Ivy League? Forbes list puts UF among top 10 public 'New Ivies'

Forbes has recognized the University of Florida as one of 10 public “New Ivies,” the university announced Tuesday.

A news release said the recognition is for “producing exceptional and highly employable graduates.” UF is the only Florida institution on the list.

“This new recognition underscores UF’s commitment to being both elite and practical,” said UF President Ben Sasse in a news release. “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. We want Gators to engage life’s most enduring questions and solving today’s most pressing challenges.”

The list, developed by Forbes, highlights 10 public and 10 private “New Ivies” that stand out in the higher education landscape and are producing “smart, driven graduates,” a news release said.

Recently on campus: Nine protesters arrested at pro-Palestinian demonstration on UF campus

The news release reported that, according to Forbes, “employers are souring on Ivy League grads” and seeking out new talent from universities outside of the “Ancient Eight” institutions (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Dartmouth and Cornell).

Forbes reported that 42% of hiring managers are now more likely to hire public university graduates than they were five years ago. Additionally, 37% of individuals with hiring authority said that state universities are doing better in terms of preparing job candidates than they were five years ago.

“None of this suggests that the Ivies have completely lost their luster,” the article by Forbes reads. “It just means that, through miscalculation and mismanagement, they’ve given up the centuries-old free pass conveyed by employers — even from their own alumni.”

Additionally, the report by Forbes says that while public schools are producing “hungry graduates”, Ivy League schools are more prone to produce “entitled ones.”

“Employers know what they are looking for and UF graduates have it,” UF Provost Scott Angle said in a news release. “We are proud to be an ‘Ivy,’ as we continue to bring the most high-performing, outstanding students to our campus year after year.”

A UF news release explained Forbes’ methodology behind the lists:

Firstly, the traditional Ivies were disqualified and Forbes examined 1,743 colleges with at least 4,000 students. Using 2022 admissions data, Forbes screened for schools with high standardized test scores (the listed New Ivies have average scores of 1482 on the SAT and 33 on the ACT) and used “a selectivity yardstick” (looking at institutions with a less-than-20% admission rate for private schools and a less-than-50% admission rate for public schools). Forbes then took the 32 remaining schools and surveyed its hiring manager respondents about each one.

Other schools that made the list of Top 10 “Public Ivies” include:

• Binghamton University, New York

• Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia

• University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign, Illinois

• University of Maryland - College Park, Maryland

• University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Michigan

• University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, North Carolina

• University of Texas - Austin, Texas

• University of Virginia, Virginia

• University of Wisconsin - Madison, Wisconsin

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Forbes names University of Florida among top public “New Ivy” schools