For many CEOs at your favorite companies, a college education was most likely the first step to their journey to success. Who doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of Lowes CEO Marvin Ellison or You might be a high school senior doing preliminary research on your college search, or maybe you are at a two-year program looking to complete your bachelor’s degree. Either way, if you are in Texas, there is some interesting news for you.
A new study by e-learning platform Preply.com, says Texas has six universities with the most CEO graduates.
- University of Texas
- Texas A&M University
- University of Houston
- Southern Methodist University
- Baylor University
- Trinity University
They found that the University of Texas in Austin is the best school in the state for becoming a CEO.
UT Austin ranked 7th out of 198 USA schools in the study and number one for Texas universities. Home to 51,000 students and 3,000 teaching faculty, the University of Texas at Austin is ranked among the biggest and best research universities in the country.
The university is divided into 13 schools and colleges with popular degrees including engineering, journalism as well as business-related degrees.
According to the Texas A&M alumni organization, the three Texas A&M graduates who head Fortune 100 companies are Bruce Broussard, CEO of Humana; David Cordani, CEO of Cigna Corp., and Greg Garland, CEO of Phillips 66. Both Broussard and Cordani were accounting graduates while Garland studied chemical engineering.
This is followed by Texas A&M University and the University of Houston
The no. 2 university for CEO graduates in the state is Texas A&M university known for its programs in engineering, technology, and agriculture. Also, the only university in Texas to hold simultaneous designations as a land, sea, and space grant institution.
And in number three is The University of Houston known as a leader in energy and health research, law, business, and environmental education.
Main findings of the CEOs in the study and their educational background:
Most CEOs have a degree in economics, business, and engineering. The majority studied economics (11.6%), business (7.6%), engineering (5.3%), law (4.1%), and finance (3.3%).
35% of top CEOs have a master’s or doctorate degree. There are also plenty of MBAs – 227, to be exact.
There is no one type of university for becoming a CEO. From the 20 colleges that graduated the most CEOs globally, the list includes traditional liberal arts colleges, Ivy League schools, public universities, and colleges known for their technology and computer science programs.
Amy Pritchett, Student Success Manager of Preply, says:
“The Forbes list of CEOs are arguably some of the most influential leaders in the world. We wanted to better understand what this elite group of people has in common and what it takes to climb to the top.
We know that many universities offer exceptional education and business degrees. We wanted to find out if there are colleges with a track record of developing strong leadership. Looking at this research, it’s clear that there are some universities with the right ingredients to create successful CEOs.”
America’s 20 Universities With the Most CEO Graduates:
- Harvard University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Stanford University
- University of California
- Columbia University
- Northwestern University
- New York University
- University of Texas
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Chicago
- Cornell University
- University of Michigan
- Georgetown University
- University of Wisconsin
- Michigan State University
- Texas A&M University
- Boston College
- Johns Hopkins University
- Ohio University
- Indiana University