Some colleges are considered better than others.

It might not be fair. It might not even be accurate. But perception can shape reality.

For generations, the Ivy League has been seen as the gold standard of U.S. colleges and universities.

The Ivy League is a group of eight northeastern schools — Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale — known for their high admissions bars, even higher tuition and lofty academic pedigrees.

This legacy is lengthy. Harvard was America’s first university. Columbia is the “King’s College” mentioned in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton.” Sixteen presidents — about 35% — went to Ivy League schools.

There has been recognition for some time that focus on the Ivies left people out. Specifically, it left out women for a long time, leading to the list of Seven Sisters —a roster of women’s colleges that filled that same niche: Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar and Wellesley.

There is likewise a list of Black Ivy League schools. There are clusters of others billed as the Southern Ivies, the Little Ivies, the Public Ivies, the Western Ivies, the Hidden Ivies.

This past week, Forbes magazine put out a list of 20 schools it called “The New Ivies.” These are the schools employers are gravitating toward, not in addition to the Ivy League, but often instead.

The list includes the University of Pittsburgh for public colleges and Carnegie Mellon University for private schools.

It is an honor for both institutions. Pitt has an excellent reputation for various medical and science fields. Carnegie Mellon is at the forefront of both groundbreaking technology and the very best of the arts.

It speaks to Pittsburgh’s rebirth as a city focused on education and medicine. Could anyone in the 1950s have envisioned a day that the Steel City was known more for the doctors and computer programmers it produced than its metalwork?

But the honor comes with a responsibility. It demands support. That means finding ways to make sure Pennsylvania students who choose college can afford to go to Pittsburgh’s best schools. It also means vocally supporting universities that must be able to continue not only to educate but also to advance research.

It is in the best interest of Pittsburgh and the region to keep all of our universities as vibrant, engaged, thoughtful centers of learning and innovation.