Best Colleges for Future Leaders 2026

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These lists are only interesting in terms of schools that punch above or below their rate compared to the USNews rankings.

Just a quick eyeballing...it seems Georgetown, Indiana, Howard (44 on full list), University of Hawaii (46), University of Iowa (51) punch considerably above their weight as example vs. the USNews rankings, while schools like Vandy (39), WashU (41), Caltech (49), Ga Tech (75), Amherst (85) and then a school like Williams which doesn't even make the top 100, punch below their weight.

Does Williams even have a graduate school?

They offer a couple grad programs

Wait, did they count both grad and undergrad in the methodology? Would be much more helpful to have info separated. That’s like choosing an undergraduate program bc the grad school is highly ranked: not helpful.

[Anonymous]

yes, you can clearly see they're using grad programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:in reading the methodology, it is unclear that they accounted for university size. They made some adjustment for size, but I couldn’t tell if that was about the organization or about the school.

Not enough clearly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yet another ranking. Pretty solid Top 25, though. Public schools fared quite well.

1 Harvard University
2 Stanford University
3 Yale University
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 Columbia University
6 University of Pennsylvania
7 University of California, Berkeley
8 New York University
9 Georgetown University
10 Princeton University
11 University of Michigan
12 Northwestern University
13 Cornell University
14 University of Chicago
15 Duke University
16 Dartmouth College
17 University of Virginia
18 Brown University
19 University of Southern California (USC)
20 University of California, Los Angeles
21 University of Texas at Austin
22 University of Wisconsin-Madison
23 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
24 Indiana University
25 Johns Hopkins University

https://time.com/7333710/best-colleges-future-leaders-2026/

Seems this is only ranking mid-size and large unis. Not smaller liberal arts colleges. Feels incomplete. Many governors, mayors, former CEOs attended SLACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another ranking. Pretty solid Top 25, though. Public schools fared quite well.

1 Harvard University
2 Stanford University
3 Yale University
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 Columbia University
6 University of Pennsylvania
7 University of California, Berkeley
8 New York University
9 Georgetown University
10 Princeton University
11 University of Michigan
12 Northwestern University
13 Cornell University
14 University of Chicago
15 Duke University
16 Dartmouth College
17 University of Virginia
18 Brown University
19 University of Southern California (USC)
20 University of California, Los Angeles
21 University of Texas at Austin
22 University of Wisconsin-Madison
23 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
24 Indiana University
25 Johns Hopkins University

https://time.com/7333710/best-colleges-future-leaders-2026/

Seems this is only ranking mid-size and large unis. Not smaller liberal arts colleges. Feels incomplete. Many governors, mayors, former CEOs attended SLACs.

They rank 125 in total...there are some SLACS but not many...Middlebury, Smith, Amherst, Oberlin and Bucknell I recall seeing.

You have to click on the link.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another ranking. Pretty solid Top 25, though. Public schools fared quite well.

1 Harvard University
2 Stanford University
3 Yale University
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 Columbia University
6 University of Pennsylvania
7 University of California, Berkeley
8 New York University
9 Georgetown University
10 Princeton University
11 University of Michigan
12 Northwestern University
13 Cornell University
14 University of Chicago
15 Duke University
16 Dartmouth College
17 University of Virginia
18 Brown University
19 University of Southern California (USC)
20 University of California, Los Angeles
21 University of Texas at Austin
22 University of Wisconsin-Madison
23 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
24 Indiana University
25 Johns Hopkins University

https://time.com/7333710/best-colleges-future-leaders-2026/

Seems this is only ranking mid-size and large unis. Not smaller liberal arts colleges. Feels incomplete. Many governors, mayors, former CEOs attended SLACs.

They didn’t calculate on a per capita basis, and also included graduate programs. Both would underweight slacs and overweight flagships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another ranking. Pretty solid Top 25, though. Public schools fared quite well.

1 Harvard University
2 Stanford University
3 Yale University
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 Columbia University
6 University of Pennsylvania
7 University of California, Berkeley
8 New York University
9 Georgetown University
10 Princeton University
11 University of Michigan
12 Northwestern University
13 Cornell University
14 University of Chicago
15 Duke University
16 Dartmouth College
17 University of Virginia
18 Brown University
19 University of Southern California (USC)
20 University of California, Los Angeles
21 University of Texas at Austin
22 University of Wisconsin-Madison
23 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
24 Indiana University
25 Johns Hopkins University

https://time.com/7333710/best-colleges-future-leaders-2026/

Seems this is only ranking mid-size and large unis. Not smaller liberal arts colleges. Feels incomplete. Many governors, mayors, former CEOs attended SLACs.

