While many U.S. colleges and universities produce high-achieving graduates every year, it is important to pay tribute to those educational institutions that excel in developing students who go on to contribute immensely to the strength of the country's economy.
With that in mind, Alumni Spotlight has created a list of U.S. universities that are succeeding in building and educating leaders for today's fast-paced world. In most cases, we looked at the number of each school's total living alumni, and compared that with the number of alumni currently in leadership positions in a wide range of industries. Among many of the leadership positions we considered for our rankings were Chairperson, CEO, President, Partner, and Managing Director.
We have limited our leadership measurement to alumni of four degree programs: undergraduate, business, law, and medicine. In most cases, however, these four programs comprise the large majority of a school’s alumni. By necessity, our measurement also excludes any individual whose position has not been made public or is not available on platforms such as LinkedIn.
At the top of this year’s list sits the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is perhaps the most widely-recognized research university for STEM fields in the world. According to our data, out of all U.S. universities and colleges, MIT boasts the highest percentage of graduates who have achieved leadership positions in their fields (22%). Today, MIT grads are running some of the most high-impact organizations in industries from technology to medicine, finance, and education, among others. Stanford University, also a private research university, came in at No. 5, due in no small part to its well-established connection to Silicon Valley. Our list also includes public universities, such as the 14th ranked University of Virginia, which was founded in 1819 by President and Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. UVA is Virginia’s flagship university, and currently more than 27,000 of its graduates hold leadership positions around the world.
Given the fierce competition for enrollment at the elite universities on this list, and the caliber of students they accept, it should come as no surprise that these schools are responsible for graduating a tremendous number of leaders. For more detailed information and to see where a particular school ranks, follow the link and head over to the complete list and join us in celebrating the Top 30 U.S. Universities Based on Alumni Success for 2022.