Forbes designates University of Texas as a ‘new’ Ivy school for third year in a row

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Forbes on Friday released its annual list of ‘New Ivies,’ and the University of Texas at Austin made it. This is not UT’s first time on the list; it was included in 2024 and 2025.

It’s important to note the Forbes designation does not make UT an Ivy League School. Schools currently designated as Ivy League are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.

Forbes argued its list was created because a growing number of employers have said they are less likely to hire an Ivy League grad today compared to five years ago. The list is curated by surveying over 100 C-Suite and hiring executives, as well as using data from the 2024 National Center for Education Statistics to gauge if a school fulfilled the criteria to be on the list.

One respondent said instead of prestige, employers are looking for graduates who have “complex emotional intelligence, radical adaptability and visionary creativity to orchestrate AI tools rather than compete with them.”

Forbes said colleges had to meet three criteria to be considered, which included:

• Size: Private schools must enroll at least 3,000 students, and public colleges must have at least 4,000 students enrolled.
• Selectivity: All but one private college had an admission rate of less than 15%; public college admission rates were 50% or less.
• Testing Requirements: At least half the entrants must have submitted either the SAT or the ACT scores

Forbes argued testing requirements indicated academic rigor, as a result. Schools such as the University of California and California State schools were not considered.

When it came to UT meeting the requirements for the list, UT had an undergrad enrollment of 44,663 students with a 27% acceptance rate. When it came to test scores, it had a median SAT score of 1390 and a median ACT score of 31.

For a full list of the public and private schools included in the Forbes 2026 New Ivies list, click here.