Year animal and the other types of zodiac animals with which they are compatible. The sheep, monkey and rooster arrived in that order respectively. The last two animals were the dog and the pig, but the dog got distracted and the pig fell asleep after eating too much.

In the end, the dog became eleventh and the pig came twelve. The rat was supposed to wake the cat up, but in all of its excitement, the rat forgot and by the time the cat woke up, all of the zodiacs were assigned. Rooster ranks the tenth among the Chinese zodiac animals.

In Chinese culture, Rooster represents fidelity and punctuality, for it wakes people up on time. People born in the year of the Rooster are beautiful, kind-hearted, hard-working, courageous, independent, humorous and honest. On the other side, they might be arrogant, self-aggrandizing, persuasive to others and wild as well as admire things or persons blindly. As the symbol of Chinese nation, dragon represents authority and good fortune. It has the fifth position among the Chinese zodiac animals.

People born in the year of the Dragon are powerful, kind-hearted, successful, innovative, brave, healthy courageous and enterprising. However, they tend to be conceited, scrutinizing, tactless, quick-tempered and over-confident. Aturday marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, China's biggest holiday, which is celebrated throughout the world, including in the U.S. Each year, Chinese people ring in the new year around when the new moon is closest to the beginning of spring, usually sometime between mid-January and late-February. Although China officially uses the international Gregorian calendar, the traditional lunisolar calendar remains a symbol to harken the start of spring.

Depending on various factors, experts would suggest the dos and don'ts for each zodiac sign for the year ahead. Ranging from lucky numbers, lucky colours, lucky flowers and lucky direction, these are believed to influence different aspects of one's life. Experts would also provide advice on work, wealth, health and love. You can find out more by going online, visiting temples or even your neighbourhood malls where comprehensive explanations can be seen being put up along with CNY decorations. In many places, January 1 is "day one" of the new year, based on a calendar that follows the Earth's movement around the sun. But the lunar calendar—upon which the Chinese New Year is based—tracks time by the moon cycles.

That's why people all over the world celebrate Chinese New Year on different days each year; this year the calendar starts on February 1. Many Chinese families have an altar dedicated to their ancestors. Sacrifices of food and paper "money" are offered to make the ancestors happy. Many also post printed scrolls scribed with lucky messages on front doors and entryways.

Adults give out red envelopes containing money to employees and children. Sometimes, fireworks are set off throughout the holiday to mark the new year, but they are also to ward off bad spirits. In many provinces in China and select Chinatowns in the United States, celebrations last for the entire month. In addition to 12 zodiac signs, Chinese astrology recognizes Wu Xing's Five Elements theory based on the respective nature and interactions of metal, water, wood, fire and earth. Click on the image to look up your own sign by birth year and read more about how Judy, Sarah and Kaitlin rediscovered their Chinese Zodiac signs in Hong Kong. If such an occasion occurs, the intercalation of an extra month takes place.

For instance, one may find a year with two "Julys" or with two "Augusts" in the Chinese calendar. In fact, the exact length of the month in the Chinese calendar is either 30 days or 29 days–a phenomenon which reflects its lunar origin. Also, the meteorological cycle means essentially a solar year. The Chinese thus consider their calendar as yin-yang li, or a "lunar-solar calendar." Based on the Chinese Lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on Monday, February 8th in 2016.

This year's zodiac animal, the monkey, is known to be intelligent and creative – but don't let it fool you! Another one of its many personality traits is its aptitude for being mischievous. The sheep, monkey and rooster helped one another across and earned their spots on the calendar as well. The dog made it too, but decided a bath was more important than the position which is why it came in eleventh. Finally, the pig appeared and is listed last because the pig feasted and rested half-way through the race. Each year in the Lunar calendar is represented by one of 12 zodiac animals included in the cycle of 12 stations or "signs" along the apparent path of the sun through the cosmos.

