The number of students starting in Ivy League schools for the Class of 2028 (those beginning in the Fall of 2024), varied from school to school. Cornell University had the largest Class of 2028 among the Ivy League schools, with 3,574 enrolled students.

Ivy League schools typically receive thousands of applications. For the Class of 2028 (students beginning university in the fall of 2024), Harvard University received 54,008 applications. For the same class, the acceptance rate at Harvard was 3.59 percent, meaning only 3.59 percent of these applications were accepted into the Class of 2028.

In Columbia University's Class of 2028 (students beginning in the fall of 2024), 17 percent of students were international students. This is compared to Harvard University, where 18 percent of incoming students were international students.

Across the Ivy League, more females than males tended to be enrolled in the Class of 2028 (those entering in the Fall of 2024). At Columbia University, 51 percent of the freshman class in Fall 2024 (the Class of 2028) was female, compared to 47 percent of male students and two percent of students who identified as transgender or non-binary.

In 2023, the University of Pennsylvania had the highest four-year graduation rate of all Ivy League schools, at 88 percent. Cornell University followed closely behind, with an 87 percent four-year graduation rate.

The share of first-generation students (those who are the first in their family to attend college) in Ivy League schools varied from school to school. For the Class of 2028 (students beginning university in the Fall of 2024), 19.5 percent of Cornell University's freshman class were first-generation college students.

In the academic year of 2021-2022, Yale University awarded 1,420 Bachelor's degrees. Cornell University awarded the most Bachelor's degrees in that year, at 3,775 degrees.

This statistic illustrates the share of legacy students in Ivy League schools in the Class of 2023. In the Class of 2023 (students beginning university in the fall of 2019), 14.6 percent of the students at Harvard University were legacy students.

In the academic year of 2024/2025, tuition at Columbia University cost 71,845 U.S. dollars, including mandatory fees, while room and board amounted to 17,580 U.S. dollars, making it the most expensive school in the Ivy League. Brown University followed closely behind, with tuition and mandatory fees of 71,412 U.S. dollars and room and board of 17,444 U.S. dollars.

In the fall of 2021, there were 2,130 full-time instructional members of staff at Harvard University. Columbia University had the most full-time instructional staff in the same year, with 4,484 members of staff.

Ivy League universities are known to be incredibly selective in their admissions processes. Harvard University's acceptance rate for the Class of 2028 (students beginning university in the fall of 2024) was the most selective, with a 3.59 percent acceptance rate, followed by Yale University with a 3.7 percent acceptance rate.

In the fiscal year of 2021, the University of Pennsylvania reported about 18.24 billion U.S. dollars in net revenue. In the same year, Dartmouth College reported about 3.66 billion U.S. dollars in net revenue.

In the fall of 2021, Yale University had 1,080 members of faculty on track for tenured positions. In that same year, Yale had 1,089 tenured faculty members.

Ivy League schools consistently spend millions of U.S. dollars on research and development projects each year. In 2021, the University of Pennsylvania spent the most on R&D out of the eight Ivy League schools, with 1.63 billion U.S. dollars. Brown University spent the least on R&D, with 276.33 million U.S. dollars.

In the academic year 2023/24, there were 331,602 international students from India studying in the United States. International students The majority of international students studying in the United States are originally from India and China, totaling 331,602 students and 277,398 students respectively in the 2023/24 school year. In 2022/23, there were 467,027 international graduate students , which accounted for over one third of the international students in the country. Typically, engineering and math & computer science programs were among the most common fields of study for these students. The United States is home to many world-renowned schools, most notably, the Ivy League Colleges which provide education that is sought after by both foreign and local students. International students and college Foreign students in the United States pay some of the highest fees in the United States, with an average of 24,914 U.S. dollars. American students attending a college in New England paid an average of 14,900 U.S. dollars for tuition alone and there were about 79,751 international students in Massachusetts . Among high-income families, U.S. students paid an average of 34,700 U.S. dollars for college, whereas the average for all U.S. families reached only 28,026 U.S. dollars. Typically, 40 percent of families paid for college tuition through parent income and savings, while 29 percent relied on grants and scholarships.

