If the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, then which schools forged the CEOs of the top companies? Preply, an online global tutoring platform, has the answer! Its researchers combined the QS World University Rankings with the percentage of CEO graduates whose companies are on the latest Forbes list of the world’s largest public companies—and came up with the following list of schools:
- Harvard University (Cambridge, United States)
- École Centrale Paris (Châtenay-Malabry, France)
- University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, United States)
- Stanford University (Stanford, United States)
- University of California (Los Angeles, United States)
- Columbia University (New York City, United States)
- Northwestern University (Evanston, United States)
- INSEAD Business School (Fontainebleau, France)
- Seoul National University (Seoul, South Korea)
- New York University (New York City, United States)
In addition, Preply took a deeper dive into what the top 1,000 CEOs chose to study, what degrees they had, and more:
- 12% studied economics
- 8% studied business administration
- 5% studied engineering
- 35% have a Masters or PhD
- 22% have an MBA
- 5% are women
However, if studying a dismal science isn’t your jam, take heart: CEOs on the Forbes list have also studied philosophy, zoology, and theology. And remember, Howard Schultz got his B.A. in communications from Northern Michigan University and went on to run Starbucks.