There are plenty of great schools not in the Ivy League

 From a young age, most academically inclined students have a goal; get into an Ivy League school. For those not familiar, the Ivy League is a conglomerate of schools in a division 1 athletic conference who are considered the strongest academic colleges in the United States. They are Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn, Princeton, Columbia and Cornell. From a young age, if you are an excellent student, societal pressure and maybe internal burden tell these kids that if they do not get into one of these schools then they are a failure. This is a very narrow-minded view that a 17–18-year-old may see but there are some great schools in the United States that are not in the Ivy League. 

Some of these schools congeal in other NCAA athletic conferences. There is the Division 3 NESCAC Conference that consists of Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams, Trinity, Middlebury, Hamilton, Connecticut College, Bowdoin, Bates and Amherst. There is also Division 3 UAA Conference consisting of Emory, Rochester, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve, UChicago, WashU, Brandeis and NYU (my alma mater). All these schools are considered second tier to the Ivy's or mini-Ivy's, even though you still need a Highschool GPA around 3.5-4.0 to get in, as well as around a 1200-1500 SAT.

All these schools are great, but I'm going to focus on the schools in the sister conference to the Ivy League; The Patriot League. The schools in this conference are Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh, Army, Navy, Holy Cross, Boston U, Colgate, Loyola Maryland and American University with associate members Fordham, Georgetown, Richmond and MIT. Having attended 3 of these schools (master's from Fordham, currently in a master's program at BU and attended Lafayette for my first two years of Undergrad) I can say that these schools are extremely challenging and going to one of these schools, if you are extremely academically gifted should not be seen as a downgrade from the Ivy League. The Ivy League has become a status symbol in academic and industry circles, but it is just that a status symbol. Thinking that you are somehow getting a superior education at an Ivy vs a student at any one of these schools I just named is a lie. When you exit college from one of these schools you are just as valuable in the job market as someone who graduated from an Ivy League school.

Many times, students at these schools are more well-rounded than Ivy League students and are not just studying all the time, thus making them more attractive as employees as they can work well with others and are generally more interesting people. Most of the students at Ivy's join clubs and associations in high school for name recognition and to strengthen their application, while students at these other schools do extracurriculars based on interest and to do something aside from study. For example, an applicant to Harvard who has a 1550 SAT, 4.0 GPA and 12 AP courses may have joined a club based around computer science to show that they are capable in the subject matter. An applicant to Lehigh who has a 1300 SAT, 3.6 GPA and 5 AP courses may have joined and been good at basketball in high school; first of all because they are interested in the sport of basketball, and second of all because they worked at something that wasn't just academic. That kid who got into Harvard may continue with the electrical engineering club at Harvard, while the student at Lehigh may join the club basketball team, because it is something to do outside of the classroom. In my opinion this not only makes them a better job applicant because they aren't just going to do electrical engineering all day, but it also makes them a more well-rounded person.

Attending a college that is not in the Ivy League but is still academically challenging should not be seen as a failure to high school students. Many times, the student body at most of these second-tier schools are more well-rounded than the student body of the Ivy League schools. This is not to say that if you have a chance to attend an Ivy and it is your dream school you should not go. But if it is your dream to attend Columbia but the best you get into is Colgate, Emory or Wesleyan you should not see yourself as a failure rather a student who has an opportunity to make yourself more well-rounded both as a student and as a person.