Where CEOs at America's Largest Companies Went to College
Ivy League schools boast the most major chief executives among alumni, but there are some surprises.
Many universities that are highly ranked by U.S.News & World Report have yielded a significant number of chief executives at the nation's largest corporations.
An analysis of the educational backgrounds of the CEOs of the top 100 companies on this year's Fortune 500 list (the magazine's annual ranking of American corporations based on gross revenue) revealed that the executives had a total of 42 graduate and undergraduate degrees from Ivy League schools, all of which rank in the top 20 of both U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges and Best Business Schools.
[See where the CEOs of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies went to school.]
Surprisingly, only a third of the CEOs hold an M.B.A. Nonetheless, it was the most common graduate degree among the executives and six of the CEOs attained their M.B.A. from Harvard Business School—more than any other institution (Harvard is tied with Stanford University as the top business school in U.S. News's rankings). Fourteen of the CEOs have law degrees and 31 did not attain a graduate degree at all.
Only five of the 100 rose to the pinnacle of the corporate ladder without the aid of a bachelor's degree, including prominent names in the technology sector: Steve Jobs of Apple, Inc. and