AstrologerReda Wigleresearches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. The rat was the first to show up to the party as it hitched a ride on the ox, who came second, but then hopped off before the ox could cross the finish line. The tiger came third after sprinting to the birthday party, followed by the rabbit and then the dragon. Like the rat, the snake wrapped itself around the leg of the horse and managed to get across the finish line, making it six and the horse seventh.

Different people born under each animal sign have different characters. Ancient Chinese people calculated the compatibility for love between animals based on this. Nowadays, many people are keen on checking compatibilities to gain guidance in life, for love or for marriage although there is no scientific evidence.

If you are interested in this, test the compatibility between you and your partner by using our tool below to test or find through the chart by clicking Chinese Zodiac Compatibility. Interestingly, the Chinese Zodiac came about when the Jade Emperor wanted to select 12 animals to be his guards. He proclaimed that the earlier one arrived, the better rank one would have.

Therefore the order of zodiac signs that we know now was supposedly the order in which the animals arrived. Now that we know the origins of the Chinese Zodiac, let us move onto the juicy parts. People born in the Year of the Monkey are intelligent, witty and strong-willed.

They are remarkably inventive, creative and able to solve most problems. Their curiosity means they have a great thirst for knowledge. They are usually the centre of attention at parties, their creative mind makes them excellent story-tellers and their smile will light up the room.

At times Monkey people are unreasonable, self-centred and opportunitistic. They love challenges and their popularity means they often become leader, but they can be cunning and manipulative to win the race. The love fortune is not good enough for people with Chinese zodiac Monkey born in 2016. It is hard for them to meet their true lover in the early age. After getting married, the relationship may not be very harmonious between them and their spouses. In order to prevent this from happening, they should talk more with their partners, learn to understand them, and accompany them more.

Besides, they can travel together with their partners to promote the relationship during holidays. Last but not least, they should learn not to lose their temper casually. Also known as Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, it is an important holiday in China, as you might have guessed. Tied to the Chinese lunar calendar, the holiday is a time for celebrating and feasting, along with honoring household and heavenly deities and ancestors.

Inscribed oracle bones with astronomical records indicate that the calendar existed as early as 14th century B.C. Because the Lunar New Year depends on the moon, the date of Chinese New Year changes each year, but it will always fall between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20. The buffalo came in second and became the second animal listed on the Chinese Zodiac. The tiger, also being strong, came in third, followed by the rabbit that jumped his way across and was helped during the last stretch by the dragon. A snake hid in the hoof of the horse which is how it managed to make it across the river. At the last minute the snake jumped out and scared the horse into seventh place.

Tied to the lunar calendar, the holiday began as a time for feasting and to honor household and heavenly deities, as well as ancestors. Both Chinese and Western astrology are systems of divining meaning and ascribing qualities to individuals based on the time of their birth. Western astrology is connected to the Earth's orbit around the sun, hence the term sun sign, and the twelve zodiac signs correspond to 12 constellations. People born in the year of the Rat are clever, quick-witted and resourceful. Ambitious in nature, rats are sometimes overly stubborn and can lack empathy.

That may have to do with the fact that they're a bit sensitive to their own emotions. A good cry may be in store for you this New Year, but it's not a roadblock in your life, just something that may make you a little stronger. It's the start to a fresh beginning, and it's time to celebrate the prosperity and good luck to come.

What Year Of The Animal Is 2016 Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year and Spring Festival, marks the ending of the winter solstice and the welcoming of new seasons in different countries across Asia. Along with the changing of the year, a new Chinese zodiac also gets its time to shine. Ranking as the eleventh animal in Chinese zodiac, Dog is the symbol of loyalty and honesty.

People born in the Year of the Dog possess the best traits of human nature. They are honest, friendly, faithful, loyal, smart, straightforward, venerable and have a strong sense of responsibility. On the negative side, they are likely to be self-righteous, cold, terribly stubborn, slippery, critical of others and not good at social activities. Ranking the first in the Chinese zodiac, rat represents wisdom.

