Which Colleges and Universities Have the Most Alumni Who Are CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies?

What is a Fortune 500 company? The list of Fortune 500 companies is compiled by Fortune magazine every year and recognizes the 500 largest companies in the U.S. The Fortune 500 list is determined by the annual revenue each company earned during the fiscal year and includes public as well as private companies. The 500 CEOs of these U.S. companies have had much success and are now worth millions, and in some cases, they are even worth billions and are among the richest people in the world. But we are not here to talk about their vast wealth: We are thinking about where these successful business men and women got their start.

The research team at Academic Influence searched the company bios of all of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in 2021 to find the colleges and universities they graduated from as well as the subject(s) they earned a degree in. The team then analyzed this data to find the colleges and universities that have the most alumni who are Fortune 500 CEOs as well as the most commonly earned undergraduate and graduate degrees among the 500. Read on to see which colleges and universities have the most alumni who are now CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

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Which College or University Has the Most Fortune 500 CEO Alumni?

Harvard University boasts the most alumni who are now a Fortune 500 CEO, with 41 having attended Harvard for their undergraduate or graduate degrees. Thirty-five of the CEOs earned a graduate degree at Harvard University and 9 of the CEOs went there for their undergrad, some of which attended Harvard for both. Of the CEOs that attended graduate school there, a majority graduated from Harvard’s Business School, with 28 having received their Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.

Which bigwig CEOs attended Harvard University? Some of the names include Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy, CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon, Larry Culp of General Electric, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski, and CEO of Kellogg Steve Cahillane, all of whom earned their MBAs from this prestigious school. Below is a list of the colleges and universities that proved to be popular choices for the most successful business executives in the United States.

The 10 Colleges and Universities With The Most Alumni Who Are CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies

• Harvard University: 41
• University of Pennsylvania: 23
• Stanford University: 22
• Northwestern University: 20
• Columbia University: 18
• University of Chicago: 15
• University of Michigan: 12
• Cornell University: 10
• Dartmouth College: 10
• University of Virginia: 10

Which Degree Did the Most Fortune 500 CEOs Earn at College?

Engineering was the most common undergrad degree earned by Fortune 500 CEOs, with 19.2% of the CEOs having earned an engineering degree across a wide variety of specialties. Out of these 96 CEOs, mechanical engineering was the top specialty for 26 CEOs, while electrical engineering was a close second, with 23 CEOs having earned an electrical engineering degree. After engineering, economics was the second most common of the 500 degrees, with 11.8%, or 59 CEOs, having earned an economics degree during their time in undergrad studies. Other business majors that proved to be popular undergrad degrees for CEOs include business administration, accounting, and finance.

We take a closer look at CEO’s with an engineering degree in our article Why Do Many Engineering Students Become Fortune 500 CEOs?.

The most common graduate degree was a Master of Business Administration (MBA), which 41% of all of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies have earned. The second most common was a Juris Doctor degree, earned by just 5% of the CEOs.

Which CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies Dropped Out of College?

Not all of the CEOs on the Fortune 500 company list completed a college degree, though. Seven CEOs dropped out of their undergrad program, and one dropped out during grad school. You may be surprised to see which of these famous CEOs dropped out, as some of them are now the world’s richest people. Below is a list of the Fortune 500 CEOs who dropped out of college but still went on to become very successful.

Fortune 500 CEOs Who Dropped Out of College

Michael Dell

CEO of Dell Technologies, dropped out of the University of Texas undergrad program.

Mark Zuckerberg

CEO of Meta Platforms, dropped out of Harvard University’s undergrad program.

Richard A. Gonzalez

CEO of AbbVie, dropped out of the University of Houston’s undergrad program.

Todd Jones

CEO of Publix Super Markets, dropped out of Cornell University’s undergrad program.

Larry Ellison

CEO of Oracle, dropped out of both the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Chicago’s undergrad programs.

Jack Dorsey

CEO of Block, dropped out of New York University’s undergrad program.

Bobby Kotick

CEO of Activision Blizzard, dropped out of the University of Michigan’s undergrad program.

Elon Musk

CEO of Tesla, dropped out of Stanford University’s grad school.

It’s interesting to see how well these colleges and universities stack up when ranked on a variety of other factors as well, such as the best research universities for undergrads, the richest universities in North America, or the most affordable colleges and universities in the United States.

Graduate Schools With the Most Alumni Who Are CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies

The Top 3 Schools With the Most Graduate Program Alumni Who Are CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies

Harvard University

Number of Alumni: 35

Northwestern University

Number of Alumni: 19

Stanford University

Number of Alumni: 18

The Most Common Graduate Degrees of Fortune 500 CEOs:

• M.B.A.: 204
• J.D.: 24
• Master’s in management: 10

The Top 3 Schools With the Most Undergraduate Program Alumni Who Are CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies

Cornell University

Number of Alumni: 9

Harvard University

Number of Alumni: 9

University of Pennsylvania

Number of Alumni: 8

The Most Common Undergraduate Degrees of Fortune 500 CEOs

• Engineering: 96 CEOs have an engineering degree, specializing in:
  • Mechanical engineering: 26
  • Electrical engineering: 23
  • Chemical engineering: 17
  • Unspecified engineering: 12
  • Industrial engineering: 6
  • Civil engineering: 5
  • Petroleum engineering: 3
  • Other type of engineering: 17
• Economics: 59
• Business administration: 40
• Accounting: 36
• Finance: 12
• Computer science: 11
• Marketing: 9
• Political science: 8
• Mathematics: 8

If you are interested in finding out which schools top the list for the best research universities, check out 50 Best Research Universities for Undergrads, and if you are looking for the top public colleges, take a look at the 50 Best Public Colleges and Universities.