The Surprising Role of Public Universities in Forging America’s Leaders

The Surprising Role of Public Universities in Forging America’s Leaders

Do the paths to leadership and influence in America run directly through the campuses of the most exclusive colleges? That’s a common perception and the clear implication of two recent academic studies, which report that graduates of a small cadre of elite universities disproportionately populate America’s leadership class and key institutions. In a 2024 article in Nature, Jonathan Wai and colleagues show that a tiny number of prestigious school…