Personality traits for the people born in the year of the Rat are intelligent, charming, quick-witted, practical, ambitious, and good at economizing as well as social activities. The weaknesses are that the Rats are likely to be timid, stubborn, wordy, greedy, devious, too eager for power and love to gossip. The Monkey people born in the evening are honest, loyal to friends, zealous, well favoured and always give alms to the poor. In work, they are faithful in the performance of their duties and can get appreciation by the supervisor. In fortune, they are late bloomers who suffer lot in their early youth and turn to be better from the middle ages. If they try to handle affairs more steadily when young, life can be smooth.

As is ancient tradition, the Chinese zodiac attaches animal signs to each lunar year in a cycle of 12 years. The animal designation changes at the start of the New Year. People born in the Year of the Dragon are healthy, energetic, excitable, short-tempered, and stubborn. They are also honest, sensitive, brave, and they inspire confidence and trust. Dragon people are the most eccentric of any in the eastern zodiac. They neither borrow money nor make flowery speeches, but they tend to be soft-hearted which sometimes gives others an advantage over them.

They are compatible with Rats, Snakes, Monkeys, and Roosters. They have a deep sense of loyalty, are honest, and inspire other people´s confidence because they know how to keep secrets. But Dog People are somewhat selfish, terribly stubborn, and eccentric. They care little for wealth, yet somehow always seem to have money. They can be cold emotionally and sometimes distant at parties. They can find fault with many things and are noted for their sharp tongues.

They are compatible with those born in the Years of the Horse, Tiger, and Rabbit. In China, the start of a new year is celebrated with a Spring Festival, the biggest holiday of the year. Traditionally, people give their house a big spring clean and hang couplets on their doors. Couplets are poetic lines about spring and prosperity written in gold or black on red paper.

What Are The Ivy League Schools Known For

All eight are in the top 20 for number of sports offered for both men and women among Division I schools. Unlike most Division I athletic conferences, the Ivy League prohibits the granting of athletic scholarships; all scholarships awarded are need-based . In addition, the Ivies have a rigid policy against redshirting, even for medical reasons; an athlete loses a year of eligibility for every year enrolled at an Ivy institution. Additionally, the Ivies prohibit graduate students from participating in intercollegiate athletics, even if they have remaining athletic eligibility.

The only exception to the ban on graduate students is that seniors graduating in 2021 are being allowed to play at their current institutions as graduate students in 2021–22. This was a one-time-only response to the Ivies shutting down most intercollegiate athletics in 2020–21 due to COVID-19. Ivy League teams' non-league games are often against the members of the Patriot League, which have similar academic standards and athletic scholarship policies .

As late as the 1960s many of the Ivy League universities' undergraduate programs remained open only to men, with Cornell the only one to have been coeducational from its founding and Columbia being the last to become coeducational. Before they became coeducational, many of the Ivy schools maintained extensive social ties with nearby Seven Sisters women's colleges, including weekend visits, dances and parties inviting Ivy and Seven Sisters students to mingle. This was the case not only at Barnard College and Radcliffe College, which are adjacent to Columbia and Harvard, but at more distant institutions as well. The movie Animal House includes a satiric version of the formerly common visits by Dartmouth men to Massachusetts to meet Smith and Mount Holyoke women, a drive of more than two hours. As noted by Irene Harwarth, Mindi Maline, and Elizabeth DeBra, "The 'Seven Sisters' was the name given to Barnard, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Radcliffe, because of their parallel to the Ivy League men's colleges."

Although this group of elite schools is considered to be part of one big league of the elite, there have been plenty of internal rivalries over the years. Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania have been longtime basketball rivals. Cornell and Harvard have been hockey rivals for many years, and Harvard and Penn have beenlong time football rivals. The Yale and Princeton rivalry is considered the country's second-oldest college rivalry behind Lehigh University and Lafayette College. The sports that these colleges play were so popular that some teams began playing games in New York City so spectators could come from far away and watch the games.

