Member schools are highly selective universities located in Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

All UAA member schools are private, and ranked in the top 50 of national research universities by U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges Rankings.

Historically, the division was colloquially called the "egghead eight", or "nerdy nine" when Johns Hopkins was a member.

This stems both from the academic strength of the member schools, and the fact that the conference prioritizes academic achievement over athletic prowess.

[1][2] The UAA was the only NCAA conference to have all of its member institutions affiliated with the Association of American Universities, a collection of 65 Ph.D.-granting research institutions, with 63 in the United States and two in Canada, from 2011, when Nebraska joined the previously all-AAU Big Ten, until 2019 when Dartmouth became the last Ivy League institution to join the AAU.