The Little Ivies: elite liberal arts colleges with outsized outcomes.
"Little Ivies" is the informal name for a group of small, historically prestigious liberal arts colleges in the Northeast — most notably the 11 members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), plus a handful of other elite schools that are frequently grouped alongside them.
The NESCAC — the heart of the Little Ivies.
The New England Small College Athletic Conference is made up of 11 schools that share a commitment to small classes, high academic standards, and highly competitive Division III athletics.
Other schools commonly called Little Ivies.
A handful of other elite Northeastern liberal arts colleges are regularly grouped with the NESCAC when people talk about the Little Ivies. There's no single official list — but these are the names that come up most often.
Prestigious, but different from the Ivy League.
The Ivy League is an athletic conference of eight large research universities. The Little Ivies are something different: small, undergraduate-focused liberal arts colleges where the professors — not graduate students — teach the classes, where thesis-level research happens as a sophomore, and where students actually know their deans by name.
What they share with the Ivies is prestige, selectivity, and outcomes. Little Ivies routinely place graduates into top-tier consulting firms, investment banks, medical schools, law schools, and PhD programs at rates that rival — and sometimes exceed — their much larger Ivy League neighbors. They just do it 2,000 students at a time instead of 20,000.
For a high-achieving student who wants to be known, mentored, and stretched — not just enrolled — the Little Ivies are one of the strongest bets in American higher education.
First-time med school acceptance rates at top Little Ivies routinely land in the 80–90%+ range — well above the national ~40% average.
Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Bowdoin regularly send graduates to T14 law schools at rates comparable to Ivy League universities.
Middlebury, Colgate, Hamilton, and Williams are consistent feeders into top MBA programs (HBS, Stanford GSB, Wharton) and elite investment banks.
Placement statistics are directional and drawn from publicly reported college outcomes; check each school's career services page for the latest numbers.
World-class NCAA Division III athletics — and four more years of the sport you love.
For a lot of high-achieving high school athletes, the choice feels binary: go Division I and let athletics dominate the college experience, or walk away from the sport entirely. NCAA D-III at a top liberal arts college is the option most students never realize they have — and it's often the best of both worlds.
NESCAC and Little Ivy programs are elite. Middlebury, Williams, Amherst, Tufts, and Bowdoin regularly compete for D-III national titles. The coaching, the facilities, and the level of play are genuinely world-class — with none of the scholarship pressure that can make D-I feel like a full-time job.
Just as importantly: you get four more years to play a sport you love, alongside teammates who are just as serious about the classroom as they are about the field. Academics come first — but the athletic experience is real, competitive, and something graduates talk about for the rest of their lives.
Regular D-III national title contenders across most sports.
No athletic scholarships — you're a student who happens to play.
Keep playing the sport you love without it consuming your degree.
Explore every Little Ivy in the database.
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