The popularity of both the athletes who played and the college team rivalries brought in a good deal of attention to the schools as well as revenue from ticket sales. Mostly, these rivalries are a matter of opinion in terms of which school has the most honor graduates, which schools offer the most prestigious scholarships, and what famous graduates have come from each school. It's likely no surprise that Ivy League-level colleges and universities would borrow a little "ivy" to use in their own names. These similarly prestigious groups of institutions include public schools, small liberal arts colleges, and other lesser-known, top-tier schools. Like Dartmouth, Princeton University emphasizes undergraduate education as their top priority. For liberal arts students or B.S.E. for students of engineering and applied science.

Both programs feature general education requirements, as well as a focus on independent research. The required courses provide Princeton students with a diverse and thorough liberal arts education, a hallmark of the university's undergraduate experience. Undergraduate enrollments range from about 4,500 to about 15,000, larger than most liberal arts colleges and smaller than most state universities. Total enrollment, which includes graduate students, ranges from approximately 6,600 at Dartmouth to over 20,000 at Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, and Penn. Ivy League financial endowments range from Brown's $6.9 billion to Harvard's $53.2 billion, the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world.

The truth is that Ivy League colleges don't always have the highest quality of instruction for undergraduate students. Overall, they tend to be very focused on doing academic research to maintain their position at the forefront of academia. Professors may be less interested in teaching than they are in their personal projects; alternatively, schools may end up hiring tons of adjunct faculty to keep costs down.

You could end up with a better learning experience at a small, highly selective college that exclusively enrolls undergraduate students because the professors are there primarily to teach. The Ivies have been competing in sports as long as intercollegiate sports have existed in the United States. Rowing teams from Harvard and Yale met in the first sporting event held between students of two U.S. colleges on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, on August 3, 1852. Harvard's team, "The Oneida", won the race and was presented with trophy black walnut oars from then-presidential nominee General Franklin Pierce.

The "Little Ivies," which consist of private liberal arts colleges, offer both academic rigor and selective admissions similar to that of the Ivies and Public Ivies. The institution was founded in 1746, making it the fourth oldest university in the United States. It is a medium-sized institution with around 5,000 undergraduate enrollments, and like Harvard, has an extremely competitive acceptance rate of only 5%. Some of its most popular degrees include computer engineering, public policy analysis, and economics. It is rated #2 of the best colleges in America to study political science and public policy analysis.

Yale, like Harvard, is host to a residential college system that makes the undergraduate experience truly unlike any other. The tight-knit communities that Yale students live in their sophomore through senior year allow students to make connections with both their peers and faculty, as well as live in an environment best suited to their own personal interests and ambitions. All undergraduates attend Yale College, the liberal arts college within the university. Yale has loose general education requirements, although they are less stringent than those at Columbia or Princeton. Yale is celebrated for its exemplary English and creative arts programs, which consistently place near or at the top of national rankings. Writing is an important part of the Yale undergraduate curriculum, with over a hundred introductory writing courses to choose from featuring a broad range of topics.

The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term Ivy League is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools as a group of elite colleges with connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism. Its members are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University.

Each Ivy League college has its own unique accomplishments that make it important. All carry a certain reputation with them, and each school has programs that excel primarily in the medical and law fields, making them some of the most sought-after schools in the world. Their admissions process is very selective, which helps the schools ensure that they only accept the best and brightest. Many famous people have graduated from Ivy League schools, including recent presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. This prestige leads many to believe that these colleges are only for the wealthy and elite.

Often, companies look for Ivy League graduates as potential employees, usually preferred by law firms, medical facilities, and large corporations. It has long been coveted to have earned a degree from an Ivy League school. Today, there are other competitors that some claim to be just as good as their Ivy counterparts. Some of these well-known schools include Duke University, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Vanderbilt, and Georgetown University, to name a few.

