- A Forbes survey indicates that 37% of top executives are less inclined to hire Ivy League graduates than five years ago.
- Forbes has compiled a "New Ivies" list of 20 public and private institutions gaining favor with employers.
- Forbes selected the "New Ivies" based on enrollment, admissions rates, standardized test scores, and employer surveys.
Ivy League schools, colleges and universities traditionally considered elite learning institutions, apparently have lost their luster with employers, according todata collected in a recent Forbes survey.
A survey of more than 380 top-level executives nationwide showed that 37% of the respondents said they were less likely to hire Ivy League graduates than they were five years ago — up from 33% of employers who said the same in last year’s survey,according to Forbes. Another 12% said they would never hire an Ivy League graduate.
With the country’s most elite private schools falling out of favor, other public universities and private institutions are enjoying newfound popularity with employers, students, and parents. Forbes calls them the "New Ivies."
Which North Carolina school made the list of 'New Ivies'?
For the second year,Forbes selected its New Ivies: a group of 10 public and 10 private schools that employers believe are attracting the best and brightest future professionals. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill made the list of top public schools.
How did Forbes pick the 'New Ivies'?
To identify which public and private schools are eclipsing the Ivy League, Forbes compiled a list of all degree-granting, four-year public and private, not-for-profit colleges in the United States using the most recent data available from the National Center for Education Statistics.
The eight Ivy League schools (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth and Cornell) and the four “Ivy plus” colleges (Stanford, MIT, Duke, and the University of Chicago) were removed from the list. The remaining colleges had to meet three criteria for inclusion. The private schools had to enroll at least 3,500 students, and the public colleges 4,000 students. Private colleges had to admit fewer than 20% of their applicants, and public colleges must admit fewer than 50%.
The private New Ivies, according to Forbes, admit students with a median SAT of 1530 and a median ACT of 34. The public schools on the list admit students with a median SAT of 1410 and a median ACT of 32. The schools that met all three criteria were put in front of employers in a survey of subscribers toForbes’"C-suite" newsletter, the top executives in a company.
2025 Forbes list of 10 public 'New Ivies'
- Georgia Institute of Technology: Atlanta
- Purdue University: Lafayette, IN
- University of Texas at Austin: Austin, TX
- United State Military Academy: West Point, NY
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Champaign, IL
- University of Michigan - Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor, MI
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Chapel Hill, NC
- University of Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh
- University of Virginia: Charlottesville, VA
- William & Mary: Williamsburg, VA
2025 Forbes list of 10 private 'New Ivies'
- Carnegie Mellon University: Pittsburgh
- Emory University: Atlanta
- Georgetown University: Washington, D.C.
- Johns Hopkins University: Baltimore
- Northwestern University: Evanston, IL
- Rice University: Houston
- Tufts University: Medford, MA
- University of Notre Dame: South Bend, IN
- Vanderbilt University: Nashville, TN
- Washington University in St. Louis- St. Louis
Miguel Legoas is a Deep South Connect Team Reporter for Gannett/USA Today. Find him on X and Instagram @miguelegoas and email atmlegoas@gannett.com.
