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Where the Fortune 500 CEOs Went to College
Brian Burnsed
The leaders of America's largest companies come from Ivy League and large public colleges
Ivy League schools produce a disproportionate amount of corporate leaders, according to a U.S. News study of the educational backgrounds of 2010's Fortune 500 CEOs (the magazine's annual ranking of American corporations based on gross revenue).
Harvard University , Columbia University , and the University of Pennsylvania topped the list -- the three schools cumulatively awarded 99 degrees to the executives. Large state institutions like the University of Wisconsin -- Madison , the University of Michigan -- Ann Arbor , and Ohio State University ranked highly as well, as each awarded at least 10 degrees to CEOs on Fortune's list. Wisconsin stood out among its state school peers, granting 17 degrees to the CEOs, which put the school fourth overall, despite having an average U.S. News rank of 33 for the school's undergraduate, business, and law programs. In the Fortune analysis, Wisconsin finished ahead of highly ranked schools like Stanford University , Dartmouth College , and Northwestern University .
Last November, U.S. News took a look at the backgrounds of the CEOs of the top 100 companies on Fortune's list. The new analysis of the larger pool weeded out some of the lower ranked schools like Auburn University (five degrees) and Southern Methodist University (seven degrees), which ranked highly in the Fortune 100 study.
Of the 500 CEOs in question, 174 have M.B.A.s and 59 have law degrees. Nearly 200 of the CEOs have no graduate-level degree. Nineteen of the 500 CEOs attained no college degree, and many were college dropouts turned visionaries in the technology sector, like Oracle Corp.'s top executive and now billionaire Lawrence J. Ellison. A few retail executives also worked their way to the corner office by way of humble beginnings on the sales floor, like James A. Skinner of McDonald's, who started as a restaurant manager, and Brian J. Dunn of Best Buy Co., who was once a store associate.
Below is a table highlighting the 16 schools that awarded at least nine degrees to Fortune 500 CEOs. The table is sorted by total number of degrees awarded per institution:
| Institution | Total degrees | Undergraduate degrees | M.B.A.s | Other graduate degrees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sources: Company websites, Fortune, Bloomberg BusinessWeek | |||||||
| Harvard University | 58 | 11 | 33 | 14 | |||
| Columbia University | 21 | 3 | 9 | 9 | |||
| University of Pennsylvania | 20 | 6 | 9 | 5 | |||
| University of Wisconsin - Madison | 17 | 11 | 3 | 3< | |||
| Dartmouth College | 16 | 12 | 4 | 0 | |||
| Stanford University | 16 | 7 | 6 | 3 | |||
| University of Michigan - Ann Arbor | 14 | 5 | 7 | 2 | |||
| University of Notre Dame | 11 | 9 | 0 | 2 | |||
| University of Texas - Austin | 11 | 8 | 3 | 0 | |||
| Cornell University | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 18 | 13 |
| Northwestern University | 10 | 2 | 6 | 2 | |||
| Ohio State University | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | |||
| University of California - Los Angeles | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | |||
| University of Virginia | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 25 | 13 | 10 |
| Indiana University - Bloomington | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | |||
| Princeton University | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |||
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Copyright © 2010 U.S. News & World Report. All rights reserved.
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