The Ivy League schools are still excellent in both academia and in sports, and they have left a legacy of higher education with an exceptional track record and reputation to go along with them. Although the creation of the Ivy League was rooted in athletics, nowadays these schools are known for their academic prestige and famous alumni. All the Ivy League colleges have large endowments that are the product of wealthy alumni contributions over the years. Ivy League schools are often seen as symbols of elitism because they attract students who come from legacies of wealth, but they offer some great financial aid packages to disadvantaged students because of their large endowments.

The Ivy League schools are highly selective, with all schools reporting acceptance rates at or below approximately 10% or less at all of the universities. For the class of 2025, six of the eight schools reported acceptance rates below 6%. Admitted students come from around the world, although those from the Northeastern United States make up a significant proportion of students.

The Ivy League was the first athletic conference to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by shutting down all athletic competition in March 2020, leaving many Spring schedules unfinished. The Fall 2020 schedule was canceled in July, and winter sports were canceled before Thanksgiving. Of the 357 men's basketball teams in Division I, only ten did not play; the Ivy League made up eight of those ten.

By giving up its automatic qualifying bid to March Madness, the Ivy League forfeited at least $280,000 in NCAA basketball funds. As a consequence of the pandemic, an unprecedented number of student athletes in the Ivy League either transferred to other schools, or temporarily unenrolled in hopes of maintaining their eligibility to play post-pandemic. In February 2021 it was reported that Yale declined a multi-million dollar offer from alum Joseph Tsai to create a sequestered "bubble" for the lacrosse team. The league announced in a May 2021 joint statement that "regular athletic competition" would resume "across all sports" in fall 2021. The influence of these institutions on the founding of other colleges and universities is notable. This included the Southern public college movement which blossomed in the decades surrounding the turn of the 19th century when Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia established what became the flagship universities of their respective states.

In 1801, a majority of the first board of trustees for what became the University of South Carolina were Princeton alumni. They appointed Jonathan Maxcy, a Brown graduate, as the university's first president. Thomas Cooper, an Oxford alumnus and University of Pennsylvania faculty member, became the second president of the South Carolina college. The founders of the University of California came from Yale, hence the school colors of University of California are Yale Blue and California Gold.

Attending one of the top educational institutions certainly offers plenty of advantages post-graduation. And do they do a better job at this than the thousands of other colleges in the nation? In a 2000 book, education experts Howard and Matthew Greene — the same duo who expanded Moll's list of Public Ivies — proposed the idea of the "Hidden Ivies." These 63 highly selective colleges offer a premier liberal arts education. Ivy League colleges also aren't the only schools where you'll derive inspiration from the amazing things the students around you are doing. There are many selective colleges and universities around the country that attract highly motivated students and have learning environments that will challenge you.

Though the Ivies have high concentrations of intense students, they definitely don't have a monopoly on undergraduate talent. Ivies represent some of the most selective and well-known colleges in the country. The schools of the Ivy League have had more time than most other colleges to build up their reputations through the accumulation of highly successful graduates. In addition to competitive undergraduate programs, Ivy League universities offer some of the best professional programs for law and medicine. Cornell features by far the largest undergraduate enrollment of any Ivy League school, with over 15,000 full-time students. Its large size and unique blend of public and private funding differentiate Cornell from other Ivies, giving the university an atmosphere similar to that of a large public university.

Like Dartmouth, Cornell's rural setting and the prevalence of Greek life stand in contrast to smaller, more urban Ivies. Campus life and recreational activities at Cornell take advantage of the natural setting and relative isolation of the campus. Many student groups involve outdoor activities; athletics, hiking in the surrounding wilderness, and canoeing in the nearby Finger Lakes are common pastimes for Cornell students.

