The Ivy League – A Guide for PhD Students

The United States is the most popular study abroad destination in the world – and the Ivy League universities are amongst its top institutions.

If you’re considering PhD study in the USA, the Ivy League should definitely feature in your search! In this guide, we’ll cover what the Ivy League is and how you can maximise your chances of earning a place at one of these top institutions for your PhD.

What is the Ivy League?

The Ivy League is a group of eight prestigious, high-ranking American universities. Ivy League schools have a reputation for producing world-renowned research, as well as high-profile graduates from former US presidents to Nobel Prize winners.

The members of the Ivy League are:

• Harvard University
• Yale University
• Princeton University
• Columbia University
• Dartmouth College
• Brown University
• University of Pennsylvania
• Cornell University

Though its members have a reputation for academic excellence, the Ivy League isn’t technically an academic alliance at all – it’s an athletic conference. Officially formed in 1954, the primary purpose of the conference was originally to set shared ground-rules for intercollegiate football.

Over time, the Ivy League has gone on to acquire the academic reputation it enjoys today. This is partially because its members were already amongst the country’s best established universities (all but one pre-date the American Revolution).

It is also because intellectual merit is a founding principle of the league – one of the motivations behind its inception was to make sure sports didn’t take priority over academia. This meant all eight universities agreed not to offer athletic scholarships so that they only admitted the most academically qualified students – a rule that persists to this day.

In the near seven decades since it was founded, the Ivy League has become less known for its sporting success and more known for the quality of its research (and its alumni!). Eight of the nine current Supreme Court justices and every former US president in the last 40 years studied at an Ivy League university.

Why do your PhD at an Ivy League university?

Earning your PhD at an Ivy League institution is certainly a worthy ambition – you’ll have gained your doctorate at one of the oldest and most well-respected universities in the United States (if not the world). Six of the eight Ivy League schools rank in the top 20 universities worldwide according to the Times Higher Education 2023 World Rankings. The same number rank within the top 100 according to their research-specific score.

PhD tuition fees at Ivy League universities

An Ivy League PhD guarantees a very high standard of education – but all that prestige comes at a price! You can expect to pay an average annual tuition fee of $48,405 for a PhD at an Ivy League university.

All eight members are all private universities – but their PhD tuition fees are still higher than the average private institution in the US (which charges around $26,621 per year).

Here’s an overview of the average PhD fees at each university:

In 1985, an admissions officer at Yale named Richard Moll listed eight public universities he considered to be of a comparable education standard to the Ivy League. He termed them the ‘Public Ivies’. They are:

• College of William & Mary
• Miami University
• University of California
• University of Michigan
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Vermont
• University of Virginia

The average annual fee for a PhD at a public university in the US is $12,394. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to an Ivy League doctorate, these universities are definitely worth considering!

PhD funding at Ivy League universities

Fees for PhD programmes at Ivy League universities may seem high – but the good news is that it’s rare for students to pay the full cost of their PhD. Ivy League schools provide generous funding packages for PhD students. In fact, many will even cover the full cost of your tuition, along with a stipend towards living costs. Some funding packages may include added benefits such as health insurance.

It’s actually very common for PhD students at Ivy League universities (and elsewhere in the US) to receive full coverage for their PhD costs. At Cornell University, for example, almost 97% of PhDs are fully funded through a combination of fellowships, assistantships and stipends.

We’ve produced a list of the funding opportunities available at each of the Ivy League universities below:

You can find out more in our full guide to PhD fees and funding in the USA.

Applying for a PhD at an Ivy League university

It won’t come as any surprise that PhD programmes at Ivy League universities are very competitive. Acceptance rates for postgraduate programmes are generally under 10% and can be as low as 4%.

Applications are made directly to your chosen graduate programme. It’s worth noting that applying for a PhD in the US is very different to in the UK and many European countries. American PhDs are not pure research degrees and you’ll usually have to go through a taught coursework stage before you start writing your thesis. For this reason, you’ll often develop your research proposal during your programme.

To apply for a PhD at an Ivy League university, you’ll usually need a combination of the following:

• Academic transcripts: The university will want to see a detailed breakdown of the grades you achieved during your previous degree(s). Because PhD programmes in the US effectively combine Masters and PhD study (some universities may even award a Masters part way through your PhD), it’s unlikely that a Masters will be required. However, it may be an advantage when applying to a competitive Ivy League school!
• Academic CV/ Resume
• Personal statement (sometimes referred to in the US as a ‘statement of purpose’)
• Standardised test scores: Ivy League applicants are sometimes required to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
• Writing sample

Undergraduate and Masters programmes in the US are assessed using a system called Grade Point Average (GPA). Your university will usually calculate your GPA equivalent based on your academic transcript.

Ivy League universities generally do not set minimum GPA requirements; however, it is true that the average GPA for successful applicants is quite high. For example, the average GPA amongst successful PhD applicants at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering was 3.8 in 2021 (4.0 is the highest GPA you can achieve).

That said, your GPA won’t necessarily make or break your application. A PhD application has many elements – meaning there are plenty of opportunities to compensate for a lower GPA, whether through a stand-out personal statement or a glowing letter of recommendation.

Find out more about applying for a PhD in the USA.

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