TL;DR: The Forbes New Ivies is an annual list, first published in 2024 and now in its third edition, naming twenty universities, ten public and ten private, whose graduates employers rate highly. Forbes builds it from a survey of more than 100 C-suite and hiring executives plus federal education data. The roster changes yearly, so the current Forbes edition is the only reliable source for the full, up-to-date list (Forbes, 2026).
What is the Forbes New Ivies list?
The Forbes New Ivies is an annual feature, first published in 2024, that names twenty universities, ten public and ten private, whose graduates employers regard most highly. Forbes positions it as a corrective to prestige-first thinking: a data-informed argument that a set of schools beyond the eight-member Ivy League now produces talent that the people doing the hiring value just as much. It has been updated each year since its debut, and the current edition is the third.
For families, the most important framing is what the list is and is not. It is a magazine’s annually revised ranking, grounded in an employer survey. It is not an official designation, not a fixed group, and not affiliated with the actual Ivy League. For the full conceptual background, see our explainer on what the New Ivies are; this piece focuses specifically on the Forbes list itself, how it is built, and how to read it.
How Forbes builds the list
The methodology centers on perception of outcomes. For the 2026 edition, Forbes surveyed more than 100 C-suite and hiring executives about which institutions produce the most capable and in-demand employees, and combined those responses with admissions and academic data from the National Center for Education Statistics. The result is a ranking driven by what employers think of a school’s graduates rather than by selectivity, endowment, or historical reputation. That focus is the defining feature of the New Ivies and the reason its roster looks different from a traditional prestige list, leaning toward universities with strong professional and technical outcomes.
Because perception shifts, the list is inherently dynamic. Forbes refreshes it annually, and schools move on and off as survey results change from year to year. This is a feature, not a flaw, of an employer-driven approach, but it has a clear implication for families: any single edition is a current-year snapshot, and the roster should not be treated as a permanent ranking the way the fixed Ivy League membership is.
What the list includes, and where to find the current version
Each annual edition names twenty schools, presented in two groups of ten, public and private. The schools share a profile of strong academics, established employer recruiting relationships, and career outcomes that rival the Ivy League, frequently paired with admissions odds that, while competitive, are more attainable than the Ivies’ low single digits. The private group in the 2026 edition, published April 8, 2026, is Carnegie Mellon, Emory, Georgetown, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Rice, Tufts, Vanderbilt, Washington University in St. Louis, and Case Western, while the public group is the US Air Force Academy, the University of Florida, Georgia Tech, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Purdue, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia, William and Mary, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Because the New Ivies is Forbes’s proprietary and annually updated ranking, the list above reflects the 2026 edition, and families should confirm the latest edition at Forbes each spring, since schools can move on and off from year to year.
How to read the Forbes New Ivies list well
The list is most valuable used as a prompt rather than a verdict. A school’s inclusion signals genuine employer regard for its graduates, which is real and useful information, but it does not establish that the school is superior to an Ivy or to any school left off in a given year. The smartest use is to let the list surface strong-outcome schools a family might have overlooked, then to research each one’s actual acceptance rate, cost, and field-specific career data before drawing conclusions.
It also helps to keep Forbes’s various education lists distinct. The New Ivies is separate from Forbes’s broad America’s Top Colleges ranking and from its Top Public Colleges list, each of which uses a different methodology. Conflating them leads to confusion about what a given placement actually means. Treated precisely, as one employer-focused, annually updated signal among several, the Forbes New Ivies list is a genuinely useful input into a college search, neither dismissed as marketing nor mistaken for an official tier.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Forbes New Ivies List
Forbes published its first New Ivies list in 2024 and has updated it annually since, making the current edition its third. Each year’s list names twenty universities, ten public and ten private. Because it is refreshed annually, the roster is best understood as a yearly snapshot of employer sentiment rather than a permanent ranking.
Forbes surveys employers, more than 100 C-suite and hiring executives for the 2026 edition, about which universities produce the most capable, work-ready employees, and combines that perception data with admissions and academic measures from federal education data. The emphasis on employer perception, rather than selectivity or endowment, is what distinguishes the New Ivies methodology from traditional prestige rankings.
Twenty in total each year, split evenly into ten public universities and ten private universities. Forbes presents the public and private groups separately, and the specific schools in each group can change from one annual edition to the next as survey results shift.
The complete and current list is published by Forbes directly, since it is their proprietary, annually revised ranking. Because schools move on and off the list each year, consulting the latest Forbes edition is the only reliable way to see the full and up-to-date roster of twenty.
Yes. Forbes updates it annually, and the roster shifts as employer survey results change. A school included one year may not appear the next. This annual volatility is why families should treat any single edition as current-year information rather than a fixed designation.
No. Forbes publishes several education lists, including its broad America’s Top Colleges ranking and a separate Top Public Colleges list. The New Ivies is a distinct, employer-focused feature naming twenty schools. They use different methodologies and should not be conflated, even though some schools appear on more than one.
Forbes framed the New Ivies around a shift in how employers value talent, arguing that a set of universities beyond the Ivy League now produces graduates employers rate just as highly. The list is meant to direct attention to strong career outcomes at schools that prestige-first rankings can overlook.
It is a credible, methodology-based ranking, but like any ranking it reflects specific choices about what to measure, in this case employer perception. It is most useful as a prompt for deeper research into a school’s actual outcomes, and least useful if treated as a definitive verdict. Read it as informed signal, not gospel.
Sources: Forbes, The New Ivies (April 8, 2026), NCES College Navigator, IPEDS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, College Board BigFuture.
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