In the time before recruiting for college sports became dominated by those offering athletic scholarships and lowered academic standards for athletes, the Ivy League was successful in many sports relative to other universities in the country. In particular, Princeton won 26 recognized national championships in college football , and Yale won 18 . Both of these totals are considerably higher than those of other historically strong programs such as Alabama, which has won 15, Notre Dame, which claims 11 but is credited by many sources with 13, and USC, which has won 11. Yale, whose coach Walter Camp was the "Father of American Football," held on to its place as the all-time wins leader in college football throughout the entire 20th century, but was finally passed by Michigan on November 10, 2001. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Penn each have over a dozen former scholar-athletes enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Currently Dartmouth holds the record for most Ivy League football titles, with 18, followed closely by Harvard and Penn, each with 17 titles. In addition, the Ivy League has produced Super Bowl winners Kevin Boothe , two-time Pro Bowler Zak DeOssie , Sean Morey , All-Pro selection Matt Birk , Calvin Hill , Derrick Harmon and 1999 "Mr. Irrelevant" Jim Finn . In one sport, rowing, the Ivies recognize team champions for each sex in both heavyweight and lightweight divisions.

While the Intercollegiate Rowing Association governs all four sex- and bodyweight-based divisions of rowing, the only one that is sanctioned by the NCAA is women's heavyweight. The Ivy League was the last Division I basketball conference to institute a conference postseason tournament; the first tournaments for men and women were held at the end of the 2016–17 season. The tournaments only award the Ivy League automatic bids for the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments; the official conference championships continue to be awarded based solely on regular-season results. Before the 2016–17 season, the automatic bids were based solely on regular-season record, with a one-game playoff (or series of one-game playoffs if more than two teams were tied) held to determine the automatic bid.

The Ivy League is one of only two Division I conferences which award their official basketball championships solely on regular-season results; the other is the Southeastern Conference. Since its inception, an Ivy League school has yet to win either the men's or women's Division I NCAA Basketball Tournament. Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth all held early associations with the Congregationalists. Princeton was financed by New Light Presbyterians, though originally led by a Congregationalist.

Brown was founded by Baptists, though the university's charter stipulated that students should enjoy "full liberty of conscience." Columbia was founded by Anglicans, who composed 10 of the college's first 15 presidents. Penn and Cornell were officially nonsectarian, though Protestants were well represented in their respective founding. In the early nineteenth century, the specific purpose of training Calvinist ministers was handed off to theological seminaries, but a denominational tone and religious traditions including compulsory chapel often lasted well into the twentieth century. The term "Ivy League" came about in 1954, when the NCAA athletic conference for Division I was formed. At the time, the elitism of these schools was really due to their prestige in the realm of sports like basketball. Although the term "Ivy League" was not created until the 1950s, many of these schools were in existence as far back as 1636, when John Harvard became the first benefactor of Harvard University.

In 1746, the New Jersey school of Princeton was founded and was originally simply named the College of New Jersey. The smallest Ivy League school, Dartmouth, was established in 1769 in Hanover, New Hampshire. And finally, Cornell University got its start in 1865 thanks to two benefactors named Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White.

Dartmouth College is located in Hanover, New Hampshire, and is rated the #1 school in New Hampshire. It is a fairly small school considered to some other Ivy League schools, with a little over 4,000 undergrad students. With a 9% acceptance rate, Dartmouth is quite selective, and accepts students within the range of 1420 to 1560 SAT grades and ACT grades.

The Ivy League schools are the eight selective private institutions in the Northeast that make up the Ivy League Athletic Conference. Over time, the term "Ivy League" became synonymous with prestigious colleges. For this and other reasons, it's risky to assume that Ivy League grads will end up more "successful" overall than other students.

Success is more about a student's inherent drive and ability than which school he or she ends up attending. The main reason an Ivy League school might be better than any other top-tier university is due to name recognition. A diploma from an Ivy League college may open doors for you because employers and graduate school admissions officers will know immediately that you went to an extremely competitive school.