Possible Clues:

• Group of eight leading US universities
• Plant class in US universities
• Eight prestigious US universities
• Group of long-established universities of eastern USA including Harvard and Yale
• The eight US universities that have a similar academic and social reputation to Oxford and Cambridge
• I leave guy floundering in a prestigious academic group
• Brown group
• Group of eight US universities
• Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth etc
• Harvard University is the oldest in this group