2 VA Colleges Among The ‘New Ivies’ Employers Prefer: Forbes

VIRGINIA — William & Mary and the University of Virginia-Charlottesville are two of the 20 universities Forbes calls the “New Ivies” as the nation’s oldest and most venerable schools face political assault and criticism by employers.

Nearby Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., also made the list.

The list of 10 public and 10 private colleges comes as President Donald Trump unwinds decades-old diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs intended to help public institutions and workplaces mirror society in general.

Colleges across the country are facing steep federal funding cuts, eliminated programs and federal investigations, and even “fiscally fit” institutions are looking at four years of uncertainty, Forbes said.

The uncertainty is greatest at the “original eight” Ivy League schools.

The administration has paused $400 in funding at Columbia University over pro-Palestinian protests, and $175 million at the University of Pennsylvania, which allowed transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports before the NCAA changed its policy in 2025. And on Monday, the Trump administration said a federal antisemitism task force would review federal funding to Harvard University and its affiliates, including $255.6 million in contracts and $8.7 billion in multiyear grant commitments.

Employers were already growing disillusioned with Ivy League schools, according to a Forbes survey of 380 C-suite executives, which showed 37 percent were less likely than they were five years ago to hire an Ivy League graduate. Another 12 percent said they would never hire an Ivy League grad, citing their attitudes and lack of humility.

“I believe Ivy League candidates are overvalued, and they frequently have a higher than real opinion of themselves,” one respondent said. Entry-level job candidates should be “eager to learn, have no ego or be ‘stuck-up’ because of the school they attended,” said another.

The New Ivies schools are outpacing the nation’s most elite schools in the eyes of employers.

Founded in 1693, William & Mary enrolls about 7,000 undergraduates at its campus in historic Williamsburg.

Chris Teare, a long-time college counselor, certified educational planner and IECA member, considers William & Mary “a great option for more scholarly students who relish academic rigor,” according to Forbes.

By comparison, the University of Virginia-Charlottesville campus, which is also on Forbes’ list, is a “powerhouse pre-professionally and more fully into big-time D1 sports and campus rah-rah,” Teare said.

UVA enrolls 19,791 undergraduates and has a 17 percent acceptance rate, which is lower than William & Mary's 33 percent acceptance rate.

Founded by Thomas Jefferson, the university was created to foster discussion, collaboration and enlightenment.

This is the second year for the New Ivies list.

“These colleges are highly selective—applicants have a one in seven chance, or slimmer, to gain admission to one of the private New Ivies, and a 50% chance or less to enroll at one of the 10 mostly large public universities,” Forbes said on its website. “And, they accept the best—the private New Ivies admit students with a median SAT score of 1530—slightly higher than the nation’s largest Ivy, Cornell University, which has a median SAT score of 1520. The public universities, which educate a combined 396,000 students, admit students with a median SAT score of 1410.”
Other colleges on the list are:
Public Institutions

• Georgia Institute of Technology-Atlanta campus (Georgia)
• Purdue University-West Lafayette campus (Indiana)
• University of Texas at Austin (Texas)
• United States Military Academy (New York)
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Illinois)
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Michigan)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (North Carolina)
• University of Pittsburgh-main campus (Pennsylvania)

Private Institutions

• Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania)
• Emory University (Georgia)
• Georgetown University (District of Columbia)
• Johns Hopkins University (Maryland)
• Northwestern University (Illinois)
• Rice University (Texas)
• Tufts University (Massachusetts)
• University of Notre Dame (Indiana)
• Vanderbilt University (Tennessee)
• Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri)