The University of Florida campus is a long way from the legacy Ivy League campuses located in the Northeast United States. But Forbes magazine says Gator Country could easily fit in with those elite schools.
In a new analytical report by Forbes this month, the money management magazine listed 10 public "New Ivies" colleges and universities. That list includes public schools Forbes says could fit neatly into a classification of an Ivy League school, which includes institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, among others.
UF officials said they are grateful for the Forbes ranking. But they're not overly surprised at the honor recognizing the school's academic excellence in Gainesville.
"The University of Florida is committed to excellence, and we are producing some of the most incredible graduates in the nation," Mori Hosseini, chair of the UF Board of Trustees, said in a prepared statement. "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."
The Forbes report published in April said many employers are "souring on Ivy League grads" and are seeking new hires elsewhere from public universities that are graduating students just as capable of entering the workforce. A significant shift in the Forbes analysis focused on public colleges and universities.
UF is the only Sunshine State school on the list. All 10 of the public colleges on the list are located between the Midwest and the Eastern seaboard. The University of Texas at Austin is the furthest west.
Other colleges on the "New Ivies" list include Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, University of Maryland in College Park and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, among others.
According to the Forbes report, 42% of hiring managers surveyed say they're more likely now than five years ago to hire graduates from public colleges and universities. Another 37% say public universities are better at preparing students now than they were half a decade ago.
"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 solving today's most pressing challenges."
Forbes researched 1,743 colleges with enrollment of at least 4,000 students to establish its list. The magazine also factored SAT and ACT scores.
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