They had three criteria for being included in the survey, one of which involved reported test scores:
To be considered for the New Ivies list, colleges had to meet three criteria. First, size: the private schools must enroll at least 3,500 students, and the public colleges 4,000 students. Second, selectivity: private colleges must admit fewer than 20% of their applicants, and public colleges must admit fewer than 50%. And third, high test scores. The private Forbes New Ivies admit students with a median SAT of 1530 and a median ACT of 34. The public schools admit students with a median SAT of 1410 and a median ACT of 32. The schools that met all three criteria were put in front of employers in a survey to subscribers to Forbes’ C-suite newsletters.
They said of the Cals:
One important caveat: the University of California system—widely considered one of the best state college systems in the country and home to UCLA and the University of California-Berkeley—does not report test scores, and was not considered for this ranking.
Whether that decision makes sense is subject to debate, but that was their reasoning.
Yes. However, when “college quality” is expressed in ranking, then any improvement by one college will be seen as a decrease in quality for one or more other colleges.
The same distinction can be seen with high school and college grading. Are grades mainly to indicate how well the student learned the material (D = barely passing, C = passing, B = better, A = outstanding), or a means of ranking students for future comparison when seeking admission to the next level of schooling or employment after graduation?
Agree 100%. It is fashionable now to publicly say that they are deemphasizing Ivies but I fully agree that what they say vs what they do is likely not true.
It is any large employers interest to look beyond the Ivies because the depth of talent goes far beyond those schools. But they would be fools to ignore one of the most vetted (in terms of potential) pools of talent available. And beyond that the Ivy grads already in those companies wouldn’t be receptive of that message.