Hiring managers have long used the reputation of a new college graduate’s alma mater as an indicator of an applicant’s ability and expected job performance. Elite national consulting, banking and investment firms focused their recruiting on the Ivy League and a handful of the other most selective schools. Big companies looked more widely, but still often favored a limited number of highly ranked universities. Regional firms would tap graduates of schools with the best reputations in their geographic area.
0:00 Introduction
0:23 What's Going On With The Ivy League?
2:23 Where Are Recruiters Looking Now?
5:51 How Did Forbes Report This Story?
7:03 What Should Rising College Students Take From This Reporting?
8:30 Other Take Aways
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2024/04/29/the-new-ivies-as-employers-sour-on-the-super-elite-these-20-colleges-shine/?sh=771084b8438f
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0:00 Introduction
0:23 What's Going On With The Ivy League?
2:23 Where Are Recruiters Looking Now?
5:51 How Did Forbes Report This Story?
7:03 What Should Rising College Students Take From This Reporting?
8:30 Other Take Aways
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2024/04/29/the-new-ivies-as-employers-sour-on-the-super-elite-these-20-colleges-shine/?sh=771084b8438f
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
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Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hi everyone, I'm Maggie McGrath, Senior Editor at Forbes, and joining me now is my colleague,
00:08 Emma Whitford, Staff Writer at Forbes, who has some provocative new reporting out about
00:12 where recruiters are hiring from when it comes to our nation's universities.
00:18 Emma, thank you so much for joining us.
00:21 Thanks so much for having me.
00:24 Let's break this down.
00:25 You have basically written, and I have a quote here, "The Ivy League is losing its standing
00:29 as America's producers of great talent."
00:33 What is going on here?
00:34 I think we all know that on-campus recruiters flock to the nation's top universities to
00:39 find talent for entry-level jobs.
00:42 Is that not happening in 2024?
00:46 We've been hearing some frustration for a while from students, donors, alumni, employers,
00:54 just that the Ivy League isn't quite what it used to be.
00:58 And they cite a myriad of reasons, from reports of great inflation at some of the campuses,
01:03 to how the officials have handled recent campus events, student protests, and also just frustration
01:10 with the admissions policies, that it's become sort of a black box, if you will, and no one's
01:16 quite sure how they're admitting students into their classes.
01:21 So I will note that recruiters are definitely still hiring from the Ivy League, but it has
01:25 sort of lost its credibility of being sort of the golden ticket.
01:30 Employers are no longer looking at it like it's a sure thing that graduates from the
01:34 Ivy League are definitely qualified for those positions, and they're just giving them more
01:39 of a closer look.
01:42 Is this part of a broader re-examination of higher education in the U.S.?
01:46 I mean, there was a Gallup poll last summer kind of indicating Americans as a whole are
01:51 questioning the value and efficacy of our nation's higher education institutions.
01:59 There's definitely some concern, I would say, amongst the general public about higher education.
02:06 It's due to so many different things, rising costs being one of them.
02:11 People are questioning the value of a college degree generally.
02:14 I'm not sure if I can say how much of that is related to sort of the Ivy League's changing
02:20 reputation, but I'm sure it does play a part.
02:24 Now one of the stories you've published this week looks at the 20 new Ivies.
02:29 Explain this, because I know there's 10 in 10.
02:32 So can you break it down?
02:33 What are these 20 schools and how did you determine them?
02:36 Yeah, so when we were hearing that employers are sort of looking beyond the Ivies, we wanted
02:43 to figure out exactly which schools they're most excited about these days.
02:48 And to determine that, we looked at a few things.
02:51 One was test scores.
02:52 We wanted to know where the smartest kids are applying, where they're getting into.
02:57 So we looked at schools that both had a high percentage of students that were submitting
03:02 test scores.
03:03 So even if they're not required for admission, they're still sending them in.
03:08 And then we looked at schools where the media test scores were pretty high.
03:11 So I believe at our public universities, we were looking for SATs above like a 1390 and
03:18 ACTs above a 30.
03:20 And then the private schools, the threshold was a little higher.
03:23 We were looking for SATs above a 1400 and ACTs above a 31.
03:29 And so we landed on 10 different public schools and 10 private schools that both met these
03:35 testing requirements.
03:37 They had at least 4,000 undergrads.
03:40 We wanted to look at schools that were relatively similar in size.
03:44 There are a lot of great small liberal arts colleges, but they're sort of a different
03:48 beast.
03:49 So we didn't want to directly compare them to some of the other schools on our list.
03:52 So let's run through briefly because I looked at the list, but I don't have it memorized.
03:57 On the private school list, what are the 10 new Ivies or what are a few of the 10 that
04:01 stand out to you?
04:03 Yeah, so the private schools that we identified were Johns Hopkins was a very clear new Ivy.
