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The Best Colleges For Future Leaders

How TIME and Statista Determined the Best Colleges and Companies for Future Leaders

A degree from an elite university doesn't guarantee success. But in U.S. Society, success is a good indicator you went to an elite university. 

TIME and Statista analyzed the resumés of 2,000 top leaders in the U.S.—politicians, CEOs, union leaders, Nobel winners, and more across sectors—to assemble a list of the universities and colleges where they received their degrees. The list, which is weighted for school size, is led by so-called Ivy Plus schools, with Harvard University dominating the field. Many top schools training future leaders also have notable business and law programs, or are large research universities.

What distinguishes these schools, experts say, is not necessarily that they teach students to be better leaders, but that alums receive more opportunities, and many companies have a vested interest in hiring them. Whatever a student may have learned at school, an elite diploma signals at least two things to prospective employers: survival of a difficult admissions process, and a high likelihood of intelligence. Elite students aren't the only bright young people in the world, but elite degrees offer a shortcut for finding talent, and make people stand out when they're being evaluated by people who don't know them, like in a job interview, says David Deming, a professor of political economy at Harvard Kennedy School.

"I'm sure [hiring managers] could find more than a couple of good students at Big State Universities. But they can also find 30 of them at Harvard," he says. "I think that people who went to Harvard or schools like it are much more likely to be given a chance."

Institutions that train many eventual leaders, including elite law firms and academia, are especially likely to winnow applicants based on their resumes. Lauren Rivera, a professor of management and organizations at Northwestern Kellogg, notes that top consulting firms often choose who they interview based on alma mater, and even have quotas for individual schools. Universities themselves are far more likely to hire staff who attended elite schools. According to one 2022 study published in Nature, 80% of domestically trained U.S. Faculty were trained in just 20% of universities, especially UC Berkeley, Harvard, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Stanford, all of which rank in the top 30 of TIME's list.

Experts say the rapid rise of elite students in U.S. Society isn't even solely a matter of their choices. Students at elite schools are aggressively recruited on campus early in their college careers by companies that host flashy events to "hoover up all the students interested in working for them," says Amy Binder, professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, a process that she calls a "career funnel." This leads many elite students to choose careers right out of college in finance, tech, or consulting—top careers for gaining societal leadership positions. A poll by the Harvard Crimson found that over half of the students entering the workforce from the class of 2023 planned to work in those fields after graduation.

Rivera calls these firms a "golden doorstep." "These firms market themselves as incubators for high-achieving people," she says. Students arrive on campus with diverse dreams, but the career funnel convinces high achievers that these jobs are the next step for people like them, says Ryan Cieslikowski, a recent Stanford University graduate and an organizer for Class Action, a grassroots organization working to redirect students from career funnels to social impact work. "Once you get into these schools, it's the next status competition," says Cieslikowski.

As the list makes clear, however, the Ivy League isn't the only route to power. While those schools dominate fields like law, the media, and academia, production fields like engineering, agriculture, and aerospace recruit from schools that are more likely to offer technical skills like engineering, says Steven Brint, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside. The University of Michigan, for instance, is a well-known career pathway to leadership in Detroit's auto industry, while the University of Texas and Texas A&M—which pop up at 14 and 23 in the ranking—are well known for producing oil and gas leaders. Many of these schools are also geographically closer to the places these companies operate.

"I think that those are probably not the industries that the kids going to elite private institutions are thinking about," says Brint. "I just don't think they're in the same cultural frame."

If leaders' resumés are any indicator, the following colleges and universities may be the clearest launching point to leadership. —Tara Law

Correction, Nov. 29The original version of this article misstated Amy Binder's professional affiliation. She is now at Johns Hopkins University, not the University of California San Diego.

Best Public Colleges In Missouri

If you're going to go to college—or send your child to college—you want to choose the best one. But what exactly that means is different for each person.

There are a lot of factors, including how big the college is both overall and in terms of class sizes. It also matters whether a college has good programs for the fields you're more interested in studying, the types of sports or other student activities that interest you, decent access to student housing either on or off campus, and a high graduation rate. There's also life after college to consider: Does a college have a good support system for people seeking employment, a strong alumni network, or a high rate of job placements at or just after graduation?