They rank 125 in total...there are some SLACS but not many...Middlebury, Smith, Amherst, Oberlin and Bucknell I recall seeing.

You have to click on the link.

Ah thanks. I'm surprised to see Oberlin on there representing LACs? I can't think of a recent notable mayor, governor or ceo from there? Versus Bowdoin that graduated soon-to-be mayor of NYC (Mamdani) and SF (Lee). Or Governors (Bullock) and CEOs from CMC, former presidents and CEOs from Williams. Or Wellesley (H Clinton and M Albright). Amherst makes sense.

[Anonymous]

This looks like the US News Reputation rankings.

Maybe reputation is shaped by a school's propensity to produce leaders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another ranking. Pretty solid Top 25, though. Public schools fared quite well.

1 Harvard University
2 Stanford University
3 Yale University
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 Columbia University
6 University of Pennsylvania
7 University of California, Berkeley
8 New York University
9 Georgetown University
10 Princeton University
11 University of Michigan
12 Northwestern University
13 Cornell University
14 University of Chicago
15 Duke University
16 Dartmouth College
17 University of Virginia
18 Brown University
19 University of Southern California (USC)
20 University of California, Los Angeles
21 University of Texas at Austin
22 University of Wisconsin-Madison
23 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
24 Indiana University
25 Johns Hopkins University

https://time.com/7333710/best-colleges-future-leaders-2026/

Seems this is only ranking mid-size and large unis. Not smaller liberal arts colleges. Feels incomplete. Many governors, mayors, former CEOs attended SLACs.

They didn’t calculate on a per capita basis, and also included graduate programs. Both would underweight slacs and overweight flagships.

If this is true then UVA is far and away the top public as they have half the students of Michigan or Berkeley. And Dartmouth would jump way up the list. They're tiny.

[Anonymous]

LeBron James skipped college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LeBron James skipped college

Only about 2% ever make it in the big leagues. You can put that basketball down

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elizabeth Warren attended Univ of Houston. And Rutgers Law. So....?

Elizabeth Warren is that woman who lived at the end of the cul-de-sac when you were growing up, drove a Subaru, and called the cops or your parents if you had a small party when they were out of town.

And got to Harvard claiming Native American ancestry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another ranking. Pretty solid Top 25, though. Public schools fared quite well.

1 Harvard University
2 Stanford University
3 Yale University
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 Columbia University
6 University of Pennsylvania
7 University of California, Berkeley
8 New York University
9 Georgetown University
10 Princeton University
11 University of Michigan
12 Northwestern University
13 Cornell University
14 University of Chicago
15 Duke University
16 Dartmouth College
17 University of Virginia
18 Brown University
19 University of Southern California (USC)
20 University of California, Los Angeles
21 University of Texas at Austin
22 University of Wisconsin-Madison
23 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
24 Indiana University
25 Johns Hopkins University

https://time.com/7333710/best-colleges-future-leaders-2026/

Seems this is only ranking mid-size and large unis. Not smaller liberal arts colleges. Feels incomplete. Many governors, mayors, former CEOs attended SLACs.

They didn’t calculate on a per capita basis, and also included graduate programs. Both would underweight slacs and overweight flagships.

If this is true then UVA is far and away the top public as they have half the students of Michigan or Berkeley. And Dartmouth would jump way up the list. They're tiny.

+1. Also in the report UVA is rated no 3 as top public

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This looks like the US News Reputation rankings.

Maybe reputation is shaped by a school's propensity to produce leaders.

It also looks like the number-of-top-research-faculty rankings, at least the top 8-10 are almost identical. Hmmm top leaders coming from places that have leaders in academic research, no surprise there. These schools have top faculty as well as top endowments per student. It would be more surprising if they did not produce top people from among the students. Of course they do! Why do you think these schools are so popular among the brightest most driven students (and parents)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These lists are only interesting in terms of schools that punch above or below their rate compared to the USNews rankings.

Just a quick eyeballing...it seems Georgetown, Indiana, Howard (44 on full list), University of Hawaii (46), University of Iowa (51) punch considerably above their weight as example vs. the USNews rankings, while schools like Vandy (39), WashU (41), Caltech (49), Ga Tech (75), Amherst (85) and then a school like Williams which doesn't even make the top 100, punch below their weight.

Does Williams even have a graduate school?

No...I thought this list was only undergrad...if it also includes grad school grads, then it makes sense why the LACs don't rank well. I guess still doesn't explain why Middlebury, Smith and Amherst are on the list and Williams doesn't make it at all.

It is all programs. If ranked separately, Harvard Law and Harvard Business would be near the top on their own.