In 2022, 65.9 percent of students at Princeton University applied for need-based aid, more than any other Ivy League school in the United States. In comparison, 48.8 percent of students at the University of Pennsylvania applied for need-based aid in that year.

In 2022, students who graduated from Cornell University had an average student debt of 28,408 U.S. dollars, making them the most indebted class in the Ivy League. This is compared to Princeton University, where the average student debt was 12,500 U.S. dollars.

37 of the United States' 45 presidents (officially 46 as Grover Cleveland is counted as both the 22nd and 24th president) attended a university, college or other institution of higher education; 34 of these completed their studies and graduated. After completing their undergraduate studies, twenty U.S. presidents attended a graduate school, with eleven attaining a qualification (seven of which were law degrees). Only eight U.S. presidents, including two of the most highly regarded, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, did not attend college, while all presidents since Dwight D. Eisenhower have attained some form of degree or equivalent qualification.

Institutions Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher education in the U.S., has the highest number of presidential alumni, with eight in total. Of the eight Ivy League schools, widely regarded as the most prestigious universities in the United States, five include U.S. presidents among their alumni, and fifteen U.S. presidents have attained a qualification these universities. Only two U.S. presidents have studied abroad; they were John Quincy Adams, who studied at Leiden University in the Netherlands while his father was stationed in Europe, and Bill Clinton, who studied at Oxford University in England. John F. Kennedy had planned to study at the London School of Economics, but fell ill after enrolling and transferred stateside to Princeton, before illness again forced his withdrawal a few months later. Two U.S. presidents founded universities; the University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson (and attended by Woodrow Wilson), and the State University of New York at Buffalo was founded by Millard Fillmore; one of the eight U.S. presidents who never attended college. Donald Trump did establish a company called "Trump University" in 2004, however this provided training for potential property realtors, and was not an educational institution (in 2016, Trump paid 25 million U.S. dollars to settle a lawsuit with the State of New York, as Trump University was deemed to have defrauded customers and made false statements).

Most educated presidents

In 1751, John Adams was the first future-president to go to college, entering Harvard at the age of sixteen, and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1755. The most recent presidential graduate is Barack Obama, who attended Occidental College from 1979 to 1981, before transferring to Columbia University where he majored in political science, graduating in 1983; Obama later obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1991. Woodrow Wilson is the only U.S. president to have obtained a Ph.D., which he received from Johns Hopkins University in 1886 for his work titled "Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics", and George W. Bush is the only U.S. president to have attained an MBA degree. Three U.S. presidents attended military universities, with both Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower graduating from West Point Military Academy, and Jimmy Carter graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy (Eisenhower also attended three other U.S. Army colleges during his military career, which began in 1915 and ended in 1969). Incumbent President Donald Trump obtained a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968.

The university in the United States with the largest endowment market value in 2023 was Harvard University, with an endowment fund value of about 49.5 billion U.S. dollars. U.S. higher education Colleges and universities in the United States rank highly among the world’s most prestigious institutions of higher education. Many universities are particularly well known for their strong research capabilities and their connections to many Nobel Prize winning laureates.The U.S. university system is largely decentralized. Except for service academies and staff colleges, the federal government does not directly regulate universities; public universities are administered solely by the individual states. Besides the state administered public universities, there are many private universities in the United States, most are non-profit institutions, similar to the public universities, but there are also a number of institutions that rely on profit (Walden University in Minnesota, for example).In general, tuition fees are required to be paid by students at American universities. Public universities generally charge lower tuition rates to in-state students, than to out-of-state students. Private universities are often much more expensive than public ones because they do not receive funding from state governments.American students are often required to take out student loans to supplement scholarships and grants provided by diverse sources to be able to pay for tuition. Student debt has become a major issue in the United States in recent years, with many Americans unsure if they can even afford to pay off their student loans in the future.

In the fiscal year of 2023, Columbia University experienced a 4.7 percent gain on their endowment fund, making it the Ivy League school with the best performing endowment in that year. In comparison, Princeton University had the worst performing endowment, with a -1.7 percent loss.