In Time magazine’s Best Colleges for Future Leaders 2026 rankings, the University of Georgia placed 17th in the nation among public institutions for its role in shaping influential leaders across the country. UGA earned the No. 4 spot among schools in the Southeastern Conference and ranked as the highest public institution in the state.
This ranking is based on an analysis of the career and educational paths of 4,800 influential leaders. Researchers built detailed profiles from publicly available sources, identifying more than 20,000 educational and professional milestones — excluding current positions and honorary roles — to understand which colleges most often appear along leaders’ trajectories.
Only organizations with a significant U.S. presence were included, and milestone counts were adjusted for organizational size to create an index, producing rankings of the institutions that have historically played the biggest role in developing future leaders.
The Time ranking, which placed UGA 47th overall in the nation among private and public institutions, specifically mentioned the Terry College of Business for its role in shaping leaders across a variety of disciplines. Terry-led initiatives such as the Institute for Leadership Advancement combine coursework with real-world experience to sharpen the next generation of leaders who stand out distinctly because of their ability to make values-based, impact-driven decisions.
Alongside this recognition from Time magazine, UGA was recently ranked No. 1 nationally for short-term study abroad in the 2025 Open Doors Report and placed No. 9 in new college rankings highlighted by The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board. For the last decade, UGA has also placed in the top 20 among the nation’s best universities, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
