Carolina makes ‘new Ivies’ list for third straight year
The Forbes list recognizes employer-friendly universities who are embracing artificial intelligence and setting students up for success.
UNC-Chapel Hill has made the Forbes list of “new Ivies” for the third straight year. Carolina is the only North Carolina institution on the list, which recognizes 20 outstanding universities graduating students that employers love.
To compile the list, Forbes looked at admissions, enrollment and standardized test data from all degree-granting, four-year non-for-profit colleges in the U.S. The organization examined public universities with at least 4,000 students and an admissions rate of 50% or less.
Then more than 100 C-suite and hiring executives were asked to rate not only schools but also how artificial intelligence was changing their hiring of new graduates.
That narrowed the list to 10 public and 10 private universities.
Carolina joins Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, University of Virginia and University of Texas as publics on the list all three years. Other public institutions included Purdue University, College of William & Mary, University of Wisconsin, University of Florida and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Survey respondents placed an emphasis on preparing students for a workforce in the age of AI, which Carolina has been a leader in. The University sees AI not simply as a technology, but as a defining force of this era. Tar Heels are using it to reshape how knowledge is shared, how work is done and how value is delivered to society, all in pursuit of solving the world’s most complex and urgent challenges.
Carolina hosts the AI for Public Good Conference on April 13, bringing together leading researchers, industry innovators and more to discuss how AI can be developed and used in ways that serve the public good.
“Being successful [in the age of AI] has more to do with the liberal arts than with traditional high-tech disciplines,” said Magnus Egerstedt, executive vice chancellor and provost, in the Forbes announcement. “So we’re really leaning in hard on this idea of you need good foundations in something, and then we focus on creativity, curiosity, problem solving.”
UNC-Chapel Hill ranked as a Top 5 public for the 24th straight year in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report Best College rankings and was named the best value among public universities for the 21st time.
