Clearly, some part of that income advantage reflects skills the students had before they set foot on any ivy-covered campus.

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Summer in Chicago is synonymous with the Cubs, the ivy-covered walls of iconic Wrigley Field and the nearly century-old tradition of infamous baseball curses.

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The academics and the students on the leafy Gothic campus, with its ivy-covered dormitories and castle-like towers, also made her feel out of place.

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At the back of Steven Smith Teamaker's ivy-covered brick Portland tea salon is a blending room, or "lab, " with long metal tables and teapots.

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There's a lesson in those humble home furnishings, and your future children should apply it to their college aspirations: They may have to forgo a school with ivy-covered walls because money is tight.

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