Employers are souring on Ivy League and Ivy-Plus institutions and have elected the next banner of institutions producing the highest-performing professionals, according to a new breakdown from Forbes.
The 20 “new Ivies” educate students with an average 1482 SAT and 33 ACT score and generate graduates who are a better cultural and professional fit at the highest echelons of corporate society, wrote billionaire philanthropist John Arnold in a recent X (formerly Twitter post).
Forbes examined over 1,700 colleges with at least 4,000 students and parsed its list down to those with highly selective admission rates (below 20% at private schools and 50% at public), applicant classes in which 50% of students provided standardized test scores and impressive clout from surveyed hiring managers. Analysts placed a strong emphasis on standardized test scores due to a recent report by a Harvard think tank that found they are strong predictors for college success at highly selective colleges. Ten public and 10 private nonprofits were eventually selected.
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The public Ivies
“This new recognition underscores UF’s commitment to being both elite and practical,” University of Florida President Ben Sasse said in a statement. “The University of Florida does incredible work, and we are becoming a no-doubt-about-it leader in higher education at a time when too many institutions are losing public trust. We reject the false choice between education that enriches and education that prepares—we want both.”
| Name | State | Acceptance rate | SAT | ACT |
| Binghamton University | N.Y. | 42% | 1430 | 31 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | Ga. | 17% | 1480 | 33 |
| University of Florida | Fla. | 23% | 1390 | 31 |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Ill. | 45% | 1440 | 32 |
| University of Maryland-College Park | Md. | 45% | 1460 | 33 |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | Mich. | 18% | 1470 | 33 |
| University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill | N.C. | 17% | 1460 | 32 |
| University of Texas-Austin | Texas | 31% | 1370 | 30 |
| University of Virginia | Va. | 19% | 1490 | 33 |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | Wisc. | 49% | 1430 | 29 |
The private Ivies
| Name | State | Acceptance rate | SAT | ACT |
| Boston College | Mass. | 17% | 1490 | 34 |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Penn. | 11% | 1540 | 35 |
| Emory University | Ga. | 11% | 1500 | 33 |
| Georgetown University | D.C. | 12% | 1500 | 34 |
| John Hopkins University | Md. | 7% | 1550 | 35 |
| Northwestern University | Ill. | 7% | 1530 | 34 |
| Rice University | Texas | 9% | 1540 | 35 |
| University of Notre Dame | Ind. | 13% | 1510 | 34 |
| University of Southern California | Calif. | 12% | 1520 | 34 |
| Vanderbilt University | Tenn. | 7% | 1530 | 35 |
Declining interest in the ‘ancient eight’
Survey results from employers illustrate the changing power dynamics of certain higher education institutions’ sway in the job market. Forbes reached out to almost 300 subscribers, three-fourths of which held direct hiring authority at the time of the survey.
- 33% are less likely to hire Ivy League graduates
- 20% of hiring managers said the Ivy League colleges were doing worse than five years ago in preparing job candidates
- 42% of hiring managers are more likely to hire public university grads than they were five years ago
Respondents cited Ivy League schools’ decision to veer away from accepting the most well-rounded individuals and instead look to admitting the most “well-rounded class” through race-conscious admission frameworks. Additionally, employers complained about students increasingly coming out the other end more “entitled” and institutions shying away from standardized testing.
“The bloom has been off the Ivies,” said Fred Prager, a senior managing director at Hilltop Securities and a trustee at California’s Claremont McKenna College whose investment firm specializes in higher education. “What has occurred more recently, with the pandemic and with all this nonsense going on, post October 7th, and all the rest has just been a bit of an accelerant.”