04:12 It's already well known as a great private school, but it's definitely one that employers
04:17 are going to more and more often.
04:19 We also identified Rice University, Northwestern University, Vanderbilt, Emory, Boston College.
04:26 And then on the public schools, any surprises in what made your top 10?
04:32 I think the biggest surprise for us was probably Binghamton University in New York.
04:40 It's definitely a school that people in New York already know is great, but it doesn't
04:44 quite have the national reach that some of the other schools on our list, like say University
04:49 of Michigan or University of Virginia have.
04:52 So it was really exciting to see that they landed on there.
04:56 What have these schools been telling you?
04:58 Are they saying, yes, this makes sense that we landed at the top because we've been investing
05:02 in on-campus recruiting?
05:04 Or have they been adding certain classes that add to a level of pre-professionalism on campus
05:10 that is in turn attractive to recruiters?
05:14 Yeah, they've been really excited to be recognized for the work that they've been doing.
05:20 I think they all recognize that they're well known within their geographic areas, especially,
05:25 but they're starting to build more of a national brand name recognition.
05:29 And they've made big strides in connecting with recruiters and employers all over the
05:34 country.
05:35 Georgia Institute of Technology, for example, is a great tech school in the South, and they've
05:42 really been working on building those career paths and are starting to have sort of the
05:45 same sway that a school like Stanford or MIT might have.
05:51 What tipped you off to these trends in the first place?
05:54 Was it just several weeks, months, and possibly even years of hearing from your sources that
06:00 these schools were beefing up their recruiting abilities and seeing a higher level of interest
06:06 from hiring managers?
06:09 Yeah, yeah.
06:11 The interesting thing that we were hearing from employers and hiring managers recently
06:18 was that during the pandemic, when everyone was forced to bring their recruiting online,
06:23 they really had to take a wider look at the places they were recruiting talent from.
06:29 So in the past, they may have invested their resources in going to campuses nearby their
06:34 headquarters, tabling there, talking to students there.
06:38 But now that they can post a job ad or post on a site like Handshake and access students
06:43 from all over the country, they're sort of realizing, oh, there's this great talent that
06:50 is a good fit for our company over in Nevada or in California or in New York, somewhere
06:55 far away from where they may have looked in the past.
06:57 So it's sort of allowed them to broaden their lens and find schools that they want to forge
07:02 a path with.
07:04 So May 1st is National Decision Day, which is just around the corner, less than 24 hours
07:10 from this moment.
07:11 So most kids have probably made their choice in school.
07:16 What do you want our nation's 18 year olds to take away from your reporting this week?
07:23 A lot of students, when they're deciding where to go to school, having an institution where
07:29 they can get a degree that they know is going to set them on a path for a great career is
07:35 really important.
07:36 I mean, a lot of students choose to go to college in general because they want a great
07:39 job.
07:40 So knowing which schools employers are really confident in and really optimistic about,
07:45 I think is really important for students when they're deciding between their final schools.
07:51 And what's the message for kids, students who have already chosen their university,
07:55 might be sophomores or juniors or seniors, at these schools that you have identified
08:00 are now less favored by recruiters?
08:02 Are they doomed?
08:04 They're definitely not doomed.
08:07 And I would say that the Ivy League is still very much looked at by recruiters.
08:12 There's still lots of companies that like Ivy League graduates.
08:16 I would not say that employers are abandoning them altogether.
08:19 They might just be taking a closer look.
08:21 So if you're a student at an Ivy League university that is working hard and learning a lot, that's
08:27 great and you're probably going to do fine.
08:31 Are there any other big takeaways or statistics that you have uncovered this week in the stories
08:36 that you've published that our audience should be aware of and that you think really helped
08:40 tell this story?
08:44 I think one of the most interesting things that we found was in surveying the employers
08:51 with our Future of Work newsletter, we did find that hiring managers these days are less
08:56 likely than they were five years ago to hire from the Ivy League.
09:00 But at the same time, they're more likely to hire from public colleges and state universities.
09:06 So public schools are just sort of rising in employers' eyes as producing top talent.
09:12 So if you had to make one prediction for the application cycle for 2024 into 2025, do you
09:19 think these public universities and some of the new Ivies on your list will see more people
09:24 applying for entrance?
09:27 I hope so.
09:28 We were looking at application trends over the last five years or so, and almost all
09:33 the schools on our list have seen their applications grow already.
09:36 I'll add that we aren't the first to say that these are amazing schools.
09:41 People have known these are amazing schools for a while.
09:43 They're just starting to get even more recognition.
09:45 So I would imagine that trend will continue.
09:48 Excellent.
09:49 Emma, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to speak with us.
09:51 We really appreciate it.
09:53 Thanks, Maggie.
09:54 Thank you.
09:55 Thank you.
09:55 [END]