Forbes names the University of Florida a “New Ivy” for its output of outstanding graduates

Press release from University of Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Florida has been recognized by Forbes as one of 10 public “New Ivies” for producing exceptional and highly employable graduates. UF is the only Florida institution on the list.

“The University of Florida is committed to excellence, and we are producing some of the most incredible graduates in the nation,” said Mori Hosseini, chair of the UF board of trustees. “We know that employers need the kind of skills our students are building here. Forbes’ recognition is a great honor, and the best is yet to come.” 

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

“This new recognition underscores UF’s commitment to being both elite and practical,” said UF president Ben Sasse. “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 solve today’s most pressing challenges.” 

Forbes developed its lists of 10 public and 10 private “New Ivies” that are shining in the higher education landscape and turning out “smart, driven graduates.”

“We are undoubtedly preparing our students at UF for a fast-evolving workforce and teaching them how to succeed in the industries of the future,” said UF Provost J. Scott Angle. “Things are changing in higher education, and UF is at the forefront of that evolution.”

The conclusion Forbes came to in its research was that “great state schools and ascendant private ones are turning out hungry graduates; the Ivies are more apt to turn out entitled ones. And in creating the latter, the Ivies have taken the value they’ve spent centuries creating — a degree that employers craved — and, in just a few years, done a lot to forfeit it.”

As for the methodology behind making the new lists, Forbes first disqualified the traditional Ivies and examined 1,743 colleges with at least 4,000 students. Using 2022 admissions data, Forbes then screened for schools with high standardized test scores (the New Ivies boast 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). From there, Forbes took the 32 remaining schools and surveyed its hiring manager respondents about each one.

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