Colleges themselves suggest the most important factors for students are, or should be, emotional ones, like "whether you feel comfortable on campus," as the University of South Florida puts it, or "how the school made you feel," as Concordia College puts it.

But Money.Com is just one of the independent sources that suggests cost is in fact the most important factor when choosing a college. U.S. News & World Report cautions that the baseline price can be misleading. In-state students at public colleges have the lowest so-called "sticker prices," averaging $10,338 in the 2021-2022 school year, as compared with $38,185 at private colleges. That means less need for scholarships, loans, or family penny-pinching. But some of those more expensive colleges help to counter the price difference with generous financial aid packages—and some promise to ensure students have no debt upon graduation.

With so many factors to consider, it's important to look beyond just the basic data on a college's website. Stacker reviewed data from Niche to compile a list of the best public colleges in Missouri. Niche's methodology rates academic quality as the most important—which includes the quality of professors, the college's acceptance and graduation rates, and how much they spend on research. Next in Niche's importance is value—which includes the average cost students pay after financial aid is factored in, the average loan amount students take out each year, and metrics about graduates' earnings and ability to repay student debt.

The analysis also considers other factors, including diversity on campus, quality of student life, campus housing and food options, and data about aspects of the surrounding community, including crime rates and rent prices.

Read on to see which public colleges in Missouri rank the highest.

College students laughing and having fun at a tailgate party.

Sean Locke Photography // Shutterstock#8. Northwest Missouri State University

– Maryville, MO– #324 nationally– Overall Niche Grade: B– Acceptance rate: 86%– Net price: $13,754– SAT Range: 980-1160

Bookshelves forming a hallway in a college library.

DavidPinoPhotography // Shutterstock#7. Missouri State University

– Springfield, MO– #283 nationally– Overall Niche Grade: B– Acceptance rate: 94%– Net price: $16,501– SAT Range: 1010-1200

A student taking notes in a library.

Jacob Lund // Shutterstock#6. University of Central Missouri

– Warrensburg, MO– #199 nationally– Overall Niche Grade: B– Acceptance rate: 76%– Net price: $13,852– SAT Range: Not Available

An empty college dorm room with bunkbeds.

Canva#5. Truman State University

– Kirksville, MO– #185 nationally– Overall Niche Grade: B+– Acceptance rate: 61%– Net price: $11,470– SAT Range: 1120-1290

A college professor giving a lecture.

Canva#4. University of Missouri – St. Louis

– Saint Louis, MO– #123 nationally– Overall Niche Grade: B+– Acceptance rate: 57%– Net price: $10,525– SAT Range: 1020-1300

A group of college students working together on a group project in a library.

Jacob Lund // Shutterstock#3. Missouri University of Science and Technology

– Rolla, MO– #114 nationally– Overall Niche Grade: B+– Acceptance rate: 85%– Net price: $13,589– SAT Range: 1290-1460

An empty college classroom.

Canva#2. University of Missouri – Kansas City

– Kansas City, MO– #103 nationally– Overall Niche Grade: B+– Acceptance rate: 76%– Net price: $14,368– SAT Range: 1050-1330

A group of college students working on their laptops.

Canva#1. University of Missouri

– Columbia, MO– #56 nationally– Overall Niche Grade: A-– Acceptance rate: 77%– Net price: $18,249– SAT Range: 1130-1350

This story features data reporting by Emma Rubin, writing by Jeff Inglis, and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 50 states.

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Why Go To College If The World Is About To End?

Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kate Bachelder Odell, Kyle Peterson, Allysia Finley and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly

The Jehovah's Witnesses have long preached that going to college is a waste of time because the world as we know it is going to end soon. "No doubt, school counselors sincerely believe that it is in your best interests to pursue higher education," advised the faith's official publication a few years ago. "Yet, their confidence lies in a social and financial system that has no lasting future."

This admonition sounds a lot like the Nov. 5 viral tweet from Notre Dame professor Alexander O. Hsu, who claimed to be "tired of defending 'the humanities' every five seconds." Mr. Hsu asked: "Given the very real risk of climate extinction due to capitalism, what are some defenses of business schools? What possible justification is there in making more businesspeople?"

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