Public Ivy

"Public Ivy" is a term meant to identify a distinct class of public universities offering educational opportunities similar to those found at schools like Columbia, Harvard, Brown, and Dartmouth, but at a much lower cost. Examples of such institutions are the University of Virginia, the College of William & Mary, Rutgers University, and the University of California at Berkeley.

The term was first thought to have been coined to describe the University of Virginia, and is attributed to Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner at around the time the Ivy League was forming in the northeast.

A more formal definition of Public Ivy was introduced by college admissions officer Richard Moll in his 1985 book, "The Public Ivys".