When students and parents hear “elite,” they often think it means “selective.”
There is a surprisingly big difference between a college’s “exclusivity”, e.g. accepting a very low % of applicants and/or being very “desirable”, and a college’s proven ability to produce the highest-achieving members of society.
Research shows that only a narrow set of institutions—the “Elite 34”—truly dominate when it comes to producing the nation’s most powerful and influential people.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-03547-8
The most influential people in many sectors of American society—politics, the military, business, science, academia, arts, and the media—often wield considerable power, and their decision-making and gatekeeping activities have bearing on the broader culture.
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Attending one of just 34 institutions of higher education out of the roughly 4000 in the U.S. appears to be a critical and surprising factor separating extraordinary achievers from others in their fields.
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We found that exceptional achievement is surprisingly strongly associated with“elite” education, especially obtaining a degree from Harvard, and the general public tends to underestimate the size of this effect.
What the Research Found
This peer-reviewed study examined over 26,000 extraordinary achievers across 30 fields—politics, media, business, academia, science, and the arts .
Over half (54%) of these top achievers attended just 34 institutions out of the nearly 4,000 in the U.S.
Harvard alone accounted for 16%—an 80x overrepresentation compared to the general U.S. population
These schools aren’t just “hard to get into”, they’re pipelines to power
The List: Who Are the ‘Elite 34’?
(listed alphabetically)
Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Caltech, Carleton, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Pomona, Princeton, Rice, Stanford, Swarthmore, Tufts, UC Berkeley, UChicago, UMichigan, Notre Dame, UPenn, UVA, Vanderbilt, WashU St. Louis, Williams, Yale.
False Equivalencies: Not All Selective Colleges Are the Same
An example: UC Berkeley makes the Elite 34. But all other UC campuses—even highly selective ones like UCLA, which BTW is the most applied to college in the USA—don’t.
The same concept applies to: elite-adjacent privates (e.g., Boston College, USC, Wake Forest, Emory), other prestigious publics (University of Texas, UNC Chapel Hill, Georgia Tech, etc…), or honors colleges at flagship publics.
These schools no doubt offer fantastic educations, but they do not have the same representation amongst societal leaders.
So, What Should High-Achieving Students Do?
Don’t confuse prestige with power. A college can be rigorous, well-known, and beloved, and still not be part of this elite power cluster.
If your goals include leadership in politics, media, science, or big business, consider targeting schools from this list—but be realistic about competitiveness.
Also, be honest about goals. For many students, a strong undergraduate experience, personalized attention, and career prep may matter more than elite-network access. Keep this in mind when crafting your college list.
Last, if you’re drawn to one of these 34 schools because of their prestige, but aren’t aiming to be a public-facing leader, that’s okay too. Just make sure your decision is grounded in academic fit, campus culture, and the kind of four-year experience you want. These schools can offer exceptional resources and opportunities, but they aren’t automatically the “best” for every student.
If we want a society where leadership reflects more than a handful of institutions, we have work to do. But for now, the data is clear: “elite” has a specific, and narrow, meaning. Knowing this truth can help you make better